Saitek A-200 Portable 2.1 Speaker System

List Price: ~~$99.99~~

Brand: Saitek
Binding: Electronics

Features:

True digital 2.1 stereo delivered through two 3W tweeters and 3W sub-woofer (RMS)
Unique EAVS (Expanded Air Volume System) expands in use to provide impressive bass range and clarity
Neodymium speaker magnets increase efficiency and reduce magnetic interference
Integrated volume and on/off controls, plus EAVS activation
Connect to all portable media players (MP3, CD, DVD, MPEG4, Sony PSP) and laptops via 3.5mm jack audio cable (provided)

Customer Reviews:

Awesome Portable Speaker System [Posted on 2007-02-10]
I just bought these and they are surprisingly well built and sound amazing for what they are. Just like another reviewer mentioned, these should be compared to peers, not to a full fledged desktop speaker system.

Additionally, I was very impressed with the packaging and the appearance.

great product [Posted on 2007-08-01]
Exactly what I wanted. My macbook has awfull internal speakers, it is almost impossible to listen anything unless there is complete silence in the office.
The Saitek makes the difference now, and the portability of the 4 AAA batteries is a must.
I would give it 5 stars if only it could recharge the rechargable batteries, but one can dream no?

Something I didn't get at the first moment is that you have to push in the center of the thing to make it expand the buffer AND this also works as the on/off button.

Best bang for the buck / size... [Posted on 2007-08-06]
Very good for it's size. The rated battery life was lower than listed, but that is always expected. The A/C adapter port on the unit was loose and flimsy (got 4 stars because of this), but it doesn't affect me because I use rechargeable batteries. All in all the sound this little unit produces is very good for the size. Do not compare to other high end speakers. Compare to like items. I paid 1/3 of the retails price, but would have paid double of what I paid because of the excellent quality and sound from something so small.

Outta Control! [Posted on 2007-09-07]
I travel a lot with my job and I have half-a-dozen different sets of "PC" speakers that I have used at various times. I am a part-time computer musician/producer [you can check out our NOVAkILL CD's here on amazon.com] so I want to have a good, predictable sound. But sometimes I visit a lot of places in a short time and dragging out any of them, unwrapping them, plugging the right one in to the left [or the satellites into the sub], plugging in the PSU and then hooking up my discperson is often more work that I can be bothered with. I have been intrigued by this cool, little self-contained unit for a while now. I finally got to see and hear one and was hugely impressed. So I bought it and I am very happy with it.
The sound quality is good. Sure, there is a bias towards the upper-mid range but, given the unit's diminutive size the balance is surprisingly good. The mid-range is well defined with plenty of detail and the treble sits in nicely. The bottom end is not the best but again, it is clear and well-defined [as far as it goes]. I can happily work with this unit on day-to-day stuff. I wouldn't try to do any final mixes with it but for grunt-work of music production there is more than enough definition to allow me to do detailed work up to about 90% of the way to a final mix.
Being an old punk rocker, I like to listen to music as loud as I can get away with in a hotel room. Whilst the A-200 isn't going to get me in trouble with the management, it fills the average hotel room with plenty of good sound. I've been playing on maximum volume all morning and there has been no noticeable distortion.
Portability is another strong point with the A-200. It comes with a nice neoprene slip-cover and it is a great shape for throwing into a suit-case or even a laptop shoulder bag. It is very light and, because it runs on batteries, I can have music playing in seconds, not the minutes it used to take.
There have been some negative comments about the power socket but you just need to push it in until it clicks home and it works properly. Same with comments of a tinny sound - if you push the stereo plug home you'll get the sub firing. Comments of distorted sound could be due to overdriving the input. As a rule I keep my PC and CD player volume to 50% so as not to overdrive anything I plug them into and I've had no problems with distortion.
Overall, these are not the best sounding speakers I use for traveling [hence only 4 stars] but as an overall package, the Saitek A-200 stands head and shoulders above every other solution I have tried and I can see myself using them for as long as I have this job. They are really worth 4 1/2 stars [but you cannot do that].

Saitek [Posted on 2007-09-25]
Great product for $40. It is portable and has excellent soud quality. I would recommend this product for mobile computing and for conference room presentations. Cheers.

Click here for more details and discount information...