I’ve never had to work
so hard to spend $150.

Late last week, I
subscribed to PressPlay just to try it
out (more on them later). After listening to music all day, I decided I needed
some new speakers; I was using some very old HK’s that came with a computer
several years ago, and they just weren’t cutting it any more. I called Tom, and we got to work finding
a new set.

First stop was a set
of Monsoon
PM-9’s for $79 from Circuit City. The box looked like it was a
shock-testing dummy, and of course one of the speakers was broken when I got
them home. Off to another CC store to exchange, got them back home, hooked them
up. Other than an annoying hum from the sub, these were fantastic speakers –
well worth the price. The sound was a little different than I’m used to, but
pleasing.

That hum, though, just
wouldn’t go away, and it was annoying and headache-inspiring. It was some kind
of ground loop thing – the hum would go away when I unplugged the computer
audio-out from the speakers. Further, if I hooked up my laptop to them, when the
laptop was running on batteries, all was well – but plug anything into
it (ethernet, power, USB device, whatever), and the hum would come back. I could
plug the sub into another outlet about 30 feet away (with an extension cord
snaking through the house), and it was much better, although still there. So
back to the store for a Monster Power power conditioner…still no love, the hum
just wasn’t going away.

I bribed Tom to bring
over his JBL speakers for a test case, and they worked fine without any hum. So
it’s evidently just a problem with the particular circuitry in the Monsoons with
my devices and power circuits. Bummer – I’m getting really fond of these
speakers by now, but the hum wasn’t going away.

So I spend the morning
researching speakers, and finally head back to CC with my iPaq and a few 128kbps
encoded WMA’s. I tried the Altec
Lansing ATP3 ($79) system first – what a complete pile of junk. Turn it
up past halfway or so (and this isn’t loud by any means), and the distortion
becomes more noticeable than the music. I found a set of Klipsch ProMedia 2.1’s ($179), which I fully
expected to rock my world…but actually I wasn’t impressed. The satellites
sounded great, but the sub sounded a little muddy (surprising…maybe there was
something wrong with the one on the floor). Finally I tried the Altec
Lansing 621’s ($149), and I was pleasantly surprised; pretty neutral
sound, and enough power to play what I want without distortion. Took them home,
held my breath, plugged them in, and no hum. Cool! They also sound great…so
far so good. There are a few things I don’t like too much – the 2-button volume
control, no remote sub volume, and a couple other things, but so far I’m liking
them.