Once, I was a kid in those days when Reagan was President and Victoria Jackson was hot, and I visited Disney World and experienced then-astounding 3D positional audio from two speakers. It may have been an early tech demo intended for the entertainment of guests, but it was a brilliant illustration of how audio engineers can trick the ear into hearing whatever (and wherever) they want. Since that time, positional audio via multiple speakers has become the rage, and two-speaker positional audio has become a second class citizen. Altec Lansing’s new GT5051 three-speaker (plus subwoofer) “5.1 into 3.1” system brings it back down a notch, combining the front and rear satellites into one speaker. The Side-Firing Dipole design is probably nothing like what I experienced on that balmy Florida afternoon, but it will keep you from having to set up rear satellites and run cables to them, and that can’t be a bad thing.
Altec Lansing GT5051 [ChaitGear]
