Altec Lansing's ADA880 Speaker System

Published: January 13, 2000 -  Mikael Hagén

Update: The full review is now available

VideoLogic Sirocco ProThe ADA880 is an inexpensive (SRP $300) 5-piece speaker system that includes a Dolby Digital and Dolby Prologic decoder. Unlike the DTT2500 it can not be used as a 4-speaker gaming system since it only has one SPDIF input and one analog input. The two front channels have a 3" full range driver and a 1" tweeter. The two surround channels have only the 3" full range driver. All the satellites are powered with 10 watts RMS at 0.1% THD. The subwoofer have one 8" dual voice coil driver and a power of 40 Watts at 1% THD. The center channel is a phantom center. The frequency response is 20 Hz - 20 kHz with the crossover at 150 Hz.  The system comes with a remote control.

The sound quality of this system is quite good, especially the subwoofer which is very good, powerful and with good solid deep bass that can shake your room. Compared to the DTT2500's the subwoofer is much better, while the satellites are noticeable better there isn't a huge difference when it comes to sound quality.  The overall sound quality isn't as good as VideoLogic's $100 more expensive DigiTheatre with the exception being the subwoofer that is significantly more powerful when playing games and other stereo content.   When playing DVD movies with an AC-3 track the difference is not that significant but there is still a noticeable advantage for the ADA880 over the DigiTheatre when it comes to the bass heavy explosions.

When it comes to loudness the system is on par with the DigiTheatre and significantly louder than the DTT2500.  Its important to note that this is only when using the digital connection.   When using the analog connection it's only slightly ahead of the DTT2500.

One possible concern with this unit is the lack of a true center channel. In my presently limited testing I found the phantom center to work very well when the front channels are close to each other with  the further apart you have the two front satellites the more significant the difference will be compared to using a true center channel.  Of course you also cannot independently adjust the volume of a   phantom center channel as you can with a real one.   My early impression of the Dolby Digital decoding is that's quite good, about the same as the DTT2500 and clearly better than what you get from software DVD decoders 4-speaker downmixing.

When it comes to controls the ADA880 features a power button, master volume, surround volume, center volume, Dolby mode, bass and treble control. The Dolby mode allows you to disable or enable Dolby Prologic as  Dolby Digital is automatically detected. You find the controls on the right front speakers and the remote control. One unique feature of this system is that if you don't have room for the surround speakers you can place them on top of the front satellites and use them as side firing speakers.

One problem I had with the ADA880 unit is that the SPDIF input didn't work with some of the SPDIF coaxial outputs I tried.  It worked fine with the SQ2500 and Live soundcards so not sure why a couple of others (e.g. 4DWave-NX reference card) failed. Altec Lansing is looking into it and it may be just my unit.

If you want an inexpensive Dolby Digital system and have no interest of 4-speaker gaming the ADA880 will be a better option than the DTT2500. For $100 more I think the DigiTheatre is even better though but for those who think powerful room shaking explosions is what matters the most may prefer the ADA880.  If you want 4-speaker gaming and a hardware decoder currently the only good solution I know of in this price range is the DTT2500. Could be worth mentioning that the THX certified ADA885 that Dell currently sells with some of their systems supports 4-speaker gaming.  At this time you can only get the ADA885 with a system from Dell and Altec Lansing has no plans to offer the ADA885 at retail.

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