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Saitek A-200 2.1 Portable Speaker Review

If you are one of the many that has an iPod or another portable MP3 device, chances are you are now on the hunt for a portable speaker system to complement your new toy. Saitek has long been a leader in computer gaming peripherals such as joysticks, gamepads, pc wheels, keyboards, and mice. A new addition to their product line is pc audio. They offer either a wired (A-200) or wireless (A-250) 2.1 audio solution that offer a good match for your portable audio needs. Let's take a look at the A-200.

Company:

Saitek, www.saitek.com

Price:

$75.89 US at NewEgg.com

Ratings

Price:
Install/Setup:
Usability:
Support:
Average Rating:

Getting Started

With a solid reputation for their joysticks and gaming pads, Saitek leverages their history of great products to the portable audio market. Competing companies that offer similar products are Klipsch and Tritton. When taking it out of the box, at first glance I was curious how it would sound. The package includes a product manual, DC 5V 2A Power attachment, and audio cable. Setup was extremely straight forward. Plug in the audio cable to an audio out on your laptop, mp3 player, or earphone jack on your stereo and wala…instant 2.1 audio!

Click on picture to enlarge image

Usability

The unit has two 1 inch 1.5 watt tweeters and one 3 watt subwoofer. Each is protected with a metal wire mesh speaker grille. There is a built in 3 inch sub woofer on the bottom of the unit to handle the bass. Also included is an expanded air volume system to give the sub-woofer more room to handle the lower bass frequencies. On the bottom of the case are three legs with rubber feet to grip the surface of your desk and to raise the case to give the subwoofer enough room to operate.

Once plugged in, I was pleasantly surprised with the audio quality. I played several different genres of music to test the wide range of treble and bass. The A-200 did very will with classical and contemporary songs, but did not pickup some of the lower bass in some RA P and R&B songs. Jazz also had problems picking up some of the lower bass tones. The expanded air volume system also doubles as the on off switch. As you press it down, it rises and turns on the unit. Volume can be controlled by two simple buttons to decrease (-) and increase (+) the sound level.

The device can be powered either by four AAA batteries or through house power. When powered by the AAA batteries, the unit can operated for about 24 hours without interruption. When putting in the batteries, I found the battery compartment to be very delicate. There are two small clips that have to be guided in with precision or you risk breaking them and ruining the battery cover. As long as you are conscience of this, you shouldn't have any problems.

Specifications

Amplification & Response:

• Frequency Response – 140Hz to 18kHz
• Crossover Frequency – 400Hz
• Volume Control – 0 to -78dB attenuation in 2 2dB steps

Woofer:

• 3” (75mm ) Cone
• Front driven, magnetically shielded neodymium motor
• Low profile

Tweeters:

• 1” (25mm ) Aluminum cones
• Magnetically shielded Neodymium motors
• Long throw

Enclosure:

• 2 way vented woofer enclosure with EAVS Expanded Air Volume System (increases size of woofer enclosure in use)
• Lacquered piano black high gloss finish
• Maximum dimensions (EAVS closed): 235mm x 140mm x 36mm
• Maximum dimensions (EAVS opened): 235mm x 140mm x 54mm
• Weight 440g (excludes batteries)

Pros:

• Good looks
• Portable
• Compact

Cons:

• Battery compartment very delicate

Adding It All Up

For its price, the Saitek A-200 offers a compelling solution for high quality portable audio to plug in to any analog audio source. It offers a decent battery life when on the go and no external power source is available. It did very well with most music genres and with audio books, and movies. Overall, this audio device is a good recommendation for anyone that travels a lot and would like to share their music with others.

Because of the excellent quality we are awarding the Saitek A-200 2.1 Portable Speakers the UpgradAdvisor.com Recommended Upgrade Seal of Approval!!!

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