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Saitek A250

Phil likes it ghetto-blaster style...

Last June I took a look at the Saitek Laptop Subwoofer, this was Saitek's first computer audio product and, though an interesting concept, it was poorly realized and prone to some pretty fundamental problems.

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Saitek took it back to the drawing board, however, and this year have come up with a whole range of wireless audio products which both look and sound great. Today I'll be looking at the A250 Wireless 2.1 Speakers.

The A250 is leagues ahead of the Saitek's past sub woofer offering, it boasts a slick black/red and gold design on both the speakers and the USB dongle used to transmit the wireless and a high quality gloss finish to the whole shebang. It's beautiful to look at, but attracts fingerprints like a magnet which is not so great in a portable product. It does, however, come with a cleaning cloth in the box...

Like most wireless devices the A250 uses the 2.5ghz frequency band, my last experiment with wireless A/V equipment on this band met with one, simple and fatal problem. My wifi network. The A250, however, delivers crystal clear audio to the kitchen from my PC or Powerbook upstairs without so much as a Snap, Crackle or Pop. The wireless connection is achieved with a simple and attractive USB dongle, like pretty much everything Saitek it sports a blue LED. It works with both a Windows PC and a Mac out of the box with no driver installation, I can't vouch for Linux drivers but I shouldn't imagine it will be difficult to set up. The only problem with a driver-less Mac setup is that the buttons on the A250 for play/pause and previous/next don't work.

For outdoor or portable use the A250 will take 4 double A batteries, not the greatest amount of power for pumping out high volume but it should last "up to" 24 hours at your average ambient listening level. If you want to take the A250 out of range of a desktop PC there's also a line in port so you can hook up your MP3 player (cable provided).

Small though it is, the A250 speaker system is definitely not short of power, on mains it pumps out sound that will compete with any low to mid range 2.1 speaker system, but at higher volumes it suffers from a little distortion and falls behind the best 2.1 products. For the audiophiles out there, it sports neodymium drivers and three separate amplifiers. For the gadget crazed out there, it has a handy back-lit display for battery status, volume level and play/pause status (although play/pause can get out of sync with the actual play/pause status of your computer).

Wireless aside, the one thing that sets the the A250 apart from the 2.1 competition, if it matters to you, is the space and cable-mess saving aspect. If you run the A250 on batteries you can have it next to your PC pumping out audio with a sum total of zero cables running to it, on mains (adapter included in the box) you just have the one cable. With a traditional 2.1 system you would have at least one cable running to each speaker, a hefty sub woofer under (or on) the desk and the cable running to your sound card. The A250 is definitely tidy. Also, if you love your music and happen to leave your desk you can take the A250 with you on your shoulder and rock it out ghetto-blaster style.

Overall the A250 is an excellent audio product that more than proves Saitek learn from their mistakes and continue to innovate. It's right up to their typical standard of design and innovation, and above all it is a much, much cheaper alternative to Wifi-based portable radios. Although at 70 GBP the price may seem a little steep, when you consider it'll pump out any sound your Mac or PC can play to anywhere within 30 meters it's an absolute bargain.

As a final tip to Windows users interested in the A250, you can even use it alongside your existing sound card. After connecting the A250 simply change your default sound card in Audio Properties to the one built into your computer. Then in Windows Media Player settings you can specify the A250 as the output for music. This both stops error beeps and desktop swooshes from being broadcast around your house, and lets you actually use the computer locally with sound whilst someone else listens, uninterrupted, to their favorite audio. The one problem with this setup, however, is that the audio player must be the focused application in order for the play/pause back/next buttons to work.

Scoring the A250 is difficult with few, if any, products out therethat do the same thing. wifi based internet radios are more expensiveand more functional, so they would be an unfair reference of comparison. This time I will have to score the A250 on its own merits, and in that case it rates near perfect for its excellent build quality, stylish design, fantastic sound, and blue LED.

90%

1. I wish it could work with Linux as I have changed my PC and am now using Mandriva Linux. I hope if there are no drivers that Saitek make a solution soon.

   Pete Friday, 5 January 2007, 21:28:41

2. Does the sound lag at all? I would like to watch DVDs on my laptop and have the sound play through these speakers. Won't be much good though if the audio is out of sync as a result.

   Dennis Friday, 10 August 2007, 15:45:38

3. I love mine had them for 8 months and not a problem hearing music all over the house, just take it any where, even outside.

   Tamara Thursday, 25 October 2007, 17:22:14