I’ve recently left an employer where I spent four years doing a job I loved, and I had a week off at home to sort of kick back and relax before the new job started. So I was really excited that during that time my Saitek A-250 2.1 speaker demo unit arrived. Being that I had a week off, this was the ideal time to dive into reviewing the A-250. That, and I knew I’d be listening to a lot of music on it as I got the 4 years spent at my last employer out of my system.
The first thing that you notice is the looks of the A-250. The designers of the unit had clearly been watching science fiction movies while coming up with the concept for the unit. The image that went through my mind when I pulled the unit from its package was that of Hammerhead, the alien from the cantina scene in Star Wars IV: A New Hope.

Look familiar?
The A-250 is a sleekly designed unit with the left outlined in metallic red and the right speaker outlined in copper. What’s really interesting is that the designers chose to have the drivers painted a bright red, which stands out like flaming eyeballs behind the black grilles of the tweeters. The rest of the unit is a shiny black, with the LCD display centered on the upper half of the front of the A-250. The sub-woofer is located on the bottom of the unit, with the active base located on the center rear of the unit, behind the LCD display.
Aside from the looks, what makes the A-250 unique is a 2.4 GHz wireless transmitter that can be used to transmit songs from the PC to the speaker unit. The wireless transmitter is a USB device that doesn’t require software installation. Merely power off your PC, plug the wireless transmitter into a USB port, and power on the machine. Once the machine is up and running, turn on the A-250, and then press the blue button on top of the wireless transmitter. The transmitter and the A-250 will establish a connection automatically, so long as the A-250 is within the 30-meter range of the transmitter. I found the automatic wireless connection to be extremely stable, and connected the PC to the A-250 through multiple walls, outside, and even inside a closed cabinet (I told you I had time on my hands that week). The only interference I had came once while using my microwave, which sits only a few feet from my PC.
When it comes to reviewing speakers, design and new, unique features are great. But when it comes down to it, what really matters is whether a unit is capable of “bringin da noise”. As I said earlier set-up is easy, and whether you’re using the unit with an AC adapter or the 4 “AA” batteries needed to power the unit remotely, the A-250 generates a good sound.
As I mentioned previously, the subwoofer is on the bottom of the unit. However, the sound from the 3-inch subwoofer is still excellent as the bottom of the unit is raised from the surface is placed on by small rubber feet. I found no distortion from the subwoofer, with the exception of a small amount when it was cranked up to the max volume while sitting on my concrete patio. Placing it on my patio table eliminated the distortion.
The sound quality from the dual 1” tweeters was quite good. I wouldn’t put it up against my 5.1 home theatre system, but for a ...