When I was attending CES 2009 in Las Vegas in January, I was pretty impressed by Altec Lansing’s booth.  It looked like they had an impressive display of headphones and other audio headphones on deck, and I was taken aside by one of their nice representatives. 

The man was nice enough to let me review two of their products, the Orbit MP3 Speaker and the BackBeat Titanium Headphones.  Now that I have had a chance to review them, I was quite impressed. 

Portable Orbit MP3 Speaker System

There are quite a few iPod and MP3 Player speakers on the market today, and there isn’t really much to differentiate one from the other. Most of them work in the same way, just plug it into the headphone jack, and it produces some good external sound.

The Orbit MP3 Speaker is no exception to the rule, but it does produce some quite exceptional sound from something that is only half the size of an ordinary soda can. Part of it might be its 360-degree sound field that can project clear, distortion free sound.

Like most MP3 Player Speakers, it can connect to any other device with a headphone jack, including CD players, iPhones, and laptops.

The power for the orbit comes from 3 non-included AAA batteries. It comes with a handy carrying pouch, and has a clip so you can attach it securely to a handbag or belt loop.

BackBeat Titanium

I’m not certain if the BackBeat Titanium can be specified as one of those High Definition headphones, but it certainly has all the symptoms of other HD headphones that I have tried.  Most HD headphones that I put in my laptop require me to seriously turn my sound down, because the volume increases by a factor of 50 percent. 

These are giving me the clear and quality sound that I would expect to hear from most blockbuster movies like Transformers.  These headphones are titanium enhanced for full-spectrum sound, and come with noise-isolating earphones that can really shut off the rest of the world. 

The Backbeat Titanium is also built with durability in mind.  The cord feels less like those weak rubber jobs of most earbuds and more like strong tensile rope of mountain climbers. 

Prices for each Product

Both of these products are available on the Altec Lansing site.  The MP3 Orbit Speaker System is at an MSRP of $39.95, and the Backbeat Titanium Headphones are about $79.95.