While Metroid: Prime has been one of the best gaming experiences of my life, three quarters through the game I realized that I had cheated myself. Metroid: Prime is a testament to the artistic breadth of the video game soundtrack. Yet, the auditory climax that it reaches with surround sound perfectly conveying all of the bleeps, explosions, creatively voiced creatures and remarkably appropriate music were lost on me with my tinny, substandard television speakers.

The Solution
The day I hooked up the Altec Lansing XA3051 speaker system my home set up was revolutionized. I erased my Metroid: Prime save file simply to replay the game and enjoy it the way it should be enjoyed. It's impossible to measure the difference that a quality sound system makes in a game but developers spend long hours and increasingly exorbitant amounts of cash enlisting well known composers, rappers and popular groups to beef up their games musically. In the mean time, the common complaint of tiresome, repetitious, ear penetrating video game music has been nearly eradicated in a new game world of Dolby surround sound and DVD quality audio.

The Benefits
Enter Altec Lansing, the foremost developer of video game and PC audio peripherals. The smartly designed XA3051 is a 100-watt, 6 piece speaker system with a booming sub-woofer and 5 satellites, one of which is a horizontal central speaker. Bass rumbles deep, crunches crunch hard and small details come out crisp and clean - no game player can resist the level of absorption therein. Metroid now sounds and feels like a sci-fi thriller movie. The intricacies that I've always missed in other games (like the blowing wind in the hills of Ghost Recon) are completely changing my game experience.

The Speakers
The satellites are shielded with cords sufficiently long that you can easily place them where you need them. The sub-woofer isn't shielded so it needs to be kept safely away from the television. Luckily, the cords included are easy to connect with this configuration. The only annoyance is that the digital remote control is not remote - it's connected to the sub-woofer by a cable causing frequent tangles. You can select stereo or mono sound from the controller, change the volume or adjust the bass and treble. The XA3051 conforms to almost any configuration with many different ways of connecting to a TV, game system or VCR. Dual headphone jacks on the remote are great although the sound quality doesn't rival the actual speakers.

The Bottom Line
As the industry progresses sound is unmistakably becoming more important in game design. While the XA3051 doesn't replace an established stereo system it does serve well as a purely game and DVD audio system. I'll never play a game without it again. Playing games on an HDTV without a comparably sharp audio enhancement is like eating French Truffles and drinking Chateau Margaux in the subway.