Date: February 16th, 2003
Article by: Burt Carver (Hardware Reviewer & Newsposter)
Product was donated by: Logitech
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Product Overview

I received the products in a spiffy looking box and found the speakers inside to be well packaged and wrapped. I was going to take pictures of the styrofoam... but who really cares? It survived a trip via courier and that in itself is a challenge.

Included in the package you will find:

• One subwoofer, approximate dimensions 10" cubed.
• Four satellite speakers with reversible stands (I'll get into that later) approximate dimensions 4" cubed.
• One center channel, about 6" wide and 4 inches deep.
• One Mini-din to RCA converter, both female ends.

Here we have a some pics of the various components:

The four satellites are identical.

The center with some rather nice grill sillouettes from the flash.

And the sub!

The controls for the whole system are appropriately located on the center channel.

The units appear well manufactured, and the stands are constructed out of aluminum. The metal is isolated from the surface the speaker is in contact with through the use of rubber pads. Attempts to remove the grills were met with strong resistance at first from the elves inside the speakers. Eventually, after a bribe of cookies they relented. It appears that Logitech may not have planned for the removal of the grills, as it appears the elves are aided in their endeavors by some double sided tape. The driver in the satellites appears to be about 1.5" in diameter, but sounds much larger.

The center channel uses what appears to be the same driver, but is a ported design that gives a bit better response in the midrange. This is vital for reproducing voices accurately, as most dialogue in movies is directed through the center channel. I will not be graphing the Freq. Resp. and THD and blah blah blah of the speakers. They cost about $100 U.S. You get 5 speakers plus a subwoofer. That works out to like... $15 bucks a speaker and $25 for the subwoofer. If THD and freq. response are your cup of tea, go buy the z-680's... they are THX certified, and several hundred dollars more.

As you can see from the picture , the center channel has a brilliant blue LED used to show when it's powered. It's bright. Especially in a dark room when playing a game. It can be very bright... where is my duct tape? The brightness is actually quite bearable but due to the fact is right in front of you it can be distracting. The LED is noticeably brighter than my standard green monitor LED. Again, if its a big issue, break out the duct tape or white out or something.

The stands supplied with the satellites have a unique feature. They can be loosened and rotated so it can easily be mounted on the wall. This won't be getting any mileage in my house but some people may find the feature useful.

The cords supplied with the speakers allows for placement of the front satellites about four feet from the subwoofer, the center channel about six feet from the subwoofer, and the rear channels about ten feet from the subwoofer. Seems a bit odd to have that extra length in the center. The power 'brick' has been happily incorporated into the subwoofer, so there won't be the real estate hogging DC brick on the power bar from this setup.

One minor complaint I have is with the lack of signal autosensing on the speakers. These speakers are ON, unless you press the little button to turn them off. It may be a feature reserved for more expensive setups, but in a computer environment it is fairly essential.