Logitech Z Cinéma Advanced Surround Sound System--2.1 Speakers

I did quite a bit of research before buying these, and my main worry was that they would not be loud enough. Let me just say, that I was not at all disappointing with how loud they can go. I got these to blast music at a party (15-20 people in 650ft apt), and at only half volume it was almost painfully too loud! Now I don't want to mislead anyone...because I too have had issues with the sound with some programs. When playing music through Zune, the speakers can go incredibly loud and not distort at all. However, when using Windows Media Center (as well as a few other dvd programs) the speakers max out a pretty low levels. Now I'm pretty savvy with computers, and both the software volume, as well as the system volume are at %100, and still it's not that loud. It's fine if you're sitting right in front of the computer, but not from across the room. I don't know why Zune can go so loud, but WMC cannot? I thought it was strange, but hey...I'm just passing this info along.

I love the look of the speakers, although the speakers themselves, as well as the sub are much bigger than I had thought. They look modern and expensive though, which is what I love. The only thing that truly annoys me is the software that comes with the speakers, it's so intrusive and annoying to have it pop up every time you push something on the remote. You can turn off the software display, but not permanently...you have to do it each time you start your computer.

The sound is quite nice...for a 2.1 system, it is by far the best I have ever heard. The surround feature is def. not a replacement for a true 5.1 setup, although it does add a noticeable side feeling, and I feel makes the sound a little clearer. It's perfect for someone like me who lives in a smaller space, and who doesn't want to constantly upset neighbors. Although believe me, these suckers can upset the neighbors if you want them to.

I guess in final, these speakers are fantastic with Music (from Zune anyway), but only okay with movies and WMC. If you can figure out how to get around the volume issue, these would be perfect speakers! Overall though, it's a great value and a great set of speakers. I would purchase them again!


I've had this sound system for several weeks, now. I've used them for just about everything possible with great satisfaction. As they said, the computer usb connection is not quite as good as using right and left channel cables. Also, I find terrific results with the Harmon Kardon TL8500 CD changer. This is a better player than the Dell player. This system sounds like you are actually there with the orchestras, choirs, organs, rhythm and blues, Jazz, Vocals, Whatever. (not to mention sound effects.) Occasionally I have to dial back on the bass at full volume to eliminate distortion from the mid-range. It all depends on the recording.The highs are crystal clear.The UV remote works well until I interrupt the signal with my hand or head; then, everythng goes silent and has to be reset. Don't panic. There's nothing wrong. All in all, it's a great system and highly reccommended. You will not be disappointed.


I was shocked at the quality of these speakers, I got these for $80, they used to retail for $300, so I thought "what the heck, I'll give them a whirl." I was blown away by the clarity of the speakers for watching movies, listing to music, playing games, etc. I read all the reviews before buying and the biggest complaint I was seeing is that the volume doesn't go that high.......I'll tell you that the volume goes very high and it is very loud at max volume. If you are using these for PC speakers, let's be serious, they ARE PC SPEAKERS, what do you really want from them?

At peak volumes the highs, mids, and base are crystal clear. I was deciding between these and the Bose Companion II ($249). If the price point was the same I'de take these home in a heartbeat, so with the price being $80, it's a no brainer. These speakers blow the competition away.

Wait til you get to watch a movie with them, the TRU Surround SRS is pretty impressive. You can hear things behind you even though there are no speakers behind you. The black high gloss finish is veryattractive too, these speakers will demand attention from anyone visiting your office space. These speakers are a steel at this price, I'm buying another set as a gift for someone speacial! Best of luck shopping for PC speakers if you pass this up.


Not happy with sound quality. Though I only paid $50, would be very upstet if I paid more - for that price they're ok - not work more.


I was very surprised by the quality of the sound of these speakers. They are very clear and very powerful. Using Adaucity I generated a 45hz sound and turned the volume all the way up. It shook my whole house! As for the volume (which many say is not loud enough) is actually very loud. The only time I wish it could get a little louder is when I'm watching videos online and they are quite videos. With these babies all the way up on Itunes my ears hurt. If you kept these all the way up all the time you would damage your hearing. I got these speakers for a magical price of $88 with a $[...] mail in rebate and [...]$ shipping. So I ended up only paying $[...]!!!!!

Pros

-Great sound
-Power full sub
-Great remote
-Compatible with all OS's

Cons

-No real cons


This is a great system that is inexpensive. I would recommend it to the person that wants a system for their bedroom. I wouldn't recommend it for a larger room. The only thing I would add is a separate knob for the subwoofer and a little more power.


OK, so like everyone else, I did some research on surround sound speakers and decided that I do want surround sound, but my office cannot support 5 satellites and a big sub... so I looked around for a 2.1 set up with simulated surround.

A few months ago, I purchased the Z-2300 set up which I love, but the only thing that I had a change of heart on was the fact that they are not surround sound. My son and I watch movies on my PC and decided I wanted to get a 5.1 set up instead.

After looking around and reading the reviews on the Z Cinema, I thought... "these are perfect since they have great reviews, supposedly sound great, and have two speakers; for my set up and having little room, these would be perfect!"

I also looked at the Z-5500 set up but passed on those because of the huge sub and the 5 satellites that as indicated, would not have the room for.

So, I order them, wait for them to arrive with great anticipation. after 3 days, the system arrives and suddenly find myself transform from a 40 year old professional to a 4 year old on Christmas morning. All excited, I take them out of the box and hook up the sub, speakers, and also install the software that was very easy to install on my computer.

OK, here I am, looking at my speaker set up which I gotta tell you, is a nice looking set up with simulated stainless trim and gloss black fascia on both the speakers and the sub. Remote was very well laid out and easy to use.

At this point I take a deep breath and log into Rhapsody.. I pull up a song and press play to listen to the song. I had the volume at about a 1/4 way up and nothing... at this point I think that I have the set up wrong since I cannot hear anything until suddenly, I listen closer to find out that... YUP... THE THINGS WERE ON!! At a 1/4 volume, I can barely hear them. I then turned them up 1/2 way and now you can hear them, but NOTHING like the power of my Z-2300 set up.. I then adjusted the EQ on the player, little better but let me tell you, I was so disappointed at the power of this set up.

Now, I put in a movie and long story short, in order to hear it at a level where I consider it to be "theater like" or loud enough that you can feel the action, I had to turn the thing up ALL THE WAY... and still was not enough...

The bass at the highest setting was barely there... what a disappointment. Needless to say, I shipped them back today for a refund..

Now I know what you are thinking, that I connected them wrong but no, I am the kind of person that follows directions step by step and then re-check and everything was connected correctly.

I think the reason I was left wanting more is that I am used to my Z2300 set up and as far as power, the 2300's blow the Z-Cinemas away.

Also and a final note.. I read a lot of reviews on the Z2300 and Z5500 where there are no tweeters, just a polished aluminum phase plug or "mid driver" that has no mid range and the highs are of poor quality.. sound "canny" but let me tell you, when I listened to the Z Cinema speakers, with a tweeter and mid range driver, they sounded mediocre at best. Sounded like they had no depth at all...

In summary, the Z Cinema look great, they are easy to set up and the software is easy to install. The remote is great and is easy to use but that's all the positives of this speaker set up. The sound quality is mediocre and the bass is almost non-existing (compared to the cheaper z-2300's)

If you want powerful bass and big sound for both you music AND movies, stay away from these speakers as you will be disappointed.

If you want to replace your $10 speaker set up that came with your computer and do not have very high expectations, then you will like this set up..

Enjoy



We LOVED this product. My son composes music and when we set this up on his PC, it definitely took things to the next level. You could hear sounds you normally don't in the "pc environment" and the quality is OUTSTANDING. It was so good, in fact, we looked for a way to hook it up to our TV. Unfortunately it isn't compatible as you need Windows software to hook it up (not sure if it came with Mac software).


I'm no technophile, so my review will be decidedly free of jargon. I will however, give you my honest experience as an average home user of these speakers.

We run Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition on our home PCs, so we are able to take advantage of everything this system has to offer. The remote is great. I love that it comes pre-programed to work right out of the box, but is easy to customize with the software to make it even more intuitive. The buttons are clearly marked and do what they say they do. The on-screen display of volume, speaker mode, and file in use are a nice addition. They display briefly and then disappear automatically. We are still getting the hang of the wheel for control, rather than the more traditional + - buttons, but the wheel functions beautifully, making it quick and easy to scroll through music playlists, change volume settings and such.

And the sound! upgrading from traditional lower-end computer speakers, this is like theater sound. If you already have a surround sound system, or use your computer for audio-priority tasks (music editing etc) you may not find these sufficient but for the average home user who wants to watch a few movies or listen to music on their computer, they're perfect.

They were so simple to install, I'm pretty sure my 7 year old could have figured it out. Color coded plugs and a USB and power cable and you're pretty much done. The software took only a couple minutes to install and runs smoothly with no hiccups and doesn't seem to take up much system resources.

As far as we're concerned, Logitech has built a winner with this speaker system.


If you couldn't tell by the title, this is a great setup for your computer desk. Very, very easy to put together. Sub plugs into the wall, each speaker plugs into the sub, and then one USB cable from the sub to your computer.

By bypassing any soundcard your computer/laptop has, the theory is you get a pure 24bit connection to your computer via USB 2.0. Now, I'm not technically inclined enough to know if that's true or not (I suspect it is true), but heck, what I DO have to compare with is my previous speaker set, the Logitech Z-2300 THX 2.1 sound system.

And, well, this Z Cinema set positively destroys the aforementioned. Everything is much, much clearer. A side-by-side comparison has the Z Cinema win out in pretty much everything, music, games, movies etc. The big complaint about the Z-2300 is that it has no mid-range, which is true. All the high end sounds from the speakers, and the lows from the sub. No in between! No such issue on the Z Cinema! One of the complaints about this Z set is how loud it can get. Now, for general use, about 15% volume is plenty. If you want it really loud, 50% is pretty darn loud, almost uncomfortable. At 100% volume, it's positively violently loud for a 2.1 setup. It does not go as loud as my Z-2300 set. But who cares? At full volume, my Z-2300 would distort HORRIBLY. At full volume on the Z Cinema, it sounds perfect. No distortion whatsoever. It makes much more sense to make full volume on a speaker/subwoofer set like this limited in its output. What's the point of louder volume if the speakers can't handle it? Good thinking there, Logitech, with this newer set.

But, there are a few issues, that definitely need mentioning, and one of them isn't new.

1.) Logitech's packaging. It needs work. My speakers were a little scraped up, and I've read reviews where the subwoofer has been cracked. If the units were packaged a little better, this likely wouldn't happen. I've experienced this with my Z-2300 speakers, too, so this isn't a recent development. The remote was also loose in the box, and suffered some minor battle scars.

2.) Mac OS X compatibility. The box says the speakers are ONLY for Windows XP Media Center and Vista Home/Ultimate users. Now, these are speakers. They SHOULD work with ANY system. So, do they work with OS X? Yes, and..... no. When you plug them in for the very first time, Leopard will detect them as a keyboard (haha!), but if you close that window, you can go into Sound in your System Preferences and set the output of your sound to Z Cinema. Yay! You can adjust the volume no problems from your keyboard or from the included remote. BUT, you can't adjust the bass or treble with the speakers plugged in. You can unplug the speakers from your USB on your Mac computer, THEN adjust the bass, and THEN plug them back in. Thankfully I set my bass once, and never again. But why, Logitech, why? How hard would it have been to add a bit more support to OS X users? We're a growing bunch, you know!

2.) No faux-surround for OS X users. Yep, the biggest downside is that this SRS Surround business doesn't work in OS X at all, no matter what you do. It's software dependent. It works fine in Windows XP (Bootcamp for example).

3.) No power button on the speakers themselves. What? What do you do if you lose the remote? GOOD QUESTION! I guess you're in trouble?

Overall, though, this 2.1 set is fantastic. The clarity of sound is so far beyond anything I've heard on a computer set. Oh, and the brushed silver around the speakers matched my Apple Cinema Display quite wonderfully. Now all this set needs is proper OS X support!

4.5/5

(For those wondering, I've experienced ZERO cutouts of sound or crackling when the system is being taxed, doing LightRoom editing, heavy hard-drive use etc. I suspect this might vary from system to system, but for me it's been ace.)


*EDIT* October 1, 2008:

Having used these speakers for quite a while, I wanted to add an addendum to the review:

First, Logitech still don't officially support the Mac platform which is a little sad. And second, there's a teeny bit of bass bleed that I've detected for a while, and thought I'd make mention of this. Basically, some frequencies are being passed over to the subwoofer a little early in the range. Not sure why, but it's there. The average user won't even notice. 4.5/5 score still stands!

About Logitech Z Cinéma Advanced Surround Sound System--2.1 Speakers detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3064 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: Silver
• Brand: Logitech
• Model: 980-000085
• Dimensions: 17.87" h x 17.13" w x 12.76" l, 35.00 pounds

Features

• Box Content - 2 satellites, 1 subwoofer Speakers, Wireless remote control, USB cable, AC power Cable (each 1.8 m), CD-ROM with Logitech Z Cinema software, and User's guide
• 110-watts RMS into 4 ohms at 45Hz Subwoofer
• 26-watts RMS x 2 into 4 ohms at 335Hz Midwoofer
• 9-watts RMS x 2 into 16 ohms at 17.4khz Tweeter
• System Requirements - Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, or Windows Vista Ultimate Edition, USB port, CD-ROM drive, 256MB RAM, and 20MB free space

Related Product

Source From click07f-20
Have a COOL !
Cheers