Logitech Z-680 Dolby 5.1 PC Speakers Reviewed

PhatBass writes "PC Speakers certainly have come a long way from the little buzzers we used to listen to before the days of SoundBlaster. Remember the 'Windows Speaker Driver' that gave you more than beeps and buzzing through the little cone in your case? Well now we have full Dolby Surround Sound setups, THX Certified, the works, for Gaming, DVD and Multimedia bliss. Take a look at the sweet Z-680 setup from Logitech that is reviewed here, they sport 1000 Watts of Peak Power, a hardware Dolby Pro Logic II 5.1 Decoder, Digital Inputs and serious style."

Comments

THX setup?

[Malc]

Let me see, my desk is against the wall, which puts me less than half a metre from the front three speakers. Unless I place the rear speakers in the way in the middle of the room behind me, I'm going to have put some major delay and volume adjustments in to the setup. 5.1 DD on a computer just sounds like a silly idea to me. 5.1 DD coming out of my XBox in the living room does work though ;)

Oh, and as for that Windows speaker driver. It was a pain in the arse: the whole system would pause for playback of even the most simple sounds.

As a matter on interest

[Timesprout]

Can any sound engineer types out there give a brief overview of the sound quality differentials between this standard of speaker with a good sound card and the sort of kit you can fork out a shed load of cash for at your local hifi dealer?.

I know judgement of sound quality can be a very subjective thing but I am curious when I can get a PC sound system very reasonably but can (assuming I had the cash) pay thousands of dollars/euro in a store for hifi equipment. Is the price difference reflected in the sound quality ?

For that matter how do I know my hearing is good enough to distinguish the difference ?

Re:THX certification != audiophile system

[gazbo]

True, yet bad advice. The truth is that most people wouldn't like monitor speakers, precisely because they are too "good". The goal of a monitor speaker is to produce a flat as possible frequency response curve. People aren't used to that.

If you doubt this, just look at the majority of popular stereos with a "bass boost" button, which may as well be labeled as "ignore the equalisation performed by a professional engineer and producer, I want thumping".

Of course in theory, graphic EQs on stereos should be used to tweak the signal to counteract the frequency attenuation of the speakers and electronics - but instead they are used to add bass etc.

I reiterate: most people don't want accurate sound reproduction.

Re:DRM ?

[racerx509]

Thats really funny, but its starting to become a problem. For owners of a Creative Sound Blaster Live! or Audigy system, the new DRM enabled drivers will actually mute the digital channel output upon playing certain DRM equipped files. That $600 digital decoder based 5.1 DD system is useless when you want to listen to a DRM encoded WMA song.

Re:Why the marketing relality distorion field?

[macshit]

"RMS". No, not Stallman. "Root Mean Squared"

An interesting aside is that Stallman, one time when he went to Japan, had a `hanko' made for himself (a hanko is a little name stamp that Japanese use instead of a signature). What's on his hanko? The formula for root-mean-squared!