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

Hardware?

[Jucius Maximus]

There should be an 'advertisements' topic on slashdot.

Why the marketing relality distorion field?

[Max Romantschuk]

With a total output of over 500 watts and a frequency response of 35-22000 Hz you could power a mid sized dance floor... Fact is these figures aren't really true.

The problem is that measuring these figures aren't done according to any standard weighting... the frequency response of my subwoofer at home is 39-200 Hz, the lower end at -3 DeciBels. The problem is these manufacturers don't report weighted figures. For all we know 35 Hz could be at -10 DeciBels, which is much lower than nominal volume.

This is why you never ever read the specs... listen to the speakers.

I'm not saying these speakers are bad. I'm just saying that the figures stated in the specs aren't comparable to professional or HIFI equipment.

Re:Why the marketing relality distorion field?

[13Echo]

You beat me to this post. ;)

I laughed when I saw "1,000 watts of power". Speaker power ratings are horribly misleading, and should be taken worth a grain of salt. This is especially true for paper cone PC speaker sets.

The level of loudness or efficiency and bass response is very dependant on the amp's ability to drive the speakers, as well as output impedance. The amp/processor is going to dissipate a lot of power, and the speakers are never going to operate at the quoted efficiency.

"RMS". No, not Stallman. "Root Mean Squared". Peak power is a scam, and should not be used for buying sound equpiment.

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!

True power is 505 watts, not 1000

[Compact Dick]

The correct poewr rating is 505 watts RMS [Root Mean Square], which is what the speakers can handle on a continuous basis.

Don't be swayed that marketing term known as PMPO [Peak Music Power Output] - what the equipment in question can handle/deliver over a very short period of time, typically measured in milliseconds.

Nice but...

[natron 2.0]

For the price of most PC Surround sound speakers and cards you could buy a nice Surround Sound stereo system and run your PC audio through it, and it usually sounds alot better. I have seen it done mayof times and the sound quality is superb.

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.

Re:THX setup?

[delus10n0]

Just in case you didn't know, the rear speakers are supposed to be facing the _sides_ of the audience, not their backs. This is a common mistake that people make when placing a 5.1 system. When you do a 7.1 setup, the extra two speakers are the ones that get placed in the far rear. In a 5.1 setup, the rear speakers are to the side of the listener, and a little behind them.

1000 Watts?

[hcdejong]

When will speaker manufacturers stop quoting meaningless figures?

• You can't add power figures for separate speakers.
• 'peak power' is equal to 'pick any number that takes your fancy'. It has no bearing on reality.
• RMS power figures don't mean much, either. You need to specify the distortion that occurs at this power level.
• power figures say nothing about how loud the system is. You need the speaker efficiency for that.
• The power rating says nothing about sound quality, so it has no place as 'the most prominent feature' of a speaker set.

Re:1000 Watts?

[BinaryCodedDecimal]

When will speaker manufacturers stop quoting meaningless figures?

When those meaningless figures stop selling speakers.

Remember that a lot of people don't understand or even care what those figures actually mean. All they see are the numbers, and bigger is better.

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:As a matter on interest

[hcdejong]

1. Hifi speakers will have a flatter frequency response, meaning they won't overemphasize some frequencies at the cost of others. I predict the Logitech will sound boomy rather than full, and be rather tiring to listen to in the long run.

2. Hifi speakers will sound more detailed. When you go from a bad system to a good one, you may notice new instruments in a song, things like that.

3. Hifi speakers have a greater dynamic range. On the Logitech, I expect the subwoofer will start distorting at a sound level that's not insanely high, where Hifi speakers would just keep performing well.

Re:As a matter on interest

[hanwen]

the sort of kit you can fork out a shed load of cash for at your local hifi dealer

Actually, I would not go to a local HiFi store for nice sound quality. HiFi speakers are designed to sound "nice" to your ears, by introducing various colorations that are not present in the original signal. If you want to have accurate sound reproduction, you should consider buying studio monitors. For example, genelecs, Tannoys or Spirits (which is what I have). They are designed to reproduce sound neutrally. The advantage: your good CDs will sound nice and crisp. The disadvantage: you will notice that a lot of your previously good-sounding CDs are not recorded and/or mixed well, and sound like crap.

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

Unless you regularly visit loud dancings or concerts, your ears will be good enough.

Re:Hi-fi audio coming of age on the PC

[PerryMason]

Not if you plan to power it with your on-board chip or internal audiocard.

Its not the speakers so much as the soundcard (and the placement of its ad/da converters) that makes a PC worthy of an audiophiles interest. As long as the converters are sitting on a PCI card, or worse yet, on-board, interference is bound to turn the average audiophile away.

There exist solutions for getting the converters outside the PC case (breakout boxes) that certainly help, and if you keep it digital all the way from PC to your sound-system (no i dont mean a cheapy set of speakers from Logitech) things can get even cleaner. The Hammerfall and DIGI cards from RME for instance are a nice option in this case.

But then if you're talking true audiophile, they'd laugh at even thinking about having a PC anywhere near where they plan to listen to music. The fans on pretty much any moderm PC lift your ambient sound-floor to somewhere in the -60db range regardless of the quality of your output chain.

So the answer is no. If an audiophile is going to spend $10,000 to buy a set of headphones, they dont want a PC. But then there are audiophiles and there are audiophiles.

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.

Don't be fooled...

[nmg196]

Don't be fooled by the supposedly massive power output of this system. I've heard such systems many times, and pumping that much power (probably 1000W PMPO ~= 500W RMS?) into tiny plastic housed speakers really sounds quite crap.

I've got VASTLY better sound by connecting the audio output (headphone socket) from my old Soundblaster AWE 32 (ISA) straight to some Mission bookshelf speakers using a custom cable (3.5mm stereo jack to twin speaker cable!). That sounds card had a reasonable 12W RMS power amp on board that most new sound cards don't have (only line out or 4W headphone). I was surprised at how good this set up actually sounded. It lacked in the old bass department if you turned the sound the right up, but it was fine for normal listening levels or watching films.

A cheap (and VERY old Yamaha amp from eBay) made this set up even better (and provided me with a tuner!). All this for much less money and WAY more sound quality.

If you don't believe me, try it yourself. Get a really cheap old amp, and use your real hi-fi speakers - I can guarantee it will sound better than any plastic computer speakers ever will.

You don't need 5 channels - this just makes music sound crap and is just a gimmick for gamers. It's far better to get a decent stereo set up working first and if you really want 5 channel audio - then an old dolby digital amp off e-bay will definitely sound better than a package like this Logitech system.

The "1000W" figure is a complete joke! My £1000(GBP = $1500USD) NAD system is only 65W per channel and sounds stunningly good even using bookshelf speakers. Never EVER be tempted to equate output power to sound quality (especically if the power is measured PMPO rather than RMS) and never underestimate how bad small speakers sound compared to larger ones. Two tiny (10cm drivers) speakers + subwoofer does not in any way equate to the quality obtained by two half decent mid-sized bookshelf hi-fi speakers.

Nick...

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.