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Logitech Z-680 Dolby 5.1 PC Speakers Reviewed

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the woofers-and-tweeters dept.

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."

5 of 266 comments (clear)

  1. Why the marketing relality distorion field? by Max+Romantschuk · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    --
    .: Max Romantschuk :: http://max.romantschuk.fi/
  2. True power is 505 watts, not 1000 by Compact+Dick · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    --
    Use ISO 8601 dates [YYYY-MM-DD]
  3. Nice but... by natron+2.0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    --
    [n8.r0n] http://petesweb.spymac.net/
  4. THX setup? by Malc · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  5. 1000 Watts? by hcdejong · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.