Logitech Z-5500 Digital 5.1 500W Speaker System

Reviews: Multimedia

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Bradford Day
Kurtis
Logitech
May. 16, 2005

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Testing

Well, as you may have expected, there was no crappy sound emitted by these bad boys. The Z-680 system was an award-winning concept for Logitech and I would expect the Z-5500s to receive the same accolades as it is much the same. Where to begin?

I arranged the speakers as the instructions dictated. Set up was simple and the speaker inputs were clearly labeled. With the Z-680s, poor Kurtis had to mount the speaker stands to the satellite and center channel speakers. Not so with the Z-5500s. The stands come pre-installed. The spring clip inputs are a great improvement over the Z-680s screw-type connections. The only problem with set up that I might foresee concerns the massive subwoofer. At 13" x 13" x 15" (WxHxD) dimensions the sub is anything but small. Factor in the near 50 lb. weight and finding a nice corner to hide this monster in might pose a problem, although you could probably use it as an end table. (Kurtis' Note: I chose to place the Z-680s subwoofer under my L-shaped desk in the corner where I can kick back and put my feet up on it. It's not as comfortable as something like a small step stool would be, but it does the job nicely. I just wish the top of it was padded for a little extra comfort!)

Music

For music testing I started with some of my favorite speaker testing material. I started out with some straight up punk rock. Rancid, Dropkick Murphys, Ducky Boys...they all sounded great and even better at full volume! I moved along to some heavy metal and rocked out for a while and rumbled the floor boards until I remembered that Kurtis had furnished me with the THX deepest bass test MP3. Ummm, yeah. I don't think I can even use rumble to describe what that track does to my floor. The bass was ultra clear and powerful...DID I MENTION LOUD! Sorry. Very loud. And as much fun as the THX deepest bass song is, I generally regard it as the musical equivalent of Barney the Dinosaur. I had to get some Beastie Boys flowing through these monsters. Of course MCA, AdRock and Mike D sounded like they were performing live in my office. I spent the better part of 4 hours listening to a large chunk of my MP3 collection, the first night I hooked them up that is.

Cranking the sub up to full volume never created any discernable distortion but it did make the control unit hop across the top of the sub with every resonation. (Kurtis' Note: That's what you get for placing the control unit on the subwoofer lol. Control unit should go on your desk.) Simply amazing! In fact, the only real complaint I had with the sound quality of these speakers was that with some very intricate and wide range music (some rock with heavy distortion and various world beat type stuff) I noticed a slight lack of mid-range response. But the occurrence of mid-range murkiness was a rare one and 98% of the music I ran through the Z-5500s sounded top notch.

Movies

For movie tests I chose four scenes from three different DVDs. The first was the pod race from Star Wars: Episode One followed by the final light saber duel between Darth Maul, Obi Wan and Quigon whatshisname. The pod race scene was nothing short of 3-D sound. Cranking the rear satellite volume and fiddling with the surround delay setting (more about that below) really added depth and distance to the speeding pod racers, a true surround sound experience. The light saber duel hummed heavily wreaking more havoc on my poor floorboards. The second DVD I reached for was Matrix Reloaded. I just can't get enough of that freeway scene...motorcycles, high speed car crashes, gunplay, explosions, bumping techno, Carrie-Anne Moss in tight leather...it could very well be the finest piece of cinema ever conceived. Despite the tight leather, the sounds and sound track are an excellent speaker test bed. Once again I was thoroughly impressed. The scream of Trinity's Ducati was an Italian love call of bassy exhaust and shrill RPMs. Gunshots are heavy thumps while explosions work to loosen the nails in my drywall. A second successful test. For my final DVD test I loaded up disc 2 of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, special extended edition. I figured the gargantuan battle scene with the olyphants would sound right good over the Z-5500s. I'm sure you're tired of hearing me say it, but I was right again. Absolute beauty. These speakers are an excellent choice for a home media PC enthusiast and movie geek. (Kurtis' Note: Sorry to butt in again; however there is something I feel I should mention here. The Z-680s ended up being a popular choice for use as home theater speakers, you know, the kind you put in your living room and mount on walls, and I imagine that their new Z-5500s will follow suit. These speakers are incredibly powerful and can easily fill a room (hell, an entire house! and your neighbor's house!) with amazing sound. Just thought I would mention that, lol.)

Gaming

What else could I test these speakers with besides Half-Life 2? The 5.1 surround setting really enhanced the realistic sounds and with the Surround Delay setting I felt like I was right in Gordon's shoes. Gunshots were thumpy and loud with explosions to match. I also ran through a few multi-player sessions of Counter-Strike: Source and Soldier of Fortune 2. Both of these games blared machine gun fire at an equally impressive volume as the screams of my slain enemies rang crisp and clear.

Of the three mediums I tested, gaming is my least favorite as far as these speakers are concerned. It's not that they sound bad, but more that they are overkill for most games. I doubt many games will really utilize the full potential of these speakers...on PC. For you Xbox and PS2 faithful out there the optical/coax inputs will be a nice feature. The built-in audio features in console games seem a perfect match for these speakers. Although personally I am a PC gaming purist, I can't help but think that these speakers would be an excellent choice for console gamers.

Sound Settings

As if the sound quality wasn't good enough to begin with, Logitech dropped in 5 different listening modes: Stereo, Stereo x 2, 6 channel direct, Dolby Pro Logic II Movie and Dolby Pro Logic II Music. Each utilizes not only the media you are listening to/watching; it also utilizes the type of connection running to the back of the control unit. For example to access DTS encoding you must use an optical or coax connection. The same holds true for Dolby Digital effects. The remaining effects are all accessible with the optical/coax connection except for the 6 channel direct. A direct RCA connection is necessary to utilize the 6 channel direct effect. As my computer's motherboard only has the 5.1 direct connections, I wasn't able to utilize the full features available to the optical/coax connections, but you won't hear me complain.

My personal preference for music listening was the Stereo x 2 effect. This essentially just uses the rear channel satellites to create additional stereo sound from behind as well as blaring sound from the fronts. I found this effect setting produced clearest and crispest sound while also cranking out the loudest volume... and in my book amplitude counts for a lot. The Dolby Pro Logic II Movie setting was indeed the best choice for Movie watching. The plain old boring Stereo setting only utilizes the sub and the front two satellites - what fun is that? Dolby Pro Logic II Music did sound quite crisp and had many settings to play with but still takes a back seat to the Stereo x 2 effect for listening pleasure.

Within some of the effect choices there are additional settings. These settings (Panorama, Dimension, Center Width, Surround Delay) are also restricted to certain decoding and input connections. Surround Delay is available to DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1, Pro Logic II Movie and Music as well as the Stereo x 2 effect. As the name implies, the Surround Delay prolongs the time betwixt the front and rear channels creating a sort of echo effect and lending more depth to the surround sound effect. I rather liked it. In fact, I prefer to listen to movies with the Surround Delay setting on full. The Pro Logic II Music effect flaunts the most settings, however. The Pro Logic II Music effect Dimension setting was more or less a fade control between front and rear channels while the Center Width spread the sound between the front speakers and the center channel to varying degrees depending on the setting. But because I didn't have a coax or optical connection I couldn't access any of the other settings.

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: First Looks
Page 3: Testing
Page 4: Conclusion

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3 User Comments

1 - Posted by Guest on May 18, 2005 - 4:59 pm

Are the satelite speakers wall mountable?

Thanks.

2 - Posted by Guest on August 12, 2005 - 10:44 pm

Why does this Z-5500 have unattached speaker cables and the one they are selling on Newegg doesn't? Can someone tell me where I can get this set instead?

3 - Posted by Guest on August 13, 2005 - 12:07 am

Also, with every other review I've read:
http://reviews.cnet.com/Logitech_Z_5500_Digital/45...
http://www.thetechzone.com/?m=show&id=141
http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/z5500/
http://www.xtremeresources.com/ modules.php?op=modload&name=Re views&file=index&req=showconte nt&id=74

the Z-5500 is marked down due to attached cables.

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