Logitech Z-5300e 5.1 2-Piece Surround Sound PC and Gaming Speaker System

Rating:
Summary: Super Sound!
Review: Got these for Christmas from my boss, and just put them in. WOW do these Dogs Rock!!! no distortion what-so-ever. If I would have known they sounded this good, I would have bought the same ones' along time ago. Huge bass, and center, for true seperation.

Rating:
Summary: Great speaker system
Review: Bought this system to get great sound while watching DVD's on the computer, listening to CD's, and playing games. It is a great system for all of these. I have it coupled with a SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card. Put in the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan and it was amazing. Played Half-Life 2 and the first few bullets I heard scared the crap out of me.

The only complaint was mentioned by other reviewers. The rear speaker cords are too short. Paid $7 for a couple RCA extensions at Best Buy.

Great system.....would recommend to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty much the best you can get for the price!
Review: Currently priced at 130 dollars these speakers are pretty hard to beat. I bought these to replace my tried and true Klipsch Promedia 4.1 system, I know it's not much of an upgrade but there's good reason for the move. My complaints with the Klipsches were that they weren't very good at high volumes and more importantly low volumes, at high volume the bass started to sound flat and at low volumes the bass was too overpowering, another problem I found was that the headphone jack was useless because of hissing. I really do miss selling off my Klipsches but the Z-5300e's weren't too bad of a decision! The Z-5300e's do an awesome job at both low and high volumes, I live in an apartment right now so at night these things need to be able to be quiet, they seem to be doing a better job than the Klipsches in that regard. They sound excellent paired with the proper equalizer settings and sound card, I had a hard time at first getting them to sound right but the effort is well worth it. A useful feature of the 5300e's is the ability to take a stereo or quadrophonic signal and mix it through all five speakers, this is done by using a little switch on the back of the sub, this is also what enables the speakers to use all five channels for a TV configuration. The mids of these speakers are much brighter, it almost seems like I can hear more detail and hence better sound quality at low volumes. Be sure to use Matrix surround with your movies and music, but leave it off for the games. The most glaring problem with these speakers are in the speaker cables, first off they are integrated into the speakers, secondly the cable length is pretty short so don't expect to be able to place the speakers all over your room. The cables have RCA male ends however and finding extension cables shouldn't be too difficult. The remote buttons are also a little bit unresponsive because the buttons are stiff, this is not too much of an issue. Build quality is decent, most components are plastic but look very nice, the sub is SUPER big, the Klipsch speakers were heaver and seemed much sturdier though. At higher volumes you will probably experience hissing, the system also sounds better with some good burn-in. If digital surround is important to you, this setup does not feature digital encoding. Usually digital processing is a feature reserved for the highest end speakers that are twice the cost of these. Overall a great buy for the money... If you want the best possible configuration you may want to look into the Klipsch Ultra 5.1's or z-5500's, just stay away from those accursed Klipsch GMX speakers!!

Pros:
Excellent Price
Sweeter looking than the Z-5300's
Ability to hook speakers to a TV via adapter cable
Abiility to take stereo/quad signal and mix it into 5 speakers
Excellent volume scalability
Can compete with Klipsch speakers (not an easy feat!)
Easy setup
Clean headphone output

Cons:
Hard to configure
Short cables
Analog encoding
TV adapter is just a female miniplug to female stereo RCA's
Not many people have em yet (or is that a pro?)

Rating:
Summary: 70.00 cheaper on Amazon? DAMN IT!
Review: I purchased these just the other day at Circuit City for $70.00 more, however, the speakers are completely worth it. They pound so hard that my neighbors called the police... and that was after I turned the bass way down. I purchased the speakers to go with my windows XP media edition PC, my gripes however are as follows.

1. The rear cables should be longer. Yes, I was able to buy longer RCA connectors to extend them, but it was rather inconvenient.
2. The subwoofer has a giant amp on the back of it, and everything plugs into that. So many wires! I wish they'd just consolidated things somehow.
3. The base of each speaker rotates. I'm not sure why you'd rotate just the top of the speaker when you can rotate the base as well. Seems like just another part which can be broken.

other than that, I'm satisfied with the speakers, the bass, and the remote. I sorta wish the remote was wireless, but what can I expect for $200.00.

Hope this helps you.

Rating:
Summary: WOW...
Review: If you are considering these to upgrade your computer's sound system, don't delay. This system flat out ROCKS! Not just for the price, but the quality of the sound is excellent. They look good, sound good, and have the power to rock your world. Setup was a snap. The longest part of the setup time was just spent unpacking everything. Once everything was out of the box it was just plug-in and play. I've never had a problem w/ any Logitech product. From game controllers to keyboards, and believe me, Logitech has scored big with these. The clearity and the power this system posseses is just awesome. You won't be dissapointed.

Rating:
Summary: Answer to "John Murphy" ...
Review: Let's be honest, I don't own this set of speakers. I'm writing this to prevent people from doing a costly mistake...
If you connect it to your DVD, it won't play true 5.1 surround sound because it doesn't have a 5.1 decoder.
In order to hear true surround sound, you must connect your speakers to a seperate Dolby/DTS compatible decoder -like Creative's DDTS-100-, connected to your DVD player (which must be Dolby/DTS ready), and select the proper sound configuration (most likely Dolby 5.1), if available on the movie's sound options menu.
*These are powered speakers so they don't need an amplifier*

Rating:
Summary: Great for PC, awful for anything else
Review: These speakers sound great. If you are buying them for your PC and have a 5.1 soundcard, they are an amazing deal for the money.

However, if you bought them for the reason I did, stay clear. I bought these speakers to be used with my DVD player / game consoles to get 5.1 surround for fairly cheap. However, aside from hooking them up to a PC, this is really not realistically possible. No Dolby Digital or DTS decoding, which means in a lot of cases, namely with an Xbox, you can't get true 5.1 sound, just their "matrix" 5.1 which is basically stereo sound that is supposed to sound like 5.1 but in reality doesnt at all. I have them hooked up to my DVD player right now, and basically all they do is provide clearer and louder stereo sound than my built in TV speakers do.

The cords on the rear speakers are a tad short, but this is easy to fix at radio shack and you wont end up spending any more than $15 on wires / couplers to extend them.

The bass is uncontrollably loud at all times, even when it is turned down to its lowest setting. We turn the bass all the way down, and it can still be heard very loudly in the next room over.

Don't get me wrong, these speakers sound amazing. If you are buying them for your PC, go for it, they offer a lot of bang for your buck, and aside from the uncontrollable bass, they produce solid sound. If you are buying these for a home theater setting or for use with Xbox or PS2, I would recommend looking into a different set.


EDIT: Monique's review as an answer to mine is correct. You can get true 5.1 from most DVD players with these speakers, but in order to do so, you must spend and extra $200+ on a reciever / amplifier. Mostly, I wanted them for my PS2 / Xbox, and these speakers dont really help with that unless you spend a lot of extra money. If you are looking to get speakers to work with PS2 / XBox, get speakers that have an optical input...both systems have an optical output port, and this provides the best sound.