Logitech is well known for some sleek computer peripherals, most notably their mice. They’ve been making speakers for quite some time now. It seems that every year, the speaker manufacturers put their best effort into their top end speaker systems that involve complete surround sound and monstrous subwoofers. On the other hand, there is plenty of development in nearly microscopic iPod speakers that are more of a fashion item than providers of great sound. This time, Logitech is putting some of that high end expertise into a far more compact and usable system, sort of a middle ground with their new Z-10 Interactive Speaker System. They retail for $149.
Be sure to check out our previous article on how we ended up choosing the Z-10 speakers.
What’s In the Box?
Logitech ships their Z-10 Interactive Speaker System with the following:
- Z-10 speakers left and right with an attached 6 feet power cord
- USB to mini-USB cable, 6 feet
- User’s Guide
- LCD Manager Software on CD
- 3.5 mm stereo auxiliary cable, 6 feet
- Black chamois cleaning cloth
- 2 year limited warranty
Technical Specs
For the sake of completeness, I include all these facts and figures. Skip down before your eyes glaze over…
- Speaker Dimensions: 9.7” H x 4.5” W x 4.7” D
- Total Peak Power: 60 Watts
- Total RMS Power: 30 Watts
- Drivers: 3” high excursion woofer with a 1” domed tweeter
- Graphic LCD: 160 x 43 pixels
Hey, hang on there Sloopy! Since when do speakers have an LCD screen? Keep on reading and it will start to make sense!
Construction
The Logitech Z-10 speakers are designed to have the appearance of a higher end product, to complement their other offerings like the Revolution mouse. Each speaker feels quite solid, with a mass and stiffness that contributes to the audio. Logitech cleverly integrated the power brick into the left speaker so it’s not hogging up three outlets in the power supply. The right speaker has the controls and the amber LCD screen. The speakers get painted in a jet black lacquer finish that looks great, but is fingerprint prone- hence the inclusion of the chamois. There are jacks included for headphones, and to directly input in an audio source, like an MP3 player.
Installation
Typically, installing a set of speakers involves plugging the audio out from the soundcard or the onboard audio into a wire that connects to the speaker’s inputs. Even many higher end audio setups use this configuration. However, over the last few years, sound cards have been on the outs, and integrated motherboard audio has been in. Personally speaking, I’ve had good results with on board audio with my desktops. On the other hand, most notebooks integrated audio is less than top shelf. Also, when the audio is integrated into the motherboard, it is more prone to electrical interference from all of the other components.
Logitech’s Z-10’s use a different approach. Rather than converting the signal at the sound card to analog and then sending it to the speakers, the signal is sent to the Z-10’s digitally via the USB cable. This completely circumvents the sound card or integrated audio. It’s like the Z-10’s have an external USB sound card built into them! For most users this is an advantage as they haven’t spent much on their audio, however, I doubt those high end sound card owners will like this solution (although they could try plugging in the line out from the sound card to the auxiliary input).
The Z-10’s ship with LCD Manager software. It installed from the CD to my Windows XP Pro machine with no issues. It then allows customization of the LCD.
The Screen
Hooking the speakers to the computer via a USB connection opens up some other intriguing features. Logitech is able to communicate directly with the PC, and display information. We can toggle between the date/time, music track information, CPU/RAM load, and a stopwatch/countdown timer. This is really kind of neat, and makes one wonder why someone didn’t think of this sooner. This also brings the Z-10’s beyond what a speaker normally does, and makes them into more of a USB peripheral with audio functions.
The Controls
The right speaker houses a series of buttons. They are completely flat, and touch sensitive. They take a little getting used to as they are ultra sensitive, and I can control them by putting my finger close, but not actually touching anything! This is cool and weird at the same time. From here, I can control the volume, treble, bass, program in 4 internet radio presets, and control a Windows music player like iTunes or Windows Media Player(WinAmp had some control issues, but displayed fine). There are even power and mute controls so you’re ready for when the boss calls and you need to shut down in a hurry!
The Sound
Now that we’ve covered the screen and buttons ad nauseum, we need to remember that first and foremost that these are speakers and the rest is just gravy at the end of the day. Just because they tell us that the Z-10’s use biamp audio to separately process and boost the audio to the woofer and tweeter, the proof is in how it sounds. I’ve listened to a wide variety of media, and the Z-10’s are very good, especially considering their size.
They largely succeeded at creating a set of speakers with a very even response across a wide spectrum of sound. The highs, mids and lows are well detailed, and have a full and robust sound above a 50% volume. Given the speaker’s size, I expected the bass to be nearly nonexistent. I was pleasantly surprised to hear some serious lower tones coming out of such a compact setup. No, we’re not talking about subwoofer shaking, plaster cracking, neighbors calling the police level of thump, but it’s definitely there and not bass deficient as speakers this size invariably are.
The volume can be cranked up loud, but it starts to distort at the maximum setting. It’s still more than usable for smaller rooms, and when sitting in front of the speakers. Don’t expect to DJ your next outdoor party with the Z-10’s, but they have more than enough oomph for filling the dorm room with audio goodness.
The Z-10’s are equally at home with DVD’s are they are with music. I watched a series of film coming attractions, including one for the new Blu-Ray discs which is rather demanding. Speech and music were both well detailed, and balanced. The stereo separation was easy to discern, although not artificially boosted or enhanced.
Wish List
There are two things that I think would really make this already excellent product one step better. The first is that an optional subwoofer would provide the bone rattling bass to give the music some house filling power for parties. The second is a powered USB port to be able to plug a music player in and power it all day without a computer. Maybe with a little luck these features will find their way into the Z-11 model.
Conclusion
Logitech has expanded the envelope of what a speaker peripheral can do. Not only do these speakers provide a high quality audio experience, but with their integrated screen and controls, they are a USB peripheral in their own right. For both the college dorm room, or the executive office, the styling is attractive. For those with space at a premium, the Logitech Z-10 Speakers will be a great sounding upgrade to their audio needs.
–Jonas
