Pros: Clear midrange/treble, decent surround cable length, headphone jack
Cons: Somewhat short front/center cables, sub can be 'boomy', no treble control or faders
The Bottom Line: A decent introductory surround sound system for movies, music, and gaming. Quality sound at low to medium volume levels and very easy to set up.
compuwhiz's Full Review: Klipsch ProMedia GMX A-2.1 2 Speakers
Overview
I purchased the Logitech X-530 5.1 speaker set about 6 months ago and have been using it for a variety of music/movie/gaming tasks with my desktop computer. I wasn't looking for something with a lot of power or a lot of bass, but it needed to have a clean sound as I'm rather particular about audio.
For several months I used the 530s connected to my SoundBlaster Extigy 5.1 sound card, and recently I've been using them with a 5.1 channel nForce sound card built into my Asus motherboard. Occasionally they also get used with my laptop that is equipped with a SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS card.
In the Box
Logitech had a well-padded box with form fit styrofoam to protect the plastic speakers and MDF subwoofer. As a 5.1 system you get four identical satellite speakers, a horizontal center satellite speaker, and a compact subwoofer. The speaker wires are attached directly to the satellites and are not removable. You also get a quick setup guide to show you which sound card jacks to use and how to hook up the speakers (if for some reason you can't follow the color-coding).
Design
The satellite speakers on the 530 set are rather attractive with dual silver drivers contrasting against a black enclosure. All of them are magnetically shielded to protect against image distortion on tube monitors. They share some similarities with the more impressive Logitech sets such as a reversed phase plug in the center of each driver and a stand that swivels to accommodate both wall-mounting and desk use. The center speaker cannot be wall-mounted but can be tilted up/down 30 degrees to point at the listener. It's small enough to fit on top of any CRT monitor or below a LCD monitor. The attached cables for the front & centers speakers are only 8 feet and the rear speaker cables are 16 feet. All of the speakers except for the front right one use RCA connectors--that one uses a 15-pin Dsub connector much like a VGA monitor.
The subwoofer is very well laid-out, with a volume control on the back along with the connectors for the satellite speakers. The power cord is a decent 6 feet long and you can easily position the small box under your desk or near a corner, as long as the cables for the speakers will reach that location. The amp is built into the sub and there are no protruding cooling fins, but it will get somewhat warm after being used for a while.
The front right speaker contains the main volume control, the power button for the set, and a 1/8" headphone jack. The headphone jack will automatically mute the speakers when you are connected, but the set does not have to be powered on to use the jack. The three stereo input cables from the sound card are attached to this speaker as well and are 6 feet long. The green, black, and orange miniplugs attach to the front, surround, and center/sub connectors on a 5.1 sound card.
Quality
One thing I noticed almost as soon as I started using the speakers is that they don't emit a hiss or hum like some of the cheaper speaker sets tend to do. The rather high signal-to-noise ratio of 96dB probably accounts for this, but there are some more expensive sets with even less noise.
After listening for a few days and getting things tweaked the way I liked them, I found several things to be true of the 530s. For one, I did not need to boost or lower the treble or bass control on my sound card interface. The dual driver design of the satellites provided a crisp sound with clear midrange and treble. According to Logitech, they are designed to output high frequencies on the uppermost driver and the midrange frequencies are reproduced by both drivers simultaneously. This allows a greater surface area for the lower sounds that are difficult to produce with a small cone. The design is not as efficient as a tweeter/woofer arrangement like that found on some other speaker sets but it is a good compromise to keep the size of the satellites minimal. Also, to get a good match between the satellites and the subwoofer in my bedroom I had to lower the sub volume control to Minimum. At higher volumes it had a tendency to drown out the rest of the music, which actually may be desirable for some. The 530s are not designed to be used without the subwoofer so you cannot disable it entirely.
As far as material goes, I've watched dozens of movies and TV shows on this set as well as a good amount of MP3 music. When I got my Audigy 2 ZS card for the laptop I even tried some high resolution DVD-Audio discs. For the price I paid I'm very impressed with the performance when the speakers aren't pushed to a high volume. They maintain their accuracy and bass effect even with demanding music material. It is not an optimal set to purchase if you are big on rap or bass music, because you won't be able to feel the bass from a small 5.25" woofer. If you aren't looking to produce the lowest of frequencies (below 40Hz) then the 530s should be able to perform just fine. For listening modes, with my Extigy I typically enabled CMSS to expand stereo sources into all 5.1 channels, and with the nForce sound card I now use the Clone effect which duplicates the front sounds in the rear speakers. If you only have a stereo or four channel sound card, the 530s do not have a built-in sound expander so you will not be using all 5 speakers.
For the small amount of gaming I do, the set works very well. It got me through Half-Life 2 and helps me figure out where enemies are located in CounterStrike. If you haven't tried gaming with a surround sound setup it is really quite amazing if the game properly supports it. The EAX mode of Creative sound cards will also regenerate environmental effects if utilized by the game. The subwoofer does well with bass from gunshots and other sound effects you may encounter.
I think the Logitech Z-530s would be a great set of speakers for someone looking for a basic surround sound system to add to their 5.1 channel sound card on a desktop or laptop computer. As long as your room is not huge and you don't like to listen at very high volume levels, the 530s should be more than sufficient. For those who crave bass look elsewhere like the Z-5500 from Logitech. The attractive physical appearance makes the 530s match with both black and silver monitors.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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