Logitech G51 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers
See it at Amazon.com for $109.95Average Customer Rating
(4.5 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(5 out of 5)Excellent PC speaker upgrade
I was a little reluctant to purchase another set of Logitech speakers. My first set, the Z-560, worked well, but one of the channels burned out about 16 months after I purchased them.
My second set, the Z-680, sounded great but had a fatal flaw: HISSSSSS. I had to have a box fan going in the room to drown out the constant hissing. It finally drove me to seeking another set, and I desperately sought out a non-Logitech set of speakers. Sadly, in my narrow price range, there were no alternatives that I can find.
With some relucatance I ordered the G51. I set them up yesterday, and so far I'm very pleased with them. The soul-searing hiss present on the z-680 is mercifully gone, and the system sounds excellent. The bass is sufficient without being overpowering (provided you turn it down a notch or two from the default setting), and the control pod is sensibly sized and sports a great, logically laid out interface. Mids and highs are perfectly acceptable for a relatively cheap computer speaker set.
The matrix mode works surprisingly well (though I think it's likely nothing that revolutionary, just a re-imaging if their existing stero x2 mode) for both games and music.
I don't have plans to use the silly 'patent pending mod system' (pretty much just a piece of transparent plastic to slip printed designs into), but if you do want to 'pimp your rig' then I suppose the option is there.
Here's a couple of tips for the new G51 users:
1) Take off those grills on the speakers! They are *not* acoustically transparent, and in my ears the highs opened up a bit after removing them. Just be careful not to poke anything into the exposed speaker drivers!
2) BE CAREFUL if you mount the center channel on your LCD screen; I cringed when I read the instructions to 'tighten the hinge screw' - this is applying pressure to your LCD monitor. If you over tighten you might experience the pleasure of cracking your LCD screen in half. I simply placed mine on top and used a little double sided tape on the base - I'd rather have a slightly loose center channel than a pair of non-functioning 11" flat screen monitors.
PROS:
+ great sound
+ easy installation
+ excellent control pod
+ simple center-channel LCD mounting option
CONS:
- front speaker wires a bit too short
- hard-wired speaker cables
(5 out of 5)Nice system
Received these a week ago, gave them to the daughter of a friend of mine as a gift, she took them into her room as me and my friend were chatting, by the time we went back to her room to set them up for her she had already installed them and was online playing WoW and telling her friends about her "awesome" new speakers, I think this speaks volumes about how easy they are to install.
The speakers allow you to use RCA plugs to hook your stereo into them and switch between the computer and the stereo at the push of a button, a feature for which my friend curses me every day when his daughter wakes him to 200db music in surround sound, seriously though these are loud I can hear her music in the driveway, distortion free.
In summation, I feel if you are in the market for speakers these are the best in their price range.
(5 out of 5)Great audio and smooth surround sound
Before this I used a 2.1 system, and thought it was pretty good. Well, the G51 blew it away with its' smooth audio that envelops you and adds a powerful and unique audio experience to any system. It sounded great in games, and music takes on a whole new dimension. I watched some TV shows on my Slingbox and the G51 made my room sound like a professional audio entertainment room.
The controller makes it easy to adjust the volume as well as the individual channel volumes (surround, center, bass). It also provides convenient microphone and headphone jacks at your fingertips. The mute button is also a handy addition to the control panel.
The G51 has ample speaker cables, but a little extra length on both the front and rears would be welcome. Even better, if they could make this system wireless - it would really open up speaker placement options.
Overall, this is a great set of speakers, and I've listened to a lot of speakers (both computer and audiophile speakers) and can honestly give these 5 stars for stellar performance. When they finally get rid of those wires - I'll be the first in line!
(4 out of 5)Great value!
These speakers are a lot smaller than I thought they would be as shown on the product image. Still, they pack high quality sound and the bass is good, despite the subwoofer being almost half the size of my last one. My one huge complaint though - these are surround sound speakers Logitech - why are the cables so short! I'm unable to mount the rear the satellites anywhere - currently with the sub/amp under my desk, the maximum distance the rear cables will reach is about 6 ft behind me, and the satellites on my desk have no further slack on the cables either. Really, the cables were quite a big disappointment as it severely limits where I can put the speakers. I don't think having the rear satellites sitting on the floor partially obscured is what these speakers were designed for. The cables seem to be some kind of RCA plug and are hardwired into the satellites, so I don't know whether it's possible to try and extend them.
Besides the cables, everything else is great. The default bass level was way too high for my liking, it took a fair bit of playing around to find a good spot where it wasn't too boomy. The matrix mode works somewhat well, although I'll probably be leaving it off since having to adjust it constantly is not really worth it. For those like me who were somewhat worried that matrix mode could only be set to "Gaming" or "Music", the button is a push-button that toggles between None, Gaming and Music, it's not a sliding switch as the pictures may make it seem.
Overall these speakers are excellent value for money - sure they won't go as loud as some of the higher end models, but they are perfectly loud enough for movies, music and games. I would not hesitate to give these 5 stars if it weren't for the issue with the cables. If you're looking for compact 5.1 system, you won't get much better value than the G51.
Update (2007-11-16): I purchased some 25ft RCA F/M cables for the rear satellites and they have much better positioning now. One additional issue I have noticed is whenever the system is powered on and not muted, the subwoofer driver is vibrating and causing a very low but discernible hum that is audible over my system noise. Raising or lowering the volume has no effect on the loudness, and the hum only stops 2-3 seconds after muting or immediately on power off, which leads me to believe it's some internal component causing it and not noisy output from the sound card or interference. We do get slightly higher than usual utility voltage, so it could be something that goes away if you have clean 120v power.
(5 out of 5)For the price, hard to beat.
The sound is fantastic, everything that the other reviewers have noted and then some. I was more than satisfied.
Some notes on what others said:
One reviewer stated the speakers were tiny compared to what was expected. So I was waiting to receive some really tiny speakers, but they were pretty standard looking to me. Perhaps that reviewer was waiting for theatre speakers or something, but these are made for a computer. They are a little over 4 inches wide at the widest part and 8.5 inches tall. They were actually bigger than I wanted. But that is not a big complaint.
Another reviewer stated they did not like the volume knob because it skipped volume levels. I agree that the notched feel of the volume knob doesn't allow someone to get the exact volume desired, but it is subtle degrees of loudness and I would not hesitate to purchase these because of that.
Another reviewer stated the wires for the back speakers aren't long enough. I measured them a while ago when I first set them up and my vague memory says they are 14 ft. long. This wasn't an issue for me as I have an L shaped desk and was not concerned about getting perfect surround sound. They would be way more than enough length if a small speaker table was set up behind the chair, but if these need to be mounted on a wall, there might be an issue with cable length.
And there was a reviewer who said the sound improves without the speaker covers. I agree with this assessment. They sound a little more clear with the covers off. So I keep the covers on for protection when I am not listening to music, but pull them off when I am planning on extended listening time. I probably could leave them off, but I don't want to worry about the dust collecting on them.
The subwoofer is gorgeous looking and very powerful.
The table top volume control is cool because you can push a button to select the total volume, subwoofer, back speakers, and center speakers and changed the volume for each of these. There is a mute button and a place to plug in headphones and a microphone.
I didn't like how the speakers are at one set angle and can't be adjusted. And I also can't see how they could be wall mounted unless someone puts a shelf on the wall to set them on. They don't appear to have the ability to just screw into a wall.
All in all, the price is hard to beat for the kind of sound these speakers produce. Exceptional value!