Home > Consumer Reviews > Logitech Z-5400 Digital Speakers

I got this 5.1 set by Logitech for my birthday having read that they were a decent set of speakers however did not manage to find a review anywhere on the net.
They come in a huge box which weighs around 20kg or so and everything is well packaged in molded polystyrene so damage to components should be minimal during transit.

The build quality of theses speakers is very good and I can say that having previously owned creative's I-trigue 2.1 3300 set which retailed for £50 when I acquired them. Everything is very well made and the control centre is really cool to look at as the power button lights up blue when it's activated and is red when not.
The back-lit screen clearly displays what settings you have on, from direct 6channel audio, two variations on stereo, dolby music and dolby movie.
After unpacking the five satellite speakers you will next notice the huge subwoofer just sitting there in it's protective bag. This thing is crazy huge and looks awesome with a flared port-tube large enough to stick your fist into, heatsinks on the back and a neat Logitech 'THX' badge logo on the front.
The subwoofer surprisingly has no visible grille and is self contained apart from the port tube. The heatsink rose above room temperature and can be surprisingly warm in normal use, it's a good thing it's there I guess.
The digital soundtouch control center plugs into the sub via a quality multi-pin connection that felt very secure upon attachment. The satellites are hooked up simply by holding open the spring clips, inserting the pre-tinned 20AWG cable ends which are colour coded with the clips and releasing the spring clips. The wires are (x2 25' and x3 15')
I hooked up the control centre to my PC using the supplied analogue cable (green, black, yellow) to my audigy 2ZS soundcard.
Needless to say these speakers are awesome and I will say without a doubt there is no way you can be disappointed by their sound clarity and reproduction. I am no audiophile I just listen to music a lot and use my PC for games and occasional films but these blow my previous speakers out of the water then vaporise them:p
Vocals on music sound like they you are hearing them in person, elements to tracks you never even heard before become perfectly audible. The balance on low, mid and highs is great IMO, drums and percussion sounding very clear and precise.
In fact you can overpower your ears while not necessarily noticing due to the fact that the sound will not distort unless you push the system very hard which I have not done yet. You don't realise how loud it is till you try to shout to someone a few feet away and they can't hear you!
Yes the system is kind of 'overkill' for a PC setup but it's nice to have the available headroom and does make really nice sounds. The sub is very powerful and can shake the floor akin to the way low frequencies sound in the cinema. The sub intensity can be adjusted and have found it is never 'boomy' which only cheap speaker sets can produce. When you turn it down it really does turn the bass down. The supplied remote and duracell batteries is a nice touch even though it does look cheap. Personally I don't care and like it, finding myself adjusting the volume from the other side of the room in bed to even using at the desktop:oP
Overall I am very pleased with this purchase and think that it represents good value for money for what you get. The speakers without their grilles look nice in my room and I would recommend these speakers without hesitation to anyone looking for affordable, great-sounding 5.1.

I hope this review was useful to you

Pete

Well first of all, WOW!
These are supposed to be the mid-range set of speakers by logitech, but to be honest, there is nothing mid-range about these. These sound absolutely amazing, really rich sound from the massive sub(it really is massive)and perfect midrange and highs from the sattelites.
The build quality is very good, the system is very heavy with all the magnets involved in producing such good quality sound.
The control centre has a very cool blue light on it and is uber functional with so many digital inputs, headphone jack, volume control etc...
If you are umming and arring about bying this system i say go for it, i spent a few weeks convincing myseklf to buy them and i havent felt a twinge of regret!!

I bought these speakers for my small living room as my sony ones died and there are very few options of small surround packages for those of us who are more than adequatly endowed with DVD players.

The system looks great with good build quality and attractive styling and they sound pretty darn good too (nice and loud). The inputs connect to the control centre which in-tern connects to the sub (to which the speakers connect) by a 1.5m serial cable.

One of the things that attracted me was the available inputs(3 stereo, 2 optical and 1 coaxial) But here is the warning the 3 stereo inputs are in the form of stereo mini-jacks, great for pc and connecting mp3 players but no so good for other av equipment as phono to mini-jack cables are required.

All in all so far i am pleased with the speakers and would recommend, but this in information i would have liked before i purchased.

This system is absolutely huge, for those of you looking at and thinking it doesn't look that big....it is! The sub is absolutely huge and when you do the sound test it feels and souds like a plane going down the run way! IF that doesn't boast good spec then i dont know what does.
The satellites are quite big, bit too big if you ask me but il get used to them.
What they didn't tell you is that if your going to be using this for your xbox 360 then your going to need a optical cable or coaxial cable....none of these are included and they aren't in the 360 package. I got mine yesterday and i was quite disappointed to find that i needed one after waiting so long and not being told by the manufacturers reviews or details!!!!
But on the whole....incredible...all your mates will be amazed at the size of it and what it can do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUY but don't forget your cables!

All i can say is wow... When i first felt the feel and weight of the sattelite speakers i was very pleasantly surprised, very heavy and good quality feeling. Even the dust covers on the satellites felt of very good standard. I wasn't meant to use these until Christmas but seeing the big box just sitting there and knowing that there was no one home i felt that i should try them out. I left the box downstairs and lugged the huge subwoofer and the 5 satellites upstairs and then i went and got the cable and the control centre. I decided to start by plugging these into my computers optical in port (only the motherboards intergrated one though). I had a bit of trouble at first because the control centre didn't recognise the digital data from the pc but then i realised it was just on the wrong input.

The first thing i did when i got them recognised was to go into my sound settings and change it to Dolby Live, i then searched my computer for some good songs to play, the first song i tried was TNT by AC/DC which sounded absolutely amazing with the satellites delivering all the higher frequencies and the sub thumping away at the rhythm, next i tried Bass Tester by the chemical brothers, on this track the subwoofer really shone through (obviously). I then tried many different songs all of which sounded amazing. At first i had the all of the speakers on the floor to my left but i decided to set them up in a 5.1 arrangement except the rear speakers were on my bed and i left the sub in the middle of the floor. I then changed to my 360 and played the halo 3 trailer which sounded too amazing for words, i can't even explain how amazing it sounded, MUCH better than the professional JBL sound system in my local cineworld. I then played some game demos, all of which of course sounded amazing. I didn't play gears of war because i want to save that for when i get it set up properly on christmas day.

I then plugged the optical cable back into the computer and turned the bass up to 3 quarters (for kicks) and turned the master volume onto half volume and put on Ariel's by system of a down on and then just sat back and listened. I was absolutely amazed, at that moment i decided i had never heard any speakers in my life that sound as good as these ones, they could kick out amazing volume (i went slightly higher than half, any higher and i would have literally deafened myself) without the tiniest hint of distortion, anything above half volume on these will make your ears bleed (in a good way).

The last thing i did with these speakers was play bass tester at max bass on about half volume, the air coming out the subs huge awesome looking flared port felt more like a hairdryer than anything else and the bass being produced sounded like it would be heard from miles around!

I am sorry if i have been talking about the sub a bit too much in this review but it really was a lot better than i thought it would be.

Overall everything on this system is totally amazingly awesomely brilliantly superb. My only gripe with it was that the remote feels a little plasticky and i would have proffered clicky hard buttons than rubber soft pressing buttons but that might just be me, also this is pixmanias fault more than anything but pixmania sent me a foreign z-5400, i think it must be either french or dutch because there was a foreign power cable inside it and not the uk 3 pin cable, luckily though the power cable from my original xbox worked fine so i was ok but i reckon some people might have a problem with this. I can't even believe i was actually considering getting this system, don't consider just get it! Buy Buy Buy!

(my z-5400 is in it's box at the moment over the other side of my room and i can't use it again until Christmas, i am sad).

And for people too lazy to read the review....... These are amazing speakers with a brilliant subwoofer. Buy them, you won't regret it.