Home > Consumer Reviews > Logitech Z Cinéma Advanced Surround Sound System

When you first get these out of the box you will be ASTONISHED at the size of the sub and satellites. These things are beastly.

When i first connected them up and heard them I honestly thought what the hell is wrong with them! They are connected to a PC by USB: When your computer CPU is under strain, the USB functions are affected as well. Thus, when listening to music and when your computer CPU is doing something strenuous, your speakers will suffer (crackly noise or intermittent playback).

Another thing, if they are connected to your PC by USB, they WILL NOT BE USING your soundcard. Thus, those that have good quality soundcards like a soundblaster X-Fi, will not actually be using it if you connect by USB.

The solution: Connect using the Auxillary port on the side of the speakers. Took me a while to work this one out but got there in the end. (Disable the Z Cinema in your 'playback devices' and enable your soundcard, in my case SB X-fi.

The result: The sound is soooooooooooooooooooooooooo much better!!!!!!

The remote is really good and functions as a media center remote as well. The software is tacky looking in my opinion but it doesn't mess up the sound thankfully. 1 star off for the USB issue. Otherwise great sound!

First off, I was concerned by the negative comments in regards to the Z Cinema on Amazon, thankfully I did a lot more research elsewhere with positive reviews.

Since purchasing the speakers my main concern was this crackling noise experienced by the users here but not elsewhere, I can confirm I have had no such issues (the issue may lie with their systems, I have a XPS 420)

The sound is amazing even though you don't require a sound card for operation, the bass is solid and the treble is crisp.
I've listened to music, played games and watched movies thus far and I can say it's improved each and every experience.

If you want to be immersed in quality sound while using your computer..dont look no further and they look great, reduce clutter from 5.1...

Bought these through Amazon , got them home and struggled to get them to give a good sound.
Had Z-2300 system before ( reason fornot having it gave it to my son who is more than happy with his new computer speakers)and was looking for sound equal if not better than the Z-2300, but was very very dissapointed with the sound ,the bass and the overall volume of the system.
The suround was not effective wished I had gone for the bose system which is about the same cost.
Not only that the unit constantly crackled, this became very anoying.

Have sent the unit back to Amazon for a refund. As soona s I get my refund I will get Z-2300 unit again. Cant wait!

I have spent a few years looking for a good set of 2.1 speakers for my PC but the ones I have tried up till now, the bass has been sadly lacking.

Following both online and magazine reviews, the Logitech Z Cinema advanced Surround Sound system came into mind and I decided to take the plunge and found an absolutely fabulous deal on Amazon and purchased a "nearly new" speaker system.

First thing I noticed was the packaging was very heavy indeed and on closer inspection everything was perfectly packaged together. The bulk of the weight was obviously the sub-woofer. It is an absolute beast of a speaker. The two satellite speakers connect to the beast - er sub woofer using two very different cables - you really cannot go wrong between left and right speakers. And the whole chebang is controlled by a very intelligent remote control which has an impressive amount of buttons and dials. The software once loaded can default to your preferred music player whether it be one of the normal Windows Media player, I-tunes or even a custom player. This selection can be changed on the fly at any time.

But enough of this, what does it sound like ?

Absolutely awesome is the answer.

It is rated at 200watts and that is 200 watts without distortion even at top volume. The sub woofer easily handles the power and on good bassy tracks I am not joking when I say the hairs on my legs stand on end. So bassy in fact I was playing a Genesis track from the album "Trick of the Tail" when I heard my son laughing from the bathroom. The bass had vibrated the bathroom cabinet so much, items were falling off it. So the speakers have a double use - if the family are occupying the bathroom and you need it, just crank up the volume !!

Music tracks from Classical to Rock are fabulous but you really need to have the best quality mp3 or ogg or better to really appreciate the quality these speakers produce.

Next ....

Video - Now these speakers are 2.1 but they emulate surround sound from 5.1 encoded tracks and if you sit in the sweet spot they really do a great job. You will not get this effect from mp3 music tracks as it needs to decode the 5.1 to create the effect. For me, this has opened up a new avenue. I do not have the room to put up rear speakers for the computer and never before have I had the opportunity to listen to surround sound. But it gets better, this effect can also be channeled into the headphone socket to, so you can listen to your music and not disturb the family who are now probably using the bathroom in perfect peace ;-)

These are by far the best speakers for a PC that I have ever heard and I have owned around six sets of pretty expensive speakers in the past and also tried many in-store models too.

I personally believe these are the best 2.1 speakers on the market and the Logitech Z-2300 speakers come a close second. I will definitely be keeping these for years to come and for the money I paid for a used set on Amazon, an absolute bargain.

My first review on Amazon and I thankyou for reading.

Steve B

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I ordered these after doing some research and it became a toss up between this or the z-2300 system. I already own a set of x-230 speakers also by Logitech and have had these for 5 years now (Only £40 back then!). I fancied an upgrade and figured that £115 would buy me some incredible sound. However, after getting them out of the box and testing them I was very disappointed. The aux port only seems to work when connected to a USB cable and wouldn't work at all before being connected to a PC, which by the way doesn't come with a line out cable, which you'll need.

But onto the main point. I am not a mad sound testing freak; however, I do know what sounds good and what doesn't after hearing a lot of different speaker systems. The sound quality was only about 20% better than the x-230's (5 year old ones!) and the volume did not exceed that of the x-230's either. Plugged into anything other than an amplifier (at obvious extra cost) it did not go louder than this 32 Watt system. Now, considering that the z-cinema system is rated at 180 Watts (!) this begs the question of which system is lying about its power output! If you have never heard the sound from a cheaper system such as the x-230's then I would suspect you would be pleased with this system. But if you are looking for an upgrade from a cheaper Logitech system you will notice the same that I have. Either way I would recommend going for a cheaper system such as the z-4 or x-230's (which are now only £30 now). The z-2300 is also supposed to be good but I cannot vouch for this.

Having said all of that, I would like to take this opportunity to commend Amazon.co.uk's returns policy, which is both efficient and easy. I was able to print off a return label and a DHL van came 3 days later to pick it up, at no extra cost to myself, and a full refund was given.