I need new PC speakers extravaganza!

Pajama_Man

Alright I want to retire my old, old 4.1 and want to get a new set because the old ones are well, "old" and it's power saving auto turn on/off is irritating me more then ever before.

My current sound card is the Creative Audigy 2 ZS so any 2.1 or 5.1 will do fine.

I've been eying a few of the older Logitech offerings specifically the Z-2300 (2.1) and Z-5500 (5.1) but I want to know if any other brands or model exist within the same price range of $90-200 that be good alternatives as well.

I'm only using the speakers exclusively on my PC for gaming and music so no need for overkill in terms of quality.

Thanks for the input!

SniperGuy

Oh shit, I was just looking into this same topic, but I'm gonna use mine for my TV. I've heard the Z-5500's before, and they're pretty damn sweet. Those are what I'm looking at getting specifically. I'd use em for my xbox360 and my HDTV. So, yes, I agree with the OP, show us other alternatives.

Cause CNET's compare compared the 5.1 speakers with a ton of 2.1 speakers.

Capncrunch7

I own both the z2300 and the z5500 and absolutely love them both. The 2300 are perfect for a laptop or if you are using them for a small room. Of course they sound wonderful but I was pleasantly surprised with how much of a punch they pack. I was playing Cloverfield off my laptop on a projector in a lounge at my school and the 2300's looked a little silly next to the huge projected image but they filled the room with sound without any distortion.

The 5500's are a BEAST though. I would recommend these if you have a large room to use them in (or even a small room if you have understanding housemates!) or if you ever plan to use them with a tv/console set up. They sound great, the subwoofer will rattle the windows even at 20% volume, and they have enough inputs to have a handful of devices all plugged in at once.

Either way you can't go wrong. tl;dr would be the 2300 for a small room / computer only, but the 5500 for bigger room / multiple uses / if you have the means.

Pajama_Man

Alright I'm going to throw in another Logitech product into the mix...

The Logitech G51 5.1 system

Price wise the G51 is very competitive with the Z-2300 (2.1) system but sub and satellite quality are quite different. Higher quality 2.1 vs 5.1 system.

Again other brands with similar products I would love to hear about as well.

Epyon9283

I had the z-2300 speakers for less than a day. They sound terrible. Full of highs and lows but no mid-range. Everything either sounded tinny or had way too much bass. Went back to my current speakers: http://www.amazon.com/Soundsticks-II-3-Piece-Multimedia-Speaker/dp/B0001DBEM4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1214755024&sr=1-1

Pastoriusk2

I'm gonna recommend these: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MA15D/

Rigor Mortis

Pastoriusk2 wrote: »

I'm gonna recommend these: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MA15D/

YES



These are fabulous for the price. With a digital in and a good DAC as well. A little large for computer speakers but that's one of the reasons they sound so good.
http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-24-Bit-Digital-40-Watt-Monitors/dp/B000MUPHLK/
http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-MS40-Digital-Monitor-Speakers/dp/B000PXSBTY/
Note: Both links are the same speakers - it's listed twice for some reason.

GrimReaper

Epyon9283 wrote: »

I had the z-2300 speakers for less than a day. They sound terrible. Full of highs and lows but no mid-range. Everything either sounded tinny or had way too much bass. Went back to my current speakers: http://www.amazon.com/Soundsticks-II-3-Piece-Multimedia-Speaker/dp/B0001DBEM4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1214755024&sr=1-1

What?

There is a separate bass volume knob...

I'd like to also recommend the Z-2300, got that baby connected up to my pc. Sound quality is tremendous and it can go really, really high volume level wise.

Rigor Mortis

GrimReaper wrote: »

Epyon9283 wrote: »

I had the z-2300 speakers for less than a day. They sound terrible. Full of highs and lows but no mid-range. Everything either sounded tinny or had way too much bass. Went back to my current speakers: http://www.amazon.com/Soundsticks-II-3-Piece-Multimedia-Speaker/dp/B0001DBEM4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1214755024&sr=1-1

What?

There is a separate bass volume knob...

He might be referring to sound coloration, not volume. Built in U-shaped equalization is a standard trick to make speakers sound better to casual listening without, y'know, making a better product.

The Logitechs have no tweeters and small woofers, so they are probably U-colored... see, I have another Logitech 2.1 system without tweeters, so don't take this as a definite statement on the z-2300s, but on these speakers I have to do a huge (about -10 db) cut in the 2.5 -5 khz range, which is where the tweeters normally start to kick in. THe logitechs do this since, like I said, they have no tweeters and need to compensate. Then I have to boost 10 khz-15khz since tweeterless systems have trouble even producing these frequencies.

Edit: Let's compare...
This is the EQ required by Behringer MS40s to balance the frequency response out

And this is the EQ required by Logitech X-230s. I also own X-540s and they need similar compensation.

As you can see, these particular Logitechs have definite U-boosting going on (within the frequencies that the speaker design allows it to produce without difficulty) and I had to compensate with cuts in the upper subwoofer/lower tweeter ranges. The low subwoofer range actually needed boosting for balance - due to the small size of the subwoofer driver, I expect. The center cut is approximately the female voice range, which was boosted, probably to make pop music and movies artifically sound better. The z-2300s and z-5500s have similar design, so it is very likely they share the same characteristics.


I don't have graphs for my Logitech 5.1 system, but yeah - you can see the difference in quality between pro-audio and consumer computer speakers.