Z506
Latest
Logitech Z506 review
Audiophiles are quick to name the umpteen flavors of Dolby, but at the risk of oversimplifying things a tad, there are just three types of surround sound today -- each easily identified by their plug. Virtual surround uses just simple stereo jacks, emulating multiple channels from two, while digital surround travels across optical or coaxial S/PDIF cables (or HDMI) and has to be decoded. Finally, there's analog surround sound -- the cheapest solution of all -- where you basically just plug a pair of dumb speakers into each of front, rear and center 3.5mm sockets on your existing PC sound card. Unsurprisingly, the $100 Logitech Z506 speakers use this last technique to deliver their true 5.1 sound, but that's no reason to count them out. The question is, do they deliver enough bang, boom and tweet for the buck? Read on to find out.
Logitech does 5.1 surround sound on a budget with $100 Z506 speakers
Logitech's boxed speaker sets have always gone over quite well with reviewers, and now it's offering a 5.1 system that may just be priced at a point that's too good to refuse. You know, if you holdouts were considering sticking with that 2.0 setup for another score or so. Launched today, the Surround Sound Speakers Z506 are designed to play nice with PCs, game consoles, PMPs and DVD / Blu-ray players. Pretty much anything that sends out an audio signal can be hooked up to these, and Logi even threw in color coded connectors to prevent you from getting overly confused and eventually doing something awfully regrettable with the satellites. There's 75 watts of RMS power, which should be plenty to fill your moderately sized gaming cave -- head on past the break for a promo vid, if you're into that type of thing.
