Ashton Mills turns up the bass, and loses a kidney.
While the Z-5500's title promotes its digital nature, this is not the first Logitech speaker kit to do so, with the popular Z-680 before it also capable of receiving and decoding digital signals.
In fact in many ways the Z-5500 is an updated version of the Z-680: still 500 watts of power, 5.1 shielded speaker system, THX certification, optical and coaxial digital inputs, separate controller with LCD display, and a remote control to configure it from the comfort of your chair. Logitech are, however, promoting the Z-5500's ability to reproduce DTS 96/24, used on some DVD video and audio discs.
But what does it sound like? Liquid gold, to be honest. The highs are crisp and clear, the midrange rather impressive given the satellite drivers, and the sub is loud and powerful enough to punch a hole in your floor. Unfortunately this is something that lets the kit down as the bass from the sub is excessive and a little muddy. We understand gamers like to hear big booms in their games, but too much can ruin the experience. You can reduce subwoofer volume or the bass control in Windows, but a better solution if your soundcard drivers support it, is to enable bass redirection and drop the frequency range going to the sub.
Our only other complaint is that if you're one to slap on the headphones at night so as not to wake the neighbours, you'll find the headphone port rather quiet. Not a problem, you can just turn the volume right up - only, remember to turn it down again before you remove the headphones or the sub will tear down your walls. All up, the Z-5500 Digital represents the pinnacle of PC audio at the moment, with a price tag to match. If you can afford to splash out on a quality 5.1 system for your box, this kit is clearly one of the best.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012