Update: review completed. Price of Z-Cinema outside SG IT Show is still S$229, according to some shops.

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Well greetings to all, i noticed that there isn't much topics about Logitech Z Cinéma, and since I recently bought myself one, i guess i will make a simple reviews like found on the net. As usual, the speaker is tested in 2 rooms (to be fair) and will be compared (NOT side-by-side) to my other speakers. Some pictures are attached, but no-unboxing pictures since plenty of them can be found on the net.

Unboxing

Upon unboxing the heavy package, you will found a subwoofer packed with some plastic cushions, which is not protective enough. There will be another plastic box envelops the 2 satellites, CD, User Guide, USB cable, 2x AA batteries, and Infrared Remote

Both satellites and remote are glossy, and they are covered with clear film to prevent scratch prior to removal. My infrared remote arrived with some incident, that it has a thick scratch on the numerical pad below. But my subwoofer is in perfect condition. Techgage.com's Z cinema subwoofer arrived with some cracks at the bottom.

Features

- Infrared remote.
This is the second reason i'm buying this speaker after the price slash. The remote is well built, and it has a volume wheel, bunch of media-center compliant buttons and some playback buttons. The remote is thick at the bottom, which allows it to stand vertically on a table. Unfortunately the rear of the remote is rubberized, so it gets dusts and scratches easily.

- USB "soundcard".
I recalled in late 2008 i got my desktop onboard sound faulty and replaced with x-fi. If the incident happens in the future, I can assure that the Logitech Z-Cinema will be an advantage since it doesn't need any soundcard. However, without installing the software, the z-cinema volume adjustment did not work properly. example i cant set the bass and treble with the remote. i need to go to control panel and set it or remove the USB cable first.

- Aux input & headphone jack.
Works good, a must have

- Button-less speaker set.
No physical button on z-cinema, at all. Not even an on/off switch behind the subwoofer. You can switch on/off through the Logitech Z Cinema software and adjusts volume from the control panel, in case you lost your remote.

- SRS TruSurround HD.
This is a pseudo-surround system. The result is crappy, as expected, but surprisingly, in certain movies with heavy-dialogues, it works pretty well in creating the virtual center speaker. However, I did modify the registry so i can gain access to the level of "focus", "tru-bass", "definition" etc.

Experience: (Cons first)

Cons:
- Crappy software.
If you never install the Z-cinema software, the Z cinema only act as a "stereo". If you install the software (even remove it later) it can act as a "5.1" and therefore will do its own downmixing from the internal soundcard. It will give distortion if you set it in 5.1 mode and you listen to heavy songs. Therefore use 2.0 stereo mode just like before the software is installed. The advantage of installing the software, for me, is that I can adjust the bass / treble / volume control properly, and set the music button to open & maximize foobar2000. As usual, SRS is disabled permanently after this test.

- No physical button.
Although I prefer this configuration, others may not appreciate this.

- Unacceptable "bug" of the speaker.
The problem persists when you play speaker at normal or lower volume. The subwoofer starts to "crunch" as if the midrange has bleed into the subwoofer. making extremely unpleasant sound. I had to turn off the subwoofer completely via remote or crank the volume up. This annoys me because i often listen to music after midnight. In afternoon, however, I didn't seem to be bothered by this, at all. Looks like many users also complains at Logitech Forums. A quick solution to this was to move my subwoofer to better "sweet spot" so the 'crunch' did not sound so obvious.

- Limited output.
Z-cinema internals limit the output. Note the limit is not like EIDC (Edifier Intelligent Distortion Control). The limit is on the volume output only. Only problems for me is when playing DVD in WMP or WMC the volume is lower than other media player software, so I need to use other media player.

- Short Wires
Although technically all their wires can be extended using longer usb cable, longer RCA cables and longer VGA cables with proper connector I believe Logitech should have included a longer cable. This is a huge PC speakers, better stereo separation should be considered. what are they thinking??

- Subwoofer lack of very low kicks.
Perfect example to explain is when playing "Bass I Love You", on the part the subwoofer should slam rigorously (probably <20hz), the z-cinema subwoofer seems like bottlenecks and bring the volume of the entire set down. Looks like the symptoms of underpowered subwoofer. Compare this and this you can see the Z-Cinema exactly plays like the Z2300, while it should be like the klipsch.

- Expensive
If it wasn't for the discount there is no way i'm buying the Z-Cinema. And because of this discount too I say it's worth getting.

Pros

- Elegant design.
The Z-Cinema fits in your house beautifully. the aluminium brush on the satellites mated with glossy front finishes produces a elegant look, especially when it sits on my black table top.

- Volume indicator
The volume indicator is useful when watching DVD from afar. Instead of the "OSD" interrupts the movie screen you can just look at the right satellites and check the volume.

- Does not rely on soundcard
If your soundcard suddenly gone faulty, don't worry since the Z-Cinema uses USB and therefore has its own 'soundcard'.

- Switching power supply
Works from 100V-240V worldwide, works similarly like laptop power supplies. Eliminates the need of "transformer" if you brought it to 100V countries and vice-versa.

- Impressive sound quality

After unboxing, I placed the z-cinema in my living room and start listening to music. At first, the sound isn't fantastic. there were too much booms from the subwoofer. probably because i placed it in the corner of the living room. Few days after, I decided to put it in my room, replacing the old trusty R501. In this position, the bass is much less, but the midrange is more emphasized. Probably because the subwoofer booms is significantly reduced.

Comparing it with my Edifier R501 and Klipsch i-Fi, the Z-Cinema leaves R501 behind and positioned itself behind the ifi. it's the second best PC speaker I've ever owned, not only listened. However the brightness of the satellites seems to be disturbing me. So I leave the treble at 0 (default). Comparing the sound-stage to R501, this has definitely more soundstage. But not as much as the ifi's one. I guess that's why Alienware uses the same RSX3 satellites from Klipsch i-Fi for its Alienware ALX 5.1 Speakers apart from satellites found in Promedia 5.1 Ultra.

Now I will not compare the Z-cinema to R501 and i-Fi in music since music is very subjective, someone like too much bass while others like less bass. I will not elaborate. Instead, comparing Z-Cinema vs i-Fi vs R501 in movies is very interesting. i-Fi had wide soundstage, deepest bass among 3 and R501 has a proper 5.1 surround sound. Do note that I do not compare them side-by-side, nor i do not compare them by watching the same movie 3 times.

These 2 days I've watched "Two Fists One Heart" and "Sherlock Holmes" DVDs. On top of that, I watched couple of trailers from "demo-world.eu" which I have in my computer. For the trailers, I've played them back on each speakers many times, so I remember how the sound are. Anyway the SRS is OFF during testing.

In the first DVD, first impression is: loud and clear voice, better than the i-Fi cause Z-Cinema actually recognized as 5.1 Speakers instead of Stereo Speakers. During the dialogue I can hear the voices clearly, but not as if they're coming from the screen itself. R501 gets the vote here. When the boxing begins, Z-Cinema really shines. The thick midrange helps to create the wide soundstage, and the subwoofer slams effortlessly.

Second DVD, when Sherlock have some fight with the gigantic guy, nice fighting sound, as if you were in a theater. When the explosion near the slaughterhouse begins, the bass is just right, not too much probably because i set the bass to 3/4 only. Overall nice experience watching movies with this PC speakers.

Now during some trailers I've played back, as usual Z-Cinema takes over the i-Fi for the center channel, but i-Fi owns Z-Cinema when it comes to low frequencies. Obviously the Z-Cinema is packed with some booms, but it appears that it cannot produce bass as low as the ifi does. In Pirates of the Carribean - At World's End trailer, during the first storm where the ship gonna fall down the subwoofer of i-Fi seriously show how powerful can it gets. Z-Cinema is not bad, but with higher power rating than i-fi and "Z-cinema" name at least it should be better.

The Dark Knight trailer, it's where the Z-Cinema shows it's really capable of doing some serious boom in explosion scene. There are plenty of explosion scene in this trailer. Now last but not least, I managed to play Prison Break season 1 a couple episode to test the Z-Cinema. The sound is very good, ambient prison sound is present. Death race trailer, again, Z-Cinema leaves R501 and i-Fi behind.

Now I conclude that among these 3 speakers i currently own, no doubt the i-fi as the name suggests is suitable for music, while Z-Cinema perform superbly in movies. What about R501? well it's in different pricerange but trust me R501 does better than other 2 when it comes to gaming.

Personally I havn't test the Z-Cinema fully when it comes to games. However so far not even once the Z-Cinema has given me a virtual rear speaker sound. In fact with both SRS on or off, max surround volume it just sounds boring. Couple of games I've played using R501 in the past such as GTA IV, Rise of Argonauts, L4D2, Halo1, and some other titles I believe the rear speaker of R501 cannot be replaced with "virtual surround" like from Logitech or SRS.

It's correct Logitech named the speaker Z-Cinema and Klipsch named his iFi. as the name suggest, they are actually designed to excel in specific areas. R501 is a good choice for budget users, still gives me the best gaming experience among these 3.

Conclusion

First of all the discount I mentioned is from (SGD400 to SGD230) which is approx RM550 after discount. At this price, I find it sounds better than the rest of the more expensive competitors such as Altec MX5021, MX6021, Creative T3, Edifier S530, even Klipsch GMX. About AEGO M I have listened before but not thoroughly so I simply can't comment.

If you're looking for a speaker mostly to watch movies, Z-Cinema is a good choice, apart from all the cons that I have listed above.

Update: April 2010

I'm away for some holiday break. Thus i met my iFi again. This time, something serious happened to the iFi. the subwoofer "sweet-spot" has actually got bigger. This time, I playback'd again some trailers that i recently got. The subwoofer slaps Z Cinema subwoofer in no time.

Z Cinema is really weak when it comes to very low frequencies, i repeat, very low frequencies if we're to talk about PC speakers (30-50hz). Obviously in some movie scene the iFi takes over because of its subwoofer capability. Plus the RSX3 has much heavier midrange than Z Cinema's satellites.

Overall Z Cinema is a very good product, but without discount, again, I don't think it's worth getting. The 40% discount is significant enough to make it become a best buy speaker. Sadly the discount doesn't go worldwide.

Read more below.

This post has been edited by nismo91: Apr 19 2010, 04:30 PM


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add 1 more pro..
no sound card needed

btw im Z-cinema user now

that explains why it is sold in discount pricing

anyway,nice review.
it's sad that the sub interfere with the midrange.
if not I may buy it also

^ actually, I believe the discount is from the discontinuation from logitech itself. the z cinema is no longer in its product page, end of life already.

then i checked in net in states they are only selling this for even USD80 in tigerdirect.com that explains the reason. nevertheless, for RM550 it's still a good buy...

tip to enhance bass from your z cinema

just a slight update to this old thread before it's abandoned forever.

I'm now away for a short break, thus I meet my old iFi again. Now I can compare both of them easily. Using foobar2000 as my media player and couple of FLAC and MP3 varying in BPS. same equalizer trick but at different level. iFi is on onboard sound anyway. Conclusion:

Z Cinema is quite bright. in fact setting its treble only in 0 (default) is enough for me. the midrange is acceptable, but not as much as the RSX3. therefore lesser soundstage than the iFi. But I think this should be better than the other Z series that logitech decided to use Z Cinema frequency graph on its website (period), not the Z2300 or Z5500.

as for the subwoofer, there is less low frequency from the Z Cinema despite the similar power rating (180W RMS) compared to iFi. Songs like "lady gaga - so happy i could die" which contains lots of low frequency shows. But again, although the equalizer has been reduced for 77hz, there is some boominess for the Z Cinema at that zone, which makes some song bassier than it should. Very suitable for dance / trance.

Overall still very happy with the sound, only wanting the subwoofer to perform a bit better. i will continue 'break-in' until a year so it will have larger sweet spot.

This post has been edited by nismo91: Apr 19 2010, 04:31 PM

so after u " break-in" i think 1 year ad ... how was the result ?

it was definitely far better than when it's brand new. but i was thinking that my music type affect how the Z Cinema sounds. i have reduced 77hz and 110hz bar in foobar2000 EQ permanently. when i raise it backup so it become flat, the sound is different when compared to first time i buy it. however if you asked me how much better it is now, i can't answer because im currently using Altec Lansing ADA885, and the Z Cinema is in my hometown.

i also installed LGA775 fan to blow the heatsink since im leaving it 24/7 and use USB to power up the fan (5V) so it's silent.

recommended? yes, if you can get it at attractive price.

hye, i want to sell my z cinema.. what price i can put on it?

well my guess rm500 tops. it depends on how's the condition plus is the remote controller missing or not.