Chris Huber

Logitech Z-5300

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/pr...CONTENTID=6851


Hey guys. I enjoy PC gaming; mostly first person shooters. I still have a pair of 2.1 speakers from ~7 years ago. They are still great quality, but I'd like to get into the 5.1 sound on my PC games.

I can get these in the link for 125 bucks. Thats a great price.

Had a question for all you 5.1 PC guys. Say you want to listen to mp3 music. Do the speaers go back into 2.1 automatically? How does that work?

Also, I listened to these in the store. This is teh deal with ALL logitech systems. The sub is adjustable. But even all the way down, the sub is still a little strong. Can you put a sock or something in the bass port to take it down even lower? Will this mess with the bass sound any?

If any of you guys have this system or know freinds, please let me know how they are.

Thank you.

Chris

Ryan T

I recently bought the z-5300's and an audigy 2 ZS sound card. I like the speakers a lot. When you heard them at the store i'm guessing the sub was right next to the speakers and on a shelf about chest hight? Thats how i usually see them setup anyway. with that setup the bass is going to be a little much because the sub is usually right by your ear. When they are in my room i turned the bass all the way down on the remote and it sounds pretty balanced. Putting a sock in the port would kill the bass. The subwoofer is a bandpass design meaning teh only way bass gets into the room is through the port . If the bass is still too much after dialing the bass back through the remote you can always pull the sub out form the wall a few feet.

For games these are outstanding performers. Especially with the audigy sound card. I went from headphones to 5.1 and for first person shooters i'm never going back. having 5.1 in games is a great improvment. You can hear whenever someone is coming up behind you and you can hear were other people are. The bass is boomy but for games i think thats a good thing. I like to have a nice boom when the nades go off . Now to be fair the bass isn't much boomier than any other computer speakers i heard including the Klipsch speakers in the same range.

As for the MP3 thing heres how it works. The speakers come with 1/8" interconnects. One for center/sub one for left/right speakers and one for left/right rear speakers. They go into the three 1/8" jacks on your sound card. and into the three 1/8" jacks on the back of the sub. When you play an MP3 (as long as your not emulating 5.1) the sound card should only output sound in the 2 front channels and the sub channel. Or at least thats how it works with my audigy. I shopped around a bit and I was deciding between the cambridge megaworks 6.1 and the logitechs. Unfortunately i couldnt hear the cambridge so i had to go with the logitechs. Part of the problem with 5.1 computer speakers is they wont have the same quality sound as good HT speakers. So you can spend a lot on computer speakers and the performance isn't all that much better than the z-5300's. That was my conclusion after hearing the Klipsch ultras and the logitech z-680's anyway.



Ryan

Chris Huber

Thanks for the great review. No one has had anything bad to say about these speakers on newegg review and amazon reviews. They got 4 and 5 stars on ~ 95% of the reviews.

About the sub thing. Yes, they were sitting righyt next to my ear on teh shelf @ Best Buy. I wish logitech fixed that. You SHOULD be bale to turn the sub vol all the way off if you want to. Not just down to a certain level... If it's still to much, I might be able to put something in there to take only half the space coming out of the hole.

Let me know if anybody else has any experience.

Chris Huber

Ryan T, one more thing.

I've got a fully loaded Asus motherboard with 6 channel on-board audio. I think this will do me for games. I don't watch movies on my PC.

There are 3 jacks on teh sound board on the Asus. Pink, Blue and Green. That will be teh correct hook ups for 5.1, correct?

I wouldn't need the Autigy2, would I? Whats that do for you? I am assuming you didn't have on-board 5.1 or 6 channel support.

Ryan T

Actually i have a fully loaded ASUS P4PE mobo. It does have the soundmax cadenza 5.1 onboard. It wasn't bad considering its onboard but there was some interference. When i moved the mouse i could detect a slight buzzing/ringing noise. It is somewhat common for onboard sound cards to do that though. The audigy is a very nice after market card if your a gamer. If you have a soundmax like me (i think thats what they put on all maxed out ASUS boards). You will go into the soundmax setup and change it to 5.1 speakers. Then the light blue will be Sub/center speaker (connect the orange cable logtiech supplys to this), Lime green will be front left/right (connect the green cable to this), and pink is the rear speakers (connect the black cable to this port). The test it to make sure all your speakers are correctly pluged in and your set. Another note apart form the remotes bass level you should be able to adjust the bass level within your computers sound card program. I would recommend looking into an audigy 2 ZS for your computer. If yuor playing FPS it will probably be worth it. Also you get DVD-A support and you can use your current 2.1 speakers to make 7.2 which the audigy supports! Of course there is only one true 7.1 game (call of duty) but there will be more. A baseline audigy ZS goes for fairly cheap. I think its about $60 or so. For $129 i got the gamer edition which came with full versions of Halo, jedi academy III, raven shield, splinter cell, and the worst game ever made tomb raider angel of darkness . Not a bad deal if you dont already have those games. So in short you dont need an audigy by any means but it will give you better sound quality and support for 7.1 and DVD etc.


Ryan

Greg_R

It depends on the sound device and the drivers. Typically the audio will switch to the mode required for the source.

Greg
My DVD Collection

Chris Huber

This is the sound card I have now:
SiS® 963 integrated AC ' 97 audio with C-Media 9739 6-channel Codec
S/PDIF-in/out interface


Would I benefit by going Audigy 2 ZS?

The above does not have Hardware EAX, does it? That is an option in UT2004. I just have it on "3D Sound" and my speakers in "matrix mode". I have to put it in matrix mode to get the rear speakers to play anything. I don't think that is how it is optimally setup.

I need some links or advice please. I understand Home Audio to the max, just not Sound Card/Computer speaker combos.

Ryan T

Well a lot of the time the onboard audio is mostly an after thought on motherboards. You would have to try to find specific specifications of your onboard sound for me to tell you fact wise how the audigy would compare. Heres a link to an audigy 2 ZS

http://us.creative.com/products/prod...4&product=4915

Heres the deal. The onboard sound card uses up your systems CPU power to process the sound. So it usually hurts your FPS in games a little bit. Also there is a lot of interference from other things on your PC. With an audigy card it will be mostly processed on the actual sound card so it frees up some resources. Also the Audigy has pretty decent specs. It has a good signal to noise ratio and it can play DVD-Audio discs (if you hevea DVD-rom drive). It is overall a much cleaner sound. For EAX the creative cards are the best. EAX is an environment DSP that most games use. So the sound will change depending on where your at in the game. If you are on the street then walk into a big room with flat walls and hard floors it will sound more echoey (if thats a word). Another big plus with the audigy is how much control you have over the card. You can select the distance each speaker is from you and the loudness. Also you have full control over the crossover frequency of the sub woofer and the speakers. The audigy is also THX certified if that means anything to you . So overall the Audigy should be cleaner and more dynamic sounding and with all the software you get plus the control you have over the speakers and subwoofer i though it was worth it to upgrade from my soundmax cadenza (which is the AC97 codec also). You should first try your onboard sound and if you arent satisfied i'd go with the audigy.


Ryan