There's no question that these are decent speakers. The reviews are already out there, and they're pretty universally favourable. Tons of gamers have raved about the bass, the bass, the bass. The bass seems to be a particular thing with gamers. They like the bass.
But what about somebody that's not all that interested in the bass?
I'm not a big gamer, first of all. I play games like Civilization and Evil Genius, where things like bass aren't really a going concern.
What I do love, however, is music.
And my old, faithful Sansui stereo died last month.
It was a 900 series shelftop unit series – a component package with turntable, amplifier, CD player, speakers, yadda yadda yadda. It was great, it was over 20 years old, and it was completely goddamn irreperable. Sansui hasn't made parts for it in over a decade.
So I decided to try something a little different. Rather than replace the broken amp, and get back on the merry-go-round of not having enough inputs for all my audio gear (radio, shortwave, CD player, DVD, VCR, two turntables, reel-to-reel deck, and so on), I decided to gear up to a good set of 5.1 computer speakers, where the power is built-in, and get a decent DJ mixer to run into it.
The Logitech won me over on two fronts: good reviews, and multiple inputs. Existing reviews were pretty positive (the bass! the bass!), the price was ... well, expensive, but reasonable within its range, and it came with a whopping array of inputs. Coax, optical, and three stereo inputs or a three-point surround setup, as well as an aux jack. It almost eliminates the need for a mixer... the last selling point I needed.
But I'm setting up a stereo system here. And I like all sorts of music – techno, drum n' bass, jazz, classical, world, rock, metal. Bass is – well – not always such a priority. So I was pretty nervous about the whole thing.
And now – with everything set up and with several hours of serious listening behind me – I'm pleased to be giving the whole thing an overall, somewhat cautious, thumbs up.
I did, however, upgrade the speaker cable up to some quality 12-guage twisted copper, not being too enthusiastic about the chromish stuff they sent along with the system. I never tried the original cabling (hey, I'm only gonna set all this up once), so I have no point of comparison.
Rap: Herbailiser, Very Mercenary Once again, the system shines. Lots of bass, but with ju-uu-ust enough crispness that it doesn't get muddy on the low end. Again, a great high-range does an admirable job handling the group's trademark quirks and complications.
Classical: Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Handel's Water Music This is where the biggest dynamic shift in the entire 5500 is revealed. Classical music has in general much more dynamic shifts than pop or electronic music: rock tends to pick a volume and stick to it, more or less, while classical ranges from ten minutes very very soft to roaring crests of triumph that can completely overwhelm your senses – and your stereo. The Z5500 is a champ with the roaring bits. It is spectacularly awesome with the roaring bits. The quiet bits – eh. Good fidelity, but again the midrange is less than incredible. When there's no bass driving the sound, some weaknesses come to the fore.
It might even be the strength of the bass and good fidelity on the high end makes the midrange thinner by comparison. Maybe on a weaker system, the overall sound would be richer, but it's hard to say.
As a whole, the Z-5500 is a good buy for even music enthusiasts who don't have much interest in action gaming. I'm not entirely fond of how it handles dynamic shifts, particularly in the middle ranges, but it's definitely acceptable. When you stack it against comparably priced amp-and-speaker combinations, it more than holds its own, and the woofer is worth the price of admission. Paired with a relatively inexpensive DJ mixer, you can suddenly get a pretty darn good 5.1 surround system with tons of flexibility.
Again, I would have loved to see more robust inputs – I find 1/8" inputs to be generally fiddly and to have shorter lifespans than their ¼" counterparts, and I'm especially not enthusastic about 1/8" headphone and aux jacks, which are going to see a lot of plugging and unplugging going on. Being a reliability freak, I'd also like to jack right into the amp, rather than into a control unit connected to the amp – more parts to break, you know? Minor concerns. Longevity, with computer stuff, is always a concern ... but I've had some old Koss speakers that I've gotten a good eight years out of, so I'll worry about that when the time comes.
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