We’ll take the liberty of saying that the trend of “packing” speakers into as small a packaging as available is more than popular. We’ve tested a truly tremendous amount of 2.0 speakers during the past year going for a surround sound or trying to accommodate for the lack of a subwoofer… Some have been more or less successful, and the Z520 model we received for testing this time around shall show us what’s been cooking in the Logitech kitchen lately as far as those are concerned.
Uniqueness as a Number One Priority
The box which contains the aforementioned system isn’t exactly representative. Its dimensions are rather modest, without any compartments, chambers and similar stuff we’re used to seeing on Logitech products, and it’s just spacious enough to house the two speakers it contains plus the bunch of necessary cables on top.
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The speakers themselves are completely black. The plastic used in the manufacturing process is top quality and with a glossy finish, which is visually stunning, albeit perfect for retaining fingerprints. The entire front side is covered by a metal net, keeping the drivers safe from anything that might inflict damage. The only uncovered part is the wheel on the right speaker, functioning both as volume control and on/off switch. A pair of silver-edged speakers can be seen through each net. One of them is the tweeter, in charge of high frequency reproduction, while the other is in charge of all other frequencies. One side of the right speaker also contains line-in and line-out plugs, which can come across as very useful in certain situations. However, the thing that truly separates this model of speakers from the rest is the fact that it has an additional tweeter on the back of each speaker, thus emitting the sound 360 degrees around themselves. This gives the feeling of spaciousness and, indeed, wherever you may be in the room, you have the feeling that the same “amount” of sound is reaching your ears.
Surround Technology in Action
If you intend to throw parties, feel free to disregard this model completely, since its lack of a subwoofer and rather modest 26 W of RMS certainly don’t fit that purpose. In fact, we can’t say that we’re 100% sure which group this model is targeting. Here’s why. Higher tones are perfectly crisp and clear, the mid ones are present enough, but the lower ones are simply nowhere to be found. It’s logical that this kind of system can’t “rattle” the room, but it’s still producing sound identical to those lower tones, with the exception of that “rattling”. Those frequencies start coming out distorted after the 70% volume mark has been crossed, and are hardly pleasant to the ear. Up to that line, everything sounds more than well.
| Logitech Z-520 | |
| Type | Stereo |
| Power (RMS) | 26 W |
| Frequency Range | 70 Hz - 20 KHz |
| Price | about $135 |
| Contact | www.logitech.com |
But back to our dilemma. Having everything we said in mind, this is a great system for everyday music listening sessions, whether at home or work. The problem is, very few people will give 100€ for such a purpose, which is the current retail price of these speakers. This is an aesthetically stunning system with top quality sound (as long as it’s kept under 70% volume), which, in our humble opinion, doesn’t exactly justify its current price. Time will do its bid for sure, and should the price decrease a little, we’re sure that this’ll be a great choice!
