Z-5300e 5.1 Speaker System
1 Best deal Speakers for the price
Speakers are excellent quality. The only problem is the cable length are not long enough to keep it far apart. Best ever deal I had got from Amazon $13.30 with free shipping(in march. It was a price mistake of the day(later changed to $133.99).
2 Best bang for the buck
The only drawback is the cords on the rear speakers aren't long enough. Even running across the bare floor, they barely reached the back wall in a 10'x10' room. Since they have RCA plugs, it was a simple matter of buying some longer cables and a pair of adapters to daisy-chain them with. Once the cables were run through the ceiling, I pivoted the stands around to use the built-in wall mount holes. All the plugs are color coded, so you can't hook it up wrong and the entire job took less than 15 minutes. Plugged into a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 sound card, they produce high quality surround sound.
There are many 5.1 speakers systems designed for use with a computer sound card. None of the lower priced speaker systems have a large enough sub to produce enough bass. Although there are many higher priced speaker systems as well, I feel these represent the best value. They are only marginally more expensive than the cheapest 5.1 speaker systems, but far less than the systems advertised for high-end sound quality. I wasn't looking to replicate my home theater system, and these speakers are more than enough for my office.
3 Best $100 I ever spent.
I bought these from Amazon.com last summer (the gray Z-5300 model) and I love these speakers more than anything. These are my favorite speakers!
I bought them last summer for $130 and I'm glad I made the purchase. The speakers sound great and the subwoofer is outstanding. I believe it's 100 watts alone, while the rest of the speakers are 180 watts in total. I wish the remote was wireless like the Z-680/Z-5500 but for $120 you can't expect that. It comes with an adapter that lets you use these speakers on your PlayStation/GameCube/Xbox, etc. It works well with 2.1 speakers as well if you don't want to use these. They sound great with THX movies such as Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc. The rear speaker wire length is fairly short but it hasn't caused any problems for me yet. These speakers are very durable and I'm very grateful to Logitech for releasing an extremely affordable 5.1 system to the consumer.
4 Excellent performance vs value
A great set of speakers under $150 (Got this for $110 AR). My only regret is that I'm living in an apartment so I can't turn up the volume too much (the room starts shaking when the volume is around 50-60%)
Pros:
1. powerful sub that can shake the room
2. clear & crisp sound
3. convenient wired remote
Cons:
1. slightly short rear speakers' cables (not really a big deal)
2. midrange not very full, but still good for the price
Strongly recommend this set for anyone looking for a 5.1 under $150
5 great buy for the proce
These speakers provide great sound for mp3s, movies, or games. They blow my old 2.1 speakers out of the water. The remote control, which has a built-in earphone jack, is very convenient. These speakers more than meet my PC needs. The subwoofer is powerful, so you may need to turn it down a little.
6 Better than the Bose, but half the price...(at amazon)
i wanted some great speakers for my new PC setup. wow. these are absolutely amazing. i went into a best buy and circuit city to listen to the speakers in the <$300 price range, to compare them side by side.
it came down to the $250 bose companion 3 speaker system, and these.
the bass on these was better, and the overall demo they had set up (for surround sound, music, games) really highlighted the THX sound and the surround features.
these retail for $200 at the big box retailers, and i bought them for <$150 at amazon.
incredibly easy (idiot proof, really) to set up, with great color coded cables. i set the whole thing up in less than 10 min.
also, because my system doesn't have a 5.1 sound card, i just plugged them into the audio out jack, set the z5300 to "2 speaker mode" (simple switch on the back of the sub), and the system creates a virtual surround sound effect.
finally, the control is high quality, easy to use, and looks cool (it lights up).
i can NOT believe the price on these. better than bose, and half the price. amazon's price is just amazing. and the shipping was great (i signed up for that $79 amazon prime deal, and got them in 2 days).
7 excellent buy for the money & super fast shipping
these speakers get LOUD! and sound GREAT! ordered on wednesday, here it is friday and i am listening to them. best buy wanted 200$ for the SAME THING. amazon > *
only thing i would recommend getting in addition to these speakers is a 5.1 sound card ( on the way as i type ) and longer RCA cables for the rear speakers. other than that i would buy again!
8 Good
For the money , Its really worth it. And I got my speakers within 24 hours(Great Shipping).
9 z5300e's are GODLIKE!
These speakers are godly... Blows my old speakers(TDK Tremor S60's) away. Pure crisp sound! The pictures does not do this system justice. It actually weighs 45 pounds and the sub is HUGE! Like previous reviewer says, setup is purely simple, all color coded.
You cannot beat the Price/Performce plus free shipping(more like next day shipping, thanks UPS!) and rebate? Amazon's made an offer you can't refuse...
10 amazing sound
Easy to install (color coded cords) very powerful sub woofer amazing crisp sound THX certified ..great system for this price only cons : real heavy sub woofer and no wireless remote other then that great buy!!!
11 Incredible Product, Incredible Service.
This was my first time ordering from Amazon.com Before I get into the speakers, I just want to say that I was BLOWN AWAY by the speed of shipping. I ordered this less than 24 hours ago and have already received it!!!!! This level of service, with FREE shipping no less, is just incredible. I see now why Amazon.com is such a major player in online retailers. As for the speakers, I haven't given them a thorough rundown, but after quickly hooking them up and testing them with some MP3's and Halflife 2 I can say that both the Stereo aspect and the 5.1 are just incredible. I can't believe these have only cost me $110.00 (after the rebate). I am a major BASS nut. And these things deliver. The bass is deep and full. The mids and Highs are also incredible. Logitech has done a great thing. I know that the 5500's are a little more powerful and have a built in decoder, but for the amazing price that you get these for (even without the rebate) they are a tremendous deal. I highly recommend them, and HIGHLY recommend you buy from Amazon.com, I know I will be much more often.
-----Added 4/3/05-----
Now that I have had some time to get aquainted with these speakers I can say that my initial review was pretty accurate. These have EXCELLENT sound all bass, mid, and highs sound great. I have found that the "Matrix" mode can be a nice thing to use. I always turn it on when I am playing MP3's or any music. It gives a nice "fuller" sound. I'm kind of mixed on using the matrix mode with games that don't have 3D audio. Sometimes I like it and other times I think it's better left on stereo, as the matrix mode isn't perfect (nor could it be, really) and the stereo sounds coming from behind you can be a little off. But it certainly serves it's purpose with music.
As far as the Sub, I have heard a few people complain about the sub being to "boomy" And I could understand where they come from with that. I have had a couple of songs come up that were kind of drowned out by the bass. But with the handy-dandy control pad you can change the level of the bass. And it goes low enough that it should be able to accommodate any listening preference. After all this is a 5.1 system, and that .1 is bass!
The only bad thing I can think to say is perhaps the cable length. When I was doing my permanent installation, with the place I had to put the sub (it's pretty big) the left front speaker BARLEY had enough wire length to put it where I wanted. I had to move my desk a little to be able to reposition the sub to fix this problem. I think that the 5500's or the 680's had detachable wires, this could be a nice idea, but I suppose that could add extra cost.
Bottom Line: For the price of these speakers (even without the rebate) are a great buy!
If nothing else I can say that playing first person shooter games (half life 2 and battlefield 1942 for instance) the sounds of the gunfire and explosions are pants-wetting! It sounds INCREDIBLE, if nothing else buy them for that reason :)
12 Super Speakers from My favourite Amazon store.
What make the deal best is that you get it from Amazon which has the world's number one customer service.
Speakers Rocks for around 100 bucks the best you can get.
13 Logitech Z-5300e - Great for the money!
These speakers are an excellent buy! You'll want a Creative Audigy2 ZS Sound Card to go with them, to give you true 6-channel sound. Also, you need the Creative software to tweak the tone.
You'll calibrate the speakers for 5.1 sound. Then turn the bass all the way down on the Logitech control, & you'll also want to turn it down to 20% on the Surround Mixer. On the Graphic Equalizer you can turn up the 4k to around +4.5db & the 8k up to +12db. Once you make these adjustments, you have an amazing system with the sound of your artist playing loud & clear right in your room! I bought mine directly from Amazon, & I'm very happy with them!
14 Good speakers dont mind criticizing reviews
Well I got these speakers a few days ago and I can say that they sound very nice. The mid-range is very clear, and the subwoofer does a very good job. After reading some of the criticisms I feel like they should be explained.
Some people complained about the subwoofer being uncontrollable. There is a button to control the volume of the sub. Turning it down helps. If you use the equalizer on your computer (or any equalizer at that) you can fully adjust the bass to whatever you want. People who complain about the bass obviously are not using any sort of equalizer.
It is true that it does not have a digital decoder, and if you want true surround from sources without decoding, you'll have to buy some sort of decoder. But is it really fair to fault speakers in this price range for not having a digital coder? Speakers with decoders cost way more than these speakers. If you must have a decoder you should buy a different set of speakers but those would almost surely cost more than $100 more than this.
I will be in agreement that the rear speaker wires could be longer. You can get adapters for this.
15 good systems
This is a good system with a nice bass on it. can be hooked up to more than a pc. like games, cd players, i-pods etc anything with a headphone jacks on it.
16 Logitech Z-5300e
I was amazed at the sound quility. These speakers really put out. If your looking for a great 5.1 set look no further.I shopped for these for a couple of months and Amazome.com sells lower than any other on the web. Amazon.com rocks with there free fast shipping. I ordered on February 27 and received
March 2. With Amazon.com and Logitech, you can't go wrong.
17 great speakers from your PC
I have pushed the speakers to the limits and they were able to handle what I could throw at them. They are the perfect complement to your pc with a 5.1 or higher soundcard; they do not have their own decoder so if you want something that does true 5.1 for a console like xbox or PS2 you need to get the z-5500 but if your pc allready has a decoder these are more than adequete for a home office or den.
18 Super Sound!
Got these for Christmas from my boss, and just put them in. WOW do these Dogs Rock!!! no distortion what-so-ever. If I would have known they sounded this good, I would have bought the same ones' along time ago. Huge bass, and center, for true seperation.
19 Great speaker system
Bought this system to get great sound while watching DVD's on the computer, listening to CD's, and playing games. It is a great system for all of these. I have it coupled with a SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card. Put in the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan and it was amazing. Played Half-Life 2 and the first few bullets I heard scared the crap out of me.
The only complaint was mentioned by other reviewers. The rear speaker cords are too short. Paid $7 for a couple RCA extensions at Best Buy.
Great system.....would recommend to anyone.
20 Answer to "John Murphy" ...
Let's be honest, I don't own this set of speakers. I'm writing this to prevent people from doing a costly mistake...
If you connect it to your DVD, it won't play true 5.1 surround sound because it doesn't have a 5.1 decoder.
In order to hear true surround sound, you must connect your speakers to a seperate Dolby/DTS compatible decoder -like Creative's DDTS-100-, connected to your DVD player (which must be Dolby/DTS ready), and select the proper sound configuration (most likely Dolby 5.1), if available on the movie's sound options menu.
*These are powered speakers so they don't need an amplifier*
21 Great for PC, awful for anything else
These speakers sound great. If you are buying them for your PC and have a 5.1 soundcard, they are an amazing deal for the money.
However, if you bought them for the reason I did, stay clear. I bought these speakers to be used with my DVD player / game consoles to get 5.1 surround for fairly cheap. However, aside from hooking them up to a PC, this is really not realistically possible. No Dolby Digital or DTS decoding, which means in a lot of cases, namely with an Xbox, you can't get true 5.1 sound, just their "matrix" 5.1 which is basically stereo sound that is supposed to sound like 5.1 but in reality doesnt at all. I have them hooked up to my DVD player right now, and basically all they do is provide clearer and louder stereo sound than my built in TV speakers do.
The cords on the rear speakers are a tad short, but this is easy to fix at radio shack and you wont end up spending any more than $15 on wires / couplers to extend them.
The bass is uncontrollably loud at all times, even when it is turned down to its lowest setting. We turn the bass all the way down, and it can still be heard very loudly in the next room over.
Don't get me wrong, these speakers sound amazing. If you are buying them for your PC, go for it, they offer a lot of bang for your buck, and aside from the uncontrollable bass, they produce solid sound. If you are buying these for a home theater setting or for use with Xbox or PS2, I would recommend looking into a different set.
EDIT: Monique's review as an answer to mine is correct. You can get true 5.1 from most DVD players with these speakers, but in order to do so, you must spend and extra $200+ on a reciever / amplifier. Mostly, I wanted them for my PS2 / Xbox, and these speakers dont really help with that unless you spend a lot of extra money. If you are looking to get speakers to work with PS2 / XBox, get speakers that have an optical input...both systems have an optical output port, and this provides the best sound.
22 WOW...
If you are considering these to upgrade your computer's sound system, don't delay. This system flat out ROCKS! Not just for the price, but the quality of the sound is excellent. They look good, sound good, and have the power to rock your world. Setup was a snap. The longest part of the setup time was just spent unpacking everything. Once everything was out of the box it was just plug-in and play. I've never had a problem w/ any Logitech product. From game controllers to keyboards, and believe me, Logitech has scored big with these. The clearity and the power this system posseses is just awesome. You won't be dissapointed.
23 Pretty much the best you can get for the price!
Currently priced at 130 dollars these speakers are pretty hard to beat. I bought these to replace my tried and true Klipsch Promedia 4.1 system, I know it's not much of an upgrade but there's good reason for the move. My complaints with the Klipsches were that they weren't very good at high volumes and more importantly low volumes, at high volume the bass started to sound flat and at low volumes the bass was too overpowering, another problem I found was that the headphone jack was useless because of hissing. I really do miss selling off my Klipsches but the Z-5300e's weren't too bad of a decision! The Z-5300e's do an awesome job at both low and high volumes, I live in an apartment right now so at night these things need to be able to be quiet, they seem to be doing a better job than the Klipsches in that regard. They sound excellent paired with the proper equalizer settings and sound card, I had a hard time at first getting them to sound right but the effort is well worth it. A useful feature of the 5300e's is the ability to take a stereo or quadrophonic signal and mix it through all five speakers, this is done by using a little switch on the back of the sub, this is also what enables the speakers to use all five channels for a TV configuration. The mids of these speakers are much brighter, it almost seems like I can hear more detail and hence better sound quality at low volumes. Be sure to use Matrix surround with your movies and music, but leave it off for the games. The most glaring problem with these speakers are in the speaker cables, first off they are integrated into the speakers, secondly the cable length is pretty short so don't expect to be able to place the speakers all over your room. The cables have RCA male ends however and finding extension cables shouldn't be too difficult. The remote buttons are also a little bit unresponsive because the buttons are stiff, this is not too much of an issue. Build quality is decent, most components are plastic but look very nice, the sub is SUPER big, the Klipsch speakers were heaver and seemed much sturdier though. At higher volumes you will probably experience hissing, the system also sounds better with some good burn-in. If digital surround is important to you, this setup does not feature digital encoding. Usually digital processing is a feature reserved for the highest end speakers that are twice the cost of these. Overall a great buy for the money... If you want the best possible configuration you may want to look into the Klipsch Ultra 5.1's or z-5500's, just stay away from those accursed Klipsch GMX speakers!!
Pros:
Excellent Price
Sweeter looking than the Z-5300's
Ability to hook speakers to a TV via adapter cable
Abiility to take stereo/quad signal and mix it into 5 speakers
Excellent volume scalability
Can compete with Klipsch speakers (not an easy feat!)
Easy setup
Clean headphone output
Cons:
Hard to configure
Short cables
Analog encoding
TV adapter is just a female miniplug to female stereo RCA's
Not many people have em yet (or is that a pro?)
24 70.00 cheaper on Amazon? DAMN IT!
I purchased these just the other day at Circuit City for $70.00 more, however, the speakers are completely worth it. They pound so hard that my neighbors called the police... and that was after I turned the bass way down. I purchased the speakers to go with my windows XP media edition PC, my gripes however are as follows.
1. The rear cables should be longer. Yes, I was able to buy longer RCA connectors to extend them, but it was rather inconvenient.
2. The subwoofer has a giant amp on the back of it, and everything plugs into that. So many wires! I wish they'd just consolidated things somehow.
3. The base of each speaker rotates. I'm not sure why you'd rotate just the top of the speaker when you can rotate the base as well. Seems like just another part which can be broken.
other than that, I'm satisfied with the speakers, the bass, and the remote. I sorta wish the remote was wireless, but what can I expect for $200.00.
Hope this helps you.
