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- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 135 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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46 out of 46 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Conditionally Recommended"
Pros: Fidelity, versatility, Finish
Cons: Imaging loose, rather large
Summary: I bought these speakers from OcUK three weeks ago, to replace my Logitech Z-560's, the amp of which having just expired after two years' use, having read extensively on the Internet about the impressive performance on offer at the price.
On opening the massive box ( I am a national champion powerlifter, and this git was still no joke ) and connecting the system ( as others have said, easy as pie ), I was very impressed with the presentation of the system - minimalist lines, understated and subtle. The size of the control unit surprised me - bigger than the satellites at about 7 inches high. Very nice.
On firing the system up, after making sure everything was working, calibrating the soundfield and sorting speaker positioning, I began to play through some of my MP3 collection - mainly electronic, with a lot of prog, tribal, techno, psytrance, with some acoustic rock, and a little soul, choral and classical thrown into the mix.
I was immediately struck by the overdose of midbass at standard speaker settings - a problem shared with my previous system. However, unlike the 560's, this unit allows full, individual control of speaker levels, including the sub, with attenuation to 0 being possible. Setting the sub to 2 bars of 20 produced a FAR more balanced sound, with a full and tight bass sound, with a precise midrange delivery, and open,detailed highs, without being too bright. Note that my setup is nearfield, with no speaker being more than 1 metre from my head - in a larger room, the highs would probably be less impressive, with the one driver setup not really being suitable.
Sasha's Airdrawndagger sounded as enrapturing on this system as anything I have heard - the subtlety of the sound far exceeds my expectations, with dramatic dynamics sitting side by side with an enveloping soundstage and beautiful reproduction. On the lower setting, the sub was musical and smooth - however, the fullrange tweeters cross over at the mid 100 hz range, giving away the sub's location, although the sounds blended perfectly, given correct levels.
At high levels, the sub gives awesome dynamics, perfect for home cinema, or pissing off the neighbors, with a 32 Hz test tone still responding strongly enough to vibrate draws open and make the walls visibly resonate. However, it loses the musical quality that makes it so entertaining at more reasonable settings, with some port whistle and, at daft levels, clipping and mild resonance.
The sub's response rolls off slowly after about 60 Hz, according to my ears on a test tone sweep - however, output was still audible at default settings and half volume down to around 30 Hz. Below that, the resonant frequency of the driver manifested itself, with a 24 Hz tone sounding no lower. I would estimate the quoted 33 Hz response bound at around -10 db, in my smallish room. My 10 year old son could hear output at 19 kHz, although I myself could hear nothing above 17 kHz,almost certainly down to my ears and not the speakers. This is impressive, from a phase plug speaker - response from 160 to 19 kHz, with no obvious flat spots or rolloff from a sweep.
In home theater, these speakers delivered the depth and quality already touched on, with the LOTR:FOTR intro scene giving some real gut-churning LF sweeps and rumbles, although this required turning the sub level up. Dialogue is clear and well placed by the centre channel, with surround effects being reasonably well reproduced. Imaging was precise, as would be expected, but somewhat narrow, altough this is conceivably down to speaker placement. Adjustment is provided when decoding, but even maximum stage width still was less than ideal as far as I was concerned: however, this is a minor issue.
The piece de resistance was the analog sound quality, when feeding phono input from my turntables via a mixer into the direct jack input.
Quality through complex classical passages was breathtaking, for the price and purpose intended. The musical reproduction of the satellites was surprisingly good: smooth, open, and detailed, as with the digital media. Vocals, woodwind, and strings were all near perfect, without a harsh, monitor - like edge I disliked in the GigaWorks 750's. The crossover spoiled an otherwise strong performance when it came to brass, organs, pianos, and deep male voices - however, the quality was not compromised by this, and at the cost, it is a remarkably imposing system.
Overall, I would put these little speakers ahead of the Klipsch Ultras, with a more musical and less monitor - alike sound, far more flexibility and functionality with the decoder and upmixing control unit. That places them firmly at the head of their class, beating such offerings as Creative's GigaWorks 750's, and holding their own musically with far more expensive systems.
At the price they are being offered, I can recommend these speakers wholeheartedly to anyone who wants a versatile system, with input and decoding typical of a home theater system, but which is still musically impressive, whilst looking good and being relatively easy on space.
- 3 replies to this review
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I agree, thanks for your time and thoughts on this. It's very much appreciated.
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It is nice to read an intellegent, well thought out review with plenty of substance. The abundance of reader reviews put CNET at the top.
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A very thorough, detailed and objective review.
Where to buy
Z-5500 Digital Speaker System:
$379.99 - $412.99
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$379.99 | Yes |
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$379.99 | Yes |
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$401.80 | Yes |
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$412.99 | Yes |
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