The Logitech Z-680 5.1 Sound Speaker System is Awesome!

Wow! Logitech came out with a speaker system made for the computer, it will work great with a DVD player and a game system. (Play Station 2, Xbox) The system includes 500-watts of power and built-in decoders for Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS and ProLogic II. The system consists of a SoundTouch control center, wireless remote, one center speaker, four satellite speakers and a subwoofer.

The SoundTouch Control Center
The control center is like none I have used before, it is very interesting and easy to use. On top it has a nice LCD for setting up the system and showing the inputs you are tuned to. The LCD has an indiglo blue background with black letters, a very attractive look. The control center sits upright on a stand with a big round volume control Knob in the center of it.

There is an input button for selecting your source, an Effects button, a setting button, a mute button and a level button. There is a power and standby button also.

There are two jacks, one for headphones and the other for an auxiliary input like an MP3 player.

The Remote
Nothing special, not programmable and has just a few buttons on it that do basically the same thing as the SoundTouch control center. The big plus it is wireless!

The Speakers
The center speaker looks a little different from the other four speakers. The four speakers look almost square compared to the center speaker, which is longer sitting in the horizontal position.

The center speaker is made more for clear midranges and highs for the speech parts of a 5.1 system. It provides with an abundant 69-watts of power.

The four other speakers look the same sitting in an upright position on stands, they can also be mounted on the wall. Each of the satellite speakers produce 62-watts of power.

The connections for the speakers use thumbscrews for easy wire connection and you can also banana plug connectors.

The Subwoofer
The subwoofer is the largest piece with a total of 188-watts.

The subwoofer can be place almost anywhere you wish, I recommend somewhere out of sight.

The subwoofer is the connection center of it all, here the speakers are plugged into it and the control center is plugged into the subwoofer.

Compared with the Z 640!
The Logitech Z 640 PC multimedia speaker system was their first 5.1 speaker system with only 51 watts of system power and no built-in decoders with a retail price of about $80.

Now the newer Z 680 has 500 watts of system power, built in decoders, a remote and has a retail price of $399. Check out the Epinions Compare Prices and it can be found for $257.

My Tests
Hooked on the computer produced nothing but an excellent sound. I played several games (Medal of Honor has an excellent sound!) and the sound is incredible. Watching movies through the DVD player on the computer also gives you a great digital 5.1 sound.

Hooking it through the Mitsubishi DD-6030 DVD Player on my Mitsubishi 73 inch HD-Upgradeable Television produced great sounds but it is no match to my regular 7.1 speaker system and the The Harman Kardon AVR 325 Receiver.

I use Sonique for my entire MP3 music playback and the sound in the Dolby ProLogic II is great! All the MP3 files from 128 bit and up produced a great surround sound that made the computer come alive with music. CD music also has an excellent sound! I listened to Metallica S&M for a great rock sound combined with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, it is awesome on this system!

I don’t have game systems so I couldn’t test the Z 680 on them.

Overall
This is the most awesome speaker system that I have used made for the computer, it brings life to all your games and music.

The nice part is the versatility of it by connecting it to your computer and at the same time to a DVD player plus a game system.

Installation is easy with the easy to use guide that comes with the system.

The total 500 watts for the system is RMS the Peak Power is 1000 watts for the system.

The sound is incredible with the rich sounds from the subwoofer to the crystal clear sounds from the five speakers. This speaker system will blow away many complete Home Theater systems that are also in the $400 range.


Here are some of my other reviews!
Creative Labs MegaWorks Speakers 510D
Dell Dimension 8250 Series
Asus A7N8X Motherboard for the AMD Athlon XP Processor
HP PhotosSmart 7550 Photo Printer
Advent AW770 900MHz Wireless Headphones