9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Pretty good boom for the buck!
Date of Review: Jul 14, 2008
The Bottom Line: Will fit the ticket for gaming, for watching movies, or listening to music in your apartment or dorm room. Don't expect audiophile-quality output, for the bargain-basement price!
Let me begin by describing what I was looking for in a speaker system. I'll admit it, I was spoiled: My previous surround setup for my computer consisted of a 7.1 surround system with a huge Pioneer powered subwoofer and Yamaha speakers. Surround sound was passed through via spdif cable to my Pioneer receiver. It was a great, powerful system that I couldn't use anymore due to its size, I needed something cheap and smaller that I could fit in my new apartment.
One can tell by a quick sweep of the internet that the first of these two requirements is easily fulfilled- you can easily find the X-530 for under $50. This is a fantastic price for 'any' 5.l surround system, no matter the performance.
Size-wise, the speakers are reasonably sized at about 8" each. The center speaker is exactly the same as the other surround speakers, but with the mount placed in a different location, allowing it to rest on its side.
With these two basic requirements of mine fulfilled, let me describe the nitty-gritty, the real concern of an audio system: how it sounded.
"Pretty okay" would be the adjectives I'd use to describe it. Mids are a little lacking and it could definitely stand to be louder. The subwoofer is more "boomy" than I'd like, without resonating, deep reproduction of some notes.
A final problem that I had with the system was with the center speaker. Where am I supposed to put the darn thing? I have an LCD monitor, and the speaker won't clip on top like some of Logitech's later 5.1 speaker centers. This leaves me to just kinda set it in front of the monitor, something that blocks a strip about 1/2" tall when I'm sitting back from the computer to watch a movie. It isn't a problem when I'm up close, though it is still minimally distracting.
Overall: It's a great value. Keep in mind with my audio critiques that I was coming from a $500+ system. You're paying under 50 bucks for this system. For gaming, or if you (like I) just needed a way to listen to music without breaking the bank, the X-530 by Logitech will fit the bill.
