chrismjurd
New member
Introduction
Logitech make a variety of speakers for both PC and audio enthusiast, from the "cheap and cheerful" all the way up to the "too loud for your parents." The set here is the Z-10 2.0 Interactive speaker system. Interactive! I hear you say, well it's not all that interactive, more like controllable.
Details
The whole unit oozes quality, straight away when you pick them up you would notice these are not portable units, weighty so that you feel the worth in them, heavy enough so that they do not move as you go to use the buttons. You do not need to be a South African body Builder to move them around though.
Relativly small in stature 25x12x12 cm's, they fit with ease on desks even these days with 24-27 inch screens being the norm, using high quality black plastic with silver highlights around the driver rim and fascia, houses a 3inch woofer and 1inch tweeter, No Sub-Woofer here, as denoted by the .0 in the 2.0.
A touch sensitive matrix of 13 backlit buttons keeps the front clean and flowing, these control the volume, bass, treble, and media functions akin to most media controlling keyboards, Next-Previous, Play-Pause, Volume up-Down, Mute, Display Menu and four quick slot buttons, controlling set playlists/Internet radio presets, also to control the display from the plugins with other functions like CPU utilisation, temps, and a plethora of these available online to configure at your hearts desire.
The LCD is the same as the original G15 Keyboard LCD, utilising the same control software having some other plugins to observe and use via the LCD manager software, and its orange coloured, very Tango Mr Logitech.
The front face is a glossy finish piano black, excellent quality! extreme fingerprint magnet. Logitech do include a cleaning cloth, you will use it thoroughly and you will want to use it, when buffed these speakers are just so pretty, you will be tempted to not even use them to keep the smudges off the precious.
The set was engineered to angle approximately 10 degrees inclination with the effect of raising them to your ear level, rather than a little raised stand, due to the units comparative heavy weight and and with a LCD, tipping over could prove disastrous. on the bottom are some decent slim rubber grips to stop any slippage.
In the Box
Speaker Type
Power
Connectivity
Other Notes
Dimensions
Up Close
Speakers aren't generally the most photogenic of peripherals, but the Z-10 love it, like a Hollywood starlet trying avoid the paparazzi but dressing up to the nines "Just in case" to capture them in the best possible way.
Basic input connections, the units come with a lovely rubber plug too, which will keep nasty fluff and dust out of the jack inputs when not in use.
The headphone output located on the side of the right speaker, even somthing like this located on the inside of the unit is a clever little addition, say you have these at a corner unit desk, you can still have this tight against wall and have access to the headphone jack.
The lcd and buttons in daylight use are really clear, showing clearly even in direct sunlight, with glare.
But at night is when these beauty's really shine, the orange is vibrant, but not so much as you would think there is a street lamp outside your window. just looks really slick
The software whilst basic in itself, the limit of what you can do with the screen is totally up to yourself, the community online have all sorts of wicked plugins for this, even a twitter plugin.
Conclusion
The Logitech Z-10 2.0 Interactive speaker system. Hot on looks, loud on sound, cool to touch.
First things first, these are speakers, and for 2.0 stereo speakers £80 is not cheap, although pretty, the sound is why your getting them, and Logitech have delivered the sound, big time, the two-way active drivers really gives the sound definition and separation.
These speakers were tested in a range of sound inputs, from Blu-Ray/DVD some lame mp3 and Flac encoded music and a variety of games.
The quality of the sound is really good bordering on excellent, bass is meaty, mids are accurate, high range is clear, after cranking up the volume to the limit in software and on the speaker itself, I had no distortion and it was really loud, at 30W of course they will not blow the roof off, but still have enough wack for a decent sized living room, though probably still better suited to medium size bedroom/pc/studio room, Having researched some into the loudness of these speakers, it was noted that the Dynamic Bass Equalisation was at work, toning down any overdriven sound, a pretty safe system, even with this at work they are plenty loud though. Maybe not as clinical as some satellites or studio monitors but has a real bite to it. Makes me wonder why I ever used a sub before, having downsized from a superb Altec Lansing ADA 890 DTS setup, the best I personally have ever heard, and these aren't far off, considering the price and space these take up.
Even without the display, they are some of the most pretty speakers I have seen to this day, add to this the tango screen and some nifty back-lit buttons gives it a techno-glo, you could agree that the orange isn't for everyone, but it is really awesome for those late night gaming sessions when your lights are out and you just want to crank it up a notch, yeah.
Software for the screen is adequate at best, it is updated to support up to windows 8 64bit, though some functionality has seen a hit as Logitech have separated these from the G-series keyboards software, there is a very active community online for all things on this screen, some of the people there are amazing, you can get these baby's working in Linux too, sorry guys no mac hacks yet though you can use them as standard speakers, no bells and whistles. The controls can utilise Itunes, WMP, Winamp, and a few selected others, but they are probably the vast majority of users covered.
I could weigh the pro's and cons of the in-game functions of the LCD, but the truth is if you like that information you will find it useful, if not, well can always will know what track is playing or the time from the clock app or what temp your CPU is or your RAM usage. Its genuinely useful, and not just a gimmick, some people will get more mileage from it than others. I don't know about interactive, I had said, not so much interactive but just an extra easy to use step to more control.
USB connectivity is surprisingly good, gives a clean sound, there was some audible difference when using the 3.5mm jack cable input from the sound card. Having used both on-board sound from an AC97 Realtek chip, and from an old haggard Audigy2 but both gave the speakers plenty of sizzle. the DAC within the speaker from my own ears is excellent but think a newer Xonar or up to date Sound Blaster would help somewhat. but I had no issue with compression problems that others reviews sporadically have cited, the headphone jack is solid and with my Sennheiser HD203's it was like an operatic cacophony in my brain. noting that the use of the screen is a requirement of using the USB connection.
Something simple like the inclined units aiming them towards your ears engineered that way rather than an afterthought, simple yet effective.
Couple of small niggles, the touch sensitivity is not what you get from touchscreens on phones these days, more like the old resistive type screens, requiring more of a solid push, but more than that it seems to be not totally dead center, but after a while of using them, you get to know where is best to press. Nothing major
All in together for its price, considering the elegance of the design, the atmosphere from the sound, and the individuality from the touch buttons and the LCD make these speakers an awesome piece of kit, for those who not only like to look good, but sound great too, for those with limited space, or just no real need for a massive sub-woofer, these units will satisfy that extra dimension. Well done Logitech.
Performance 7
Price 7
Presentation 10
edit/ after youtube messing up with the upload on the video I have redone it
also updated pictures for hopefully better viewing.
/edit
Thanks for reading.
Chris.
Logitech make a variety of speakers for both PC and audio enthusiast, from the "cheap and cheerful" all the way up to the "too loud for your parents." The set here is the Z-10 2.0 Interactive speaker system. Interactive! I hear you say, well it's not all that interactive, more like controllable.
Details
The whole unit oozes quality, straight away when you pick them up you would notice these are not portable units, weighty so that you feel the worth in them, heavy enough so that they do not move as you go to use the buttons. You do not need to be a South African body Builder to move them around though.
Relativly small in stature 25x12x12 cm's, they fit with ease on desks even these days with 24-27 inch screens being the norm, using high quality black plastic with silver highlights around the driver rim and fascia, houses a 3inch woofer and 1inch tweeter, No Sub-Woofer here, as denoted by the .0 in the 2.0.
A touch sensitive matrix of 13 backlit buttons keeps the front clean and flowing, these control the volume, bass, treble, and media functions akin to most media controlling keyboards, Next-Previous, Play-Pause, Volume up-Down, Mute, Display Menu and four quick slot buttons, controlling set playlists/Internet radio presets, also to control the display from the plugins with other functions like CPU utilisation, temps, and a plethora of these available online to configure at your hearts desire.
The LCD is the same as the original G15 Keyboard LCD, utilising the same control software having some other plugins to observe and use via the LCD manager software, and its orange coloured, very Tango Mr Logitech.
The front face is a glossy finish piano black, excellent quality! extreme fingerprint magnet. Logitech do include a cleaning cloth, you will use it thoroughly and you will want to use it, when buffed these speakers are just so pretty, you will be tempted to not even use them to keep the smudges off the precious.
The set was engineered to angle approximately 10 degrees inclination with the effect of raising them to your ear level, rather than a little raised stand, due to the units comparative heavy weight and and with a LCD, tipping over could prove disastrous. on the bottom are some decent slim rubber grips to stop any slippage.
In the Box
- Two Speakers,
- Mini USB - USB cable, 3.5mm jack - jack
- Quick Start guide
- Driver/Application CD
- Cleaning Chamois cloth.
Speaker Type
- Active two way Speakers
- 3 Inch Woofer
- 1 Inch Tweeter
Power
- 30 watts RMS
- THD 10%
- Dynamic Bass Equalization
- 55Hz - 20000Hz +-5%
Connectivity
- 1.8m Mini USB - USB
- 1.8m 3.5mm Jack input / Auxilary input
- 3.5mm Headphone output
Other Notes
- Liquid Crystal Display
- 13 Touch Sensitive buttons
- Left speaker houses the transformer hardwired with 1.8m power cable, the right speaker has all the connections, Touch controls and the LCD.
Dimensions
- Height 24.5 cm
- Width 11.5 cm
- Depth 11.5 cm
- Weight 5 Kg
Up Close
Speakers aren't generally the most photogenic of peripherals, but the Z-10 love it, like a Hollywood starlet trying avoid the paparazzi but dressing up to the nines "Just in case" to capture them in the best possible way.
Basic input connections, the units come with a lovely rubber plug too, which will keep nasty fluff and dust out of the jack inputs when not in use.
The headphone output located on the side of the right speaker, even somthing like this located on the inside of the unit is a clever little addition, say you have these at a corner unit desk, you can still have this tight against wall and have access to the headphone jack.
The lcd and buttons in daylight use are really clear, showing clearly even in direct sunlight, with glare.
But at night is when these beauty's really shine, the orange is vibrant, but not so much as you would think there is a street lamp outside your window. just looks really slick
The software whilst basic in itself, the limit of what you can do with the screen is totally up to yourself, the community online have all sorts of wicked plugins for this, even a twitter plugin.
Conclusion
The Logitech Z-10 2.0 Interactive speaker system. Hot on looks, loud on sound, cool to touch.
First things first, these are speakers, and for 2.0 stereo speakers £80 is not cheap, although pretty, the sound is why your getting them, and Logitech have delivered the sound, big time, the two-way active drivers really gives the sound definition and separation.
These speakers were tested in a range of sound inputs, from Blu-Ray/DVD some lame mp3 and Flac encoded music and a variety of games.
The quality of the sound is really good bordering on excellent, bass is meaty, mids are accurate, high range is clear, after cranking up the volume to the limit in software and on the speaker itself, I had no distortion and it was really loud, at 30W of course they will not blow the roof off, but still have enough wack for a decent sized living room, though probably still better suited to medium size bedroom/pc/studio room, Having researched some into the loudness of these speakers, it was noted that the Dynamic Bass Equalisation was at work, toning down any overdriven sound, a pretty safe system, even with this at work they are plenty loud though. Maybe not as clinical as some satellites or studio monitors but has a real bite to it. Makes me wonder why I ever used a sub before, having downsized from a superb Altec Lansing ADA 890 DTS setup, the best I personally have ever heard, and these aren't far off, considering the price and space these take up.
Even without the display, they are some of the most pretty speakers I have seen to this day, add to this the tango screen and some nifty back-lit buttons gives it a techno-glo, you could agree that the orange isn't for everyone, but it is really awesome for those late night gaming sessions when your lights are out and you just want to crank it up a notch, yeah.
Software for the screen is adequate at best, it is updated to support up to windows 8 64bit, though some functionality has seen a hit as Logitech have separated these from the G-series keyboards software, there is a very active community online for all things on this screen, some of the people there are amazing, you can get these baby's working in Linux too, sorry guys no mac hacks yet though you can use them as standard speakers, no bells and whistles. The controls can utilise Itunes, WMP, Winamp, and a few selected others, but they are probably the vast majority of users covered.
I could weigh the pro's and cons of the in-game functions of the LCD, but the truth is if you like that information you will find it useful, if not, well can always will know what track is playing or the time from the clock app or what temp your CPU is or your RAM usage. Its genuinely useful, and not just a gimmick, some people will get more mileage from it than others. I don't know about interactive, I had said, not so much interactive but just an extra easy to use step to more control.
USB connectivity is surprisingly good, gives a clean sound, there was some audible difference when using the 3.5mm jack cable input from the sound card. Having used both on-board sound from an AC97 Realtek chip, and from an old haggard Audigy2 but both gave the speakers plenty of sizzle. the DAC within the speaker from my own ears is excellent but think a newer Xonar or up to date Sound Blaster would help somewhat. but I had no issue with compression problems that others reviews sporadically have cited, the headphone jack is solid and with my Sennheiser HD203's it was like an operatic cacophony in my brain. noting that the use of the screen is a requirement of using the USB connection.
Something simple like the inclined units aiming them towards your ears engineered that way rather than an afterthought, simple yet effective.
Couple of small niggles, the touch sensitivity is not what you get from touchscreens on phones these days, more like the old resistive type screens, requiring more of a solid push, but more than that it seems to be not totally dead center, but after a while of using them, you get to know where is best to press. Nothing major
All in together for its price, considering the elegance of the design, the atmosphere from the sound, and the individuality from the touch buttons and the LCD make these speakers an awesome piece of kit, for those who not only like to look good, but sound great too, for those with limited space, or just no real need for a massive sub-woofer, these units will satisfy that extra dimension. Well done Logitech.
Performance 7
Price 7
Presentation 10
edit/ after youtube messing up with the upload on the video I have redone it
also updated pictures for hopefully better viewing.
/edit
Thanks for reading.
Chris.
Last edited:
