Logitech Z906 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System - THX, Dolby Digital and DTS Digital Certified - Black

I had the Logitech Z680 system since around 2005 before getting the Z906.The Z680, for the time, was a phenomenal set of speakers for a computer system. 400+ watts made my house shake.Now, 23 years later, the Z680's finally died on me...not the speakers, the electronics that are contained on the back of the bass speaker. I was deeply saddened and simultaneously almost in a panic as my music is extremely important to me and there was no way I was going to be able to use the el cheap-o 2 speaker setup I kept for just whatever. I also live on a fixed income, so I needed to be able to afford something as good or better for a similar price I paid for the Z680 setup.I naturally went back to looking at Logitech. There was the Z5500, but way, way too costly. Then found the Z906. The price, for me, was still a little high, but not so much so that I couldn't somehow work it out, so I purchased it after reading all the info I could all over the internet about them.When they got to the house, the first thing I notcied was a big 2"x3" hole where it looks like someone was carrying the box and ran into the corner of a desk or something. Unfortunately the puncture went all the way through to the inside box and into the grill of one of the satellite speakers and dented it pretty good, enough so that I had to take the faceplate off the speaker and gently tap the grill away from the speaker itself so it could work properly as the grill was actually pressing down some on the speaker itself.Once everything was back together, I set the system up on my computer. I'm at the computer at least 10 hours a day, and my music is important to me, so I have a very nice sound card for my system. I'm not a gamer though, so the speakers weren't important in that way for me at all.I The system is really easy to set-up, it's just a little time consuming, especially if you want to do it right the first time.I didn't need the supplied wire for the satellites as I simply had left the wires for my old speaker system setup where they were and they were perfect for the Z906 satellites.Plugging everything in to the bass was also nice and easy, everything is labeled nicely, so I had no trouble moving all the stuff that was plugged in to the Z680 bass over to the Z906 bass.The control panel is a bit nicer than what came with the Z680, and much easier to adjust to whatever one needs, though you still have to have two hands to do so - one to hold it down and the other to press the buttons. My advice here - *USE THE REMOTE CONTROL*. This makes things so much easier. It's actually the one of two things I like best about the Z906 over the Z680 I had, the other being the bass weighs about half as much.The one con I had about the Z906 system is that Logitech went el cheap-o and didn't supply speaker stands. I found that to be pretty lame on their part.Once it was all set-up, I turn on some music (I'm extremely eclectic and can listen to anything from head-banging skin-head stuff, to Mozart and Wagner...I *won't* listen to (c)rap or this bubblegum pop BS nowadays). Again Logitech didn't disappoint. These speakers *WILL* make the house shake. They have plenty of highs and the bass does a great job of thumping if the music calls for it.Every kind of music needs to have the sound set differently for it. For example, I wouldn't leave the bass set as high for Beethoven as I do for Black Flag. So I don't understand the reviews saying bad things about either too much or too little bass or highs (tweets). The levels of this system can be set to do whatever one wants for whatever type of music one is listening to. If you want to listen to Chopin, then turn the bass down to what you want for that. If you want to listen to some Disturbed, then turn the bass up for that.I also am able to adjust things even more on my Linux system computer, and I'm sure people using that garbage called Microsoft Windows are able to do so too, but I believe they simply don't know they can or maybe even simply lazy and don't *want* to have to make adjustments for the music they're listening to at the moment. Whatever. I just know that these speakers, with the correct adjustments made for each type of music I might be listening to, can, for instance, make me feel like I'm in some fine music hall, center seating, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor Op. 125 'Ode an die Freude' is playing live because I'm back in time and it sounds that good...at least to me, heh.Overall, these are well worth the price if you want something halfway decent and can crank up and really impress your neighbor(s)(hood) or make them come looking for you with torches, pitchforks and rope! Learn to adjust the levels for what you might be playing, then sit back and enjoy, because these speakers *for your computer* will *NOT* disappoint. Put in a nice sound card to make sure you get the best from them, I have an Audigy RX which works perfectly for me, giving me all the power the Z906's will want and the clarity and surround sound and everything else a non-pro audiophile will want. These Z906's are fantastic at movies too.

04-24-2013My #1 attraction to this was the lack of a bulky, heavy receiver that would have all manners of features like video switching capability, where the only thing I would ever use is the volume knob. Having given this a rough test (everything will eventually be wall mounted), I was insanely impressed with the sound quality that I expect from Logitech, especially in the 2.1 desk speakers that I've been using and loving for years. My expectations were met and exceeded by the lack of space this takes up compared to other systems (for a similar power output).With my setup, the subwoofer is under a rear speaker, and the attached control unit sits nicely on the nearby corner table between my couches so there is nothing on the main wall except the projector screen and speakers (projector is fed HDMI video from a desktop computer) and the system volume is literally within arm's reach. The remote does feel extremely lightweight--I would wager to say that the batteries compose roughly 75% of its total weight--but it has only the buttons it needs (I believe seven total) to be functional and not a thousand others like I sometimes see on remotes. Its small size makes it possibly easy to lose, but that's a user error.Feeding SPDIF in right off my motherboard, it decoded DTS on DVDs without any problem. There are little speaker icons that light up to reflect which ones are active with the current audio format it's being fed, which seems to be similar to the LG HTIB system at my family's house where a little icon on the screen would display the audio format. During things like intro sequences, where you go from the menu to various copyright warnings and studio logos and whatnot, it tends to change a lot, and that might irritate someone who is easily irritated. Although once the movie starts and the format stops changing, those icons go off and the only ones left are a small number of status lights which is the same as any other piece of electronic equipment.The metal plate around the inputs/outputs on the subwoofer got VERY warm to the touch. Not sure I would say hot, but it should definitely be considered when placing this that all of the magic is happening inside that enclosure.Speakers felt very solid, not huge but not tiny, and a set of basic universal wall mounts will let me put them up on the wall.The settings for how to handle 2 channel input is really useful if you're like me and have a lot of video files, or plan on using it to play music--one mode just treats it as a 2.1 (standard stereo with subwoofer), the other is to use 4.1 where the back left/right mirror the front left/right, and one is a 3D mode that uses all 5.1 for some kind of 3D effect. I imagine I'll be able to get a better idea of what it sounds like once everything is positioned.If you buy this based on the description, you won't be disappointed, but if you're an audiophile used to $5000 sound systems then I suppose you might hear a difference. The only setting that seemed unusual to me was the speaker level settings--this one adjusts the front left/right as a pair, as well as the back left/right--I've only ever seen level adjustments done individually, but when you think about it, you should be positioning the speakers in the proper places anyway, especially horizontally. In that case, you're probably going to adjust front and rear pairs the same anyway, which requires two steps instead of one. Ceiling mounting rear speakers would put them farther away than they might be on the wall, so you might have to adjust the collective level to make up for the distance, but with this system you can just make one adjustment for that instead of two.Altogether, very satisfied with Logitech, as always!05-12-2013ADDENDUM: Following a few weeks of the system being properly set up and wall-mounted... couldn't be happier.Remote works great, and contrary to a review I remember reading before purchase that said you had to point it straight at the unit to get it to work, I can point it basically anywhere. It does get frequently misplaced, but that's my fault (my projector remote is a similar size and I frequently misplace that as well).Also, a feature I somehow missed previously was the auxiliary stereo line-in on the control module. As mentioned before, I frequently use this system for just ambient music playing, and this would normally mean running the desktop computer just to supply audio. With this jack, you can use a standard 3.5mm audio cable to connect straight to an mp3-playing smartphone or ipod or anything with a standard headphone jack. I can shut down the computer, saving energy and cutting back on unnecessary heat production when I would only be using it for music.The 5.1 DTS decoding works wonderfully and I have no regrets. It's the perfect compliment to my Viewsonic Pro8200 DLP projector and extra-long-twin bedsheet tacked to the wall serving as a screen (for real though, it's a great substitute to an expensive bulky screen).