Logitech Z515 Wireless Speakers: Because Your Laptop Speakers Suck
by Dustin Sklavos on October 14, 2010 2:00 AM ESTConclusion
If we're grading strictly on sound quality, the Logitech Z515 is a tough sell. If you're planning on paying $99 for a pair of speakers that will spend their useful life sitting at your desk, you can do a lot better. The Z515's an improvement on notebook speakers in any capacity, but if it's just going to be stationary throughout most of its life, you can do better with a pair of conventional computer speakers. Fortunately, we aren't grading strictly on sound quality.
The Z515 is clearly designed to be as portable as humanly possible, an effort to strike a balance between sound quality and mobility, and on that front they feel like much more of a success. Playback over the Z515 was perfectly fine for casual use, and with the volume cranked up it can definitely fill a room (and it does sound much better at higher volumes.) But it was meant to be on the move, as aptly demonstrated by the space for the receiver in the back and the black zipper case it comes with. Supporting three different methods of connectivity—wireless dongle, Bluetooth, and 3.5mm minijack—makes it as flexible as you could ask for, and the wireless range is outstanding.
Something else to consider is that with the USB wireless adapter, you're not saddled with the built-in audio on your laptop, and you don't need to use the headphone jack. We've encountered quite a few laptops over the years where the internal speakers and audio jacks both have a lot of electrical noise/interference. By going the USB audio route, Logitech eliminates that concern.
That's where you're really going to have to decide whether or not the $99 MSRP is worth it to you. If the flexibility and wireless range are attractive, I'm not sure where you can expect to find better on the market. As a strictly stationary speaker the pricetag is onerous, but under those circumstances you aren't using the Z515 as it was intended. I've been in situations where a pair of speakers like the Z515 (because it is essentially a pair of stereo speakers) would've been incredibly useful and worth their weight in gold, but it's going to be up to you to determine whether or not the Z515's mobility and flexibility are going to be relevant enough to make up for the $99 pricetag.
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Setsunayaki - Sunday, October 17, 2010 - link
years ago, on Consoles you were able to buy an Audio Solution that was cheap....but had something nice to them..They had a Sub integrated with an External Amplifier. All I do is simply throw a line to the computer and the computer actually sends the sound to the system which gets processed by the external amp and sub and has the sound come out of my speakers. Do to this along I've gotten better sound quality than $400 sound cards and good SNR as well.
The only thing that the sound depends on is a better DAC and since Linux has many sound drivers one can choose from a drop down menu in the same category you can always get the one that functions the best...compared to the entire Windows Philosophy of One Driver, Per hardware piece installed or bust attitude.
The unit I have works pretty well and has also things to connect it to consoles, PCs and other devices. ^_^
GullLars - Sunday, October 17, 2010 - link
Sure, these are speakers, and are nice if there is more than one person going to listen to the audio, or headphones are impractical to wear, but in almost any scenario i have encountered where i needed audio from my laptop, a pair of Koss headphones did the job just fine. I actually don't own speakers, and use a high-end headset with mic on my main rigg, while using koss headphones or earplugs on my laptop (and ipod) when travelling.How do these speakers fare against a $99 headset? Or a DAC + headphones?
You also mention laptop speakers, or Z515 as replacement for them, for LAN gaming. I've never been on a LAN where anyone with a laptop didn't use a headset, and the only case anyone used speakers was for background music when there was no gaming.
GullLars - Sunday, October 17, 2010 - link
BTW, does anyone here know of an USB DAC with 2 (or more) 3.5mm jack outputs? Sometimes it would be great to have the ability to share the audio from my laptop when traveling without disturbing others, like with the person sitting next to me on a train, buss, or plane. (most people traveling, and everyone i travel with, bring some kind of earplugs or headphones with 3.5mm jack)mastercrumble - Monday, October 18, 2010 - link
The best pc speakers I have ever used are made by a german company call Teufel. Not a pricey as Bose but at least as good: http://www.teufelaudio.com/Morely the IT Guy - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
"the wireless receiver can be stored under a hatch on the back"Should I assume that you mean the USB wireless transmitter? I would expect the receiver to be permanently wired into the speakers, someone inside the case.
Morely the IT Guy - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
"somewhere inside the case." Bugger auto-correct!