Logitech Z-5450 5.1 Wireless Speakers

Those who follow PC speakers closely would surely know about Logitech’s Z-5500 speakers and how much everyone loves them. They are indeed one of the best 5.1 PC speakers we have come across. The Z-5450, the one we are reviewing, are a slightly less powerful version of the Z-5500. What sets the Z-5450 apart from its predecessors are its rear wireless satellites. Let’s see if they sound as good as they look.

Features
The system consists of a subwoofer with the amplifier integrated into the same box, a decoder/control unit and five satellites. The total system power is 315 watts which is good enough for a room or a mid-sized living room. The subwoofer is powered at a whooping 116 watts RMS, the front satellites at 38 watts each, the center at 42 watts and the rear wireless sets at 40.5 watts.

Subwoofer Back

The biggest problem one faces with 5.1 speakers is the wiring. The front and center satellites and the subwoofer are generally placed in close proximity to each other. So their wiring can be easily managed by clubbing them together. But for the two rear channel speakers, one has to run the wires to the rear of your room, something which your mum or your better half will certainly not appreciate. And just for that, the Z-5450’s have wireless rear satellites. The rear satellites are not exactly wireless, they individually need to be plugged to an AC outlet.
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Decoder/Control unit

The rear speakers work on a wireless signal from the decoder/control unit. They operate on a 2.4 GHz frequency and need to be within 28 feet of the decoder unit. Though 2.4GHz is enough for an uncompressed CD quality signal, it’s not sufficient for 24bit/ 96 KHz data. That’s the reason why, when playing a 24 bit 96 KHz track, the rear speaker signal is down sampled to 48 KHz. Though in practicality the difference was not at all noticeable during the listening tests.

The decoder has a plethora of connectivity options. There are three 1/8-inch stereo inputs for analog 6-channel sound. Besides, there is a co-axial input and two optical inputs. It supports DTS, Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II, DTS 24/96 decoding and uncompressed PCM right through 24-bit 96 KHz. There’s an additional 1/8-inch stereo line input and headphone output. They system will automatically shift to stereo mode when a headphone is plugged in.

The remote is simple to use and very much functional. You can control the volume, the subwoofer, center and surround levels, choose between the inputs, and change surround mode.

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Performance
For testing the speakers, we coupled the speaker set with Creative’s Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro sound card. We ran the speakers through Alan Parson’s Test CD which has a variety of uncompressed sound tracks to check for all frequencies of sound i.e. the lows, highs and the mids. We also played DVD movies, THX test tracks and games like Half-Life2 and Doom3 with support for Dolby Digital.

The sound quality is very good. But there is a loss in detail at maximum volume. Anyway the speakers get loud enough before that happens and seldom you would be taking your speakers to those levels.

The bass reproduction is good too, but we found it to be a bit boomy. Due to that it masks the other frequencies of sound. This can be attributed to the nature of the enclosure. It’s a bandpass box. Completely sealed enclosures offer tighter bass. Anyway, our analysis is a bit stringent and the overall experience is indeed very good. With regards to the wireless speakers, there was no drop in signal or any kind of interference and they performed as good as their wired counterparts.

Conclusion
The speakers sound very good and the wireless speakers work well. There is a plethora of connectivity options from analog to co-axial to optical inputs. The only place where it lacked a bit, and we insist ‘a bit’ is the bass. The bass is slightly boomy and we would have liked it to be more tighter and accurate. The Z-5450 is priced at Rs. 32,500. Now, if you can live with wired rear speakers you have the option of going for the Z-5500s which are a good Rs. 8,000 cheaper, more powerful and sound better.