Tommy can you hear me? Without a doubt he can hear you.
The Z Cinema Advanced Surround Sound System redefines 2.1 speaker audio. It takes a leap forward over all the other competitors out there and leaves everyone in the dust. It’s a phenomenal set of speakers. The most impressive part of the Z’s is that you truly get a virtual surround sound from them, it’s just not an advertising gimmick. For those of you who aren’t sure what that means (not advertising gimmick, rather virtual surround sound) it has to do with the sound having certain rules and algorithms attached to it to basically create multi-channel sounds in one single wave. Basically, your ears are getting multiple sounds, but in a strict order so that your ears believe that it’s coming from different directions. It’s funny and frightening how well it works, but the Z Cinemas work like a charm.
For speakers of such brilliance, I went through different levels of testing to make sure it all worked out fine. Just to warn you from the beginning, I’m a video fellow so I wanted to test all possible routes before making a judgement.
DVD
The DVD test was the first to go down. I put in the first action film I could find, Casino Royale. One of the most recent movies to be made with stunning sound in the theater, the action and sound were spectacular. The first 15 minutes of the film was the almighty running scene between Daniel Craig and that one-guy-who-does-tons-of-stunts. It sounded amazing coming through the speakers. Left-to-right, right-to-left it had all of what the 5.1 system could do in two beautiful speakers. Even the gunfire properly started on one end of the spectrum and ended up on the other (like the film wanted it to). Again, quite breathtaking for a film that was starring on a 2.1 speaker set-up.
MP4
I have children in the household and we’ve got tons of children DVDs. Not to advocate this, but sometimes putting there movies onto digital format and stuffing them into the iTunes app is the best idea for 8+ hour trips. It seems like a good idea anyway. The laptop we take with us recharges itself through the cig port on the car and the it can carry their entire DVD library (so there aren’t any scratched/lost DVDs). It’s a great way to do things. Sometimes at home the kids want to watch a movie and we pull it up in MP4 format for them. They watched Peter Pan in this format and it sounded just as brilliant as it was on a DVD. It brought the same complex sounds and swooshes from the original DVD and it worked out well. So for a file format that is such low quality as the MP4 is, it still pulled out some amazing virtual surround.
iTunes, Windows Media Player
Let me just warn you that I won’t hear the end of this one from my counter-part Steven Schardein. He hates Macintosh with a passion and has already, this week, displayed his displeasure for iTunes, QuickTime and Safari for Windows. Anyway, here’s the jest of it all, the speakers don’t work completely well with iTunes and the funny/shocking thing is… it’s not the speakers. iTunes was truly built for stereo sound, with subwoofer (2.1), but because the Z’s are built so well and do virtual sound so well, iTunes doesn’t really take advantage of this, at least in my opinion. It sounds great still, but certainly not the DVD type quality sound that you would expect from these speakers. Now on the flipside to that coin, Windows Media Center/Player sounds spectacular. You get your music and DVDs coming through in a such a nice way. Of course, you’ll probably have to put together some add-ons for the player, but it still makes it nice.
My intention was to also do some web video testing, but that’s quite unfair for Logitech. Youtube is a bag of mixed nuts and no matter what type of speaker set-up you have, there’s no way to guarantee the speaker set-up can improve upon awful audio. Sorry Youtube.com, but there’s not free advertising for you here in this review (http://www.youtube.com)
One thing to especially note about the Z’s is the perfectly set subwoofer. Normally, Logitech speakers seem to over emphasize the subwoofer, causing it to overtake the treble in the sound. This is especially noticeable when you’re watching movies, and quite annoying. If you have ever been to an IMAX theater recently, I just recently saw The Dark Knight, then you’ll know what I’m talking about. The Z’s bring an even balance with the subwoofer, makes it subtle, but not too subtle and places it perfectly within the rest of the sound you’re listening to. It won’t wake the neighbors, that’s really what I’m trying to say. Logitech did a spectacular job on crafting the perfect sound coming from the bass-bumping-beauty.
Not perfect, but damn near
I’ve tried different ways to find a flaw in these speakers and have only come up with one lame thing. There are two clear ways this set of speakers can go: Vista or XP
While the speakers are compatible with Macintosh (yay!), they are made for Vista (especially) and XP. The software package that comes with the Z’s allows for complete compatibility with the windows environment. It helps monitor and change things like the bass/treble/etc. and allows you to assign certain applications to the speakers. It adjusts to the applications, but it only does this through a Windows environment. For those mac users out there, you basically have a set-in-stone setting that plays like any other set of speakers. I’m not complaining, but it would be nice to use that beautiful controller (see pictures) with the multiple functions to make the sound experience more diverse for the mac user (like myself). Regretfully, for mac users they’ll be stuck with a spinning iPod-like wheel on the remote. Again, not a terrible thing, but certainly a waste of a good multi-functional remote.
Speaking of the remote, that sucker does everything. From controlling recorded TV, DVDs and pretty much whatever the Media Center on Vista provides, it helps you sort through and perform all the functions without touching your mouse. It’s a brilliant device that allows you to enjoy media in the most laziest of ways. That is a great combination for most people who love their computer that much (yours truly included). The Windows Media Center is so damn diverse to begin with that you have so many options to play with it. So, if you want to watch different types of video or you want to hear music instantly, you need only touch a certain button on the remote to do so. So, finally, Vista scores one great point now thanks to Logitech enhancing the experience.
Too much?
Well, this is a good question. Should you spend $299.99 on a set of 2.1 speakers when you can have 5.1 for about 200-300 bucks more? If you’re looking for something that looks good, doesn’t come with wires and a gigantic receiver, then the $299.99 doesn’t seem bad at all. It’s by far the best set of 2.1 speakers that you can get on the market for the PC. It’s so uncomplicated that you won’t have to re-arrange your entire PC set-up to fit it into the scheme of things. In other words, yes there ‘s enough here to warrant the price tag. Logitech doesn’t rip people off on its products, if something is $299, then there is a good reason why. I’ve just named tons of reasons why this looks and sounds great, I don’t know what more I can tell you. If you’re seriously wanting to enhance your enjoyment and fulfill your audible desires on the PC, then you would be nuts to pass this up. It’s just that simple and it’s worth it.