LogitechZ906 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.

This is going to be a combined review because the two products work together very well, and I thought that might be helpful for some others that were trying to do something similar to what I've done. This same review is posted for both items.Scenario: Logitech Z906 & SteelSeries H Wireless Gaming Headset. Computer (older Mac Pro) digital audio output to both Z906 and SteelSeries H Wireless. USB microphone input from SteelSeries. Be able to use either Headphones, Speakers, or both to listen; microphone on headset to talk with optional microphone mute.I'm not going to repeat the specs for either -- you can easily find out lots of info about the details online.Logitech Z905:- Hardware: Solidly built. Speakers are heavier than I was expecting. Rubber feet on the bottom keep them from sliding around. Speakers have a standard screw mount (I think it's 1/4"x20) for attaching to mounting hardware.- Sound: Good sound. I would describe it as more "warm" than "bright" -- perhaps even a little too warm. Many of the audio applications allow tonal adjustments, so that's not really an issue -- but it would be nice to have an EQ adjustment, which it doesn't have.- Power: More than enough power. Will go much louder than I would ever use. Subwoofer will vibrate floor at higher volumes.- Connectivity: Very easy and straight-forward to hook up. If supplied speaker wire isn't long enough, you can use your own; it's standard speaker wire for connections. Several source options.- Control: Control box and remote both access the functionality. Control box is a little larger than I would have expected. Orange LED's are a little on the bright side, but not overly distracting. You can adjust the different volume levels for various speaker elements (all, sub, rears, center) ; which groups you get depends on the effect selected (Stereo + sub, 4.1 [no center], 5.1). Levels for a particular group apply to all effects, so you don't have effect-specific volume levels (which would have been nice).- Instructions: More than adequate.- Overall: Would recommend it.SteelSeries H Wireless:- Hardware: Very nicely made. Headphones are very comfortable and have more than ample padding.- Sound: Excellent sound. Has a few EQ adjustments, each of which makes a noticeable difference in the sound.- Power: Although I've read a few reviews that say it doesn't get loud enough, I find it loud enough for me. One thing I noticed is that the volume is also affected by the livemix/chatmix setting. So it will take some experimenting to find the right balance between headphone volume, livemix/chatmix setting, and the various levels in the software you're running. Two batteries are great, with charger built into the control unit. Never run out of juice since one battery is always in the charger.- Connectivity: Very easy and straight-forward to hook up. The pass-thru optical digital is one of the reasons I'm combining the reviews. I'm using both USB (for mic) and optical digital (for output). Quite a few source options.- Control: Control box has minimal controls, but an LCD display. From the headset you can adjust volume, mute the mic, and access several of the menu items (but not all of them; some you have to do from the control box).- Instructions: Could be better. Takes some experimenting to get a good sense of what changes affect what. Plan to look online for information that isn't in the accompanying user guide.- Overall: Would recommend it:Synergy (these two devices work great together):- Digital optical output from computer into the SteelSeries control unit's digital optical input.- SteelSeries digital optical output [pass-thru] to Z906 digital optical input.- Configure computer for a single output: digital optical.- Configure computer for single input: SteelSeries H Wireless (via USB).Headphones and speakers are both always connected, but can be controlled independently. You can turn SteelSeries on/off independent from Z906 on/off (or mute it) [can use both at once, but I don't know why you'd do that]. You need to keep the SteelSeries control unit powered on so the pass-thru works, but it's on as long as it's plugged in (no on/off switch), so that's not really an issue.For general use, I use the Z906. For gaming where I want audio chat, or to keep things a little more quiet in the house, I use the SteelSeries. It couldn't be easier to flip between them. I think this is a great combination (although rather pricey for both). I'm using an older Mac Pro, but I believe most Mac's support the digital optical output. For windows, if the box doesn't provide a digital optical output, it should be available using any number of sound cards.