Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsGreat Sound, Clunky Form, Limited Quality
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2022
Pros:
1. The sound is great, just fantastic and so well-balanced. I love listening to music on these speakers while I'm working. Classical, Jazz, Rock, everything is great; it should be noted I am an audiophile and I would put these on a par with my Sennheiser speakers and my Beyerdynamic headphones. Non-audiophiles won't miss a thing with these.
2. Convenient front-facing volume, bass and power controls.
3. Excellent headphone gain on PC's & Macs. If you're like me, sometimes you just have to crank it up, and the computer's volume just isn't enough. Well, plug in some high-quality headphones (think: Sennheiser or Beyerdynamic) into the speaker's headphone jack and turn the volume up some more, they gain can get so high it is unsafe for you to listen to. Yes, it's THAT good.
Cons:
1. Top of the list is the form of these desktop speakers with which I have formed a LOVE / HATE relationship with. Sound great, but have rounded and UNSTABLE bottoms. If I'm grabbing something nearby and I accidentally tap the speaker sideways a bit, it starts to rock. Due to the bottom-heavy weight it will eventually settle, but give it too much of a push, and it falls on its side. Can't have anything nearby these speakers. Also, since they are rounded at the edges, they cannot be placed on their side if that set up suits you better. Nope. One way only. My guess is they were going for a look and limited possible uses in so doing.
2. These speakers are really tall--annoyingly so. My kids have these cool Creative speakers that are little balls no more than about 5" tall--perfect for sliding underneath arm-mounted monitors and saving desk real-estate. Not these bad boys. At nearly 8" tall, they'll be touching the backs of your monitors or blocking the bottom of the screens if in front. Why does this suck? Because if you want to move your arm-mounted monitors (as I regularly do, to switch between landscape and portrait), guess what's gonna get knocked over?
3. The woofer. It's huge. A ported subwoofer that's nearly 12" by 12" by 9", do you know how many times your toes are going to smash into it? Prepare yourself. About two years ago I got myself a great Uplift desk on wheels and wanted to mount the speaker to the back of the leg's base--and eventually did so. Unfortunately it sticks about about 2" beyond the leg and is so clunky looking. To go through doors I have to take the speaker off the leg base when I roll from one room to another. It's just a bit too big, especially when you consider that this is just for a computer. They could've easily gotten away with a smaller woofer.
4. Quality: The headphone port on the speaker started cutting in and out about a year after I got it; since it was intermittent Logitech said if it was working when they received it, I would have to pay to replace it, or ship it back. Honestly, why bother? I just use the headphone port on the laptop's dock--albeit, unable to add sound gain like I could with the speaker's headphone port, something I loved, and effectively negating my favorite feature on this set.
5. The dang speaker cords. This is easily the most aggravating part of this set. Both desktop speakers must plug into the woofer. For the love of god, why? For two decades desktop speakers have chained to each other, and one links to the sub beneath your desk. Anybody wanna venture a guess why? Because the woofer is generally to one side or another--not centered under your desk. Long story short, both speaker cords are about 6 feet each. if your desk is 5 feet wide, like mine is, both speaker cords do not run long enough to reach the woofer unless you run diagonally from the farthest speaker. Or place one speaker center and the other to the same side as the woofer. This is particularly true if you like a clean desk with wires neatly tied off and running along the desk's lower edge, rather than hanging all over the place. Now, if you happen to get a STANDING desk, the predicament gets uglier. My desk stands at 5 feet at my standing working position, meaning the speakers have to be on the SAME side of my desk as the woofer in order to be used with those short cables. Which is just garbage. To add insult to injury, the cords are BUILT-IN, meaning you cannot get a longer set and replace them.
