Product Reviews

Logitech's Z523 is a 2.1 speaker system that pairs two satellites with a 30W down-firing sub-woofer, which will have your floorboards trembling.

Speaker grilles on the front and rear of both satellites give away the Z523's key feature: what Logitech calls 360° sound. This omni-directional output means that whether you sit in front of or behind the speakers, you'll get the full benefit of their output. We're not convinced that this is such a great idea, though. In an office environment, your colleague across the desk may not appreciate being subjected to the audio from the viral video you happen to be watching at lunchtime or the Marilyn Manson album you've chosen to accompany

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your morning's work. Moreover, if like many people your desk is against a wall, the output from the rear of the speakers will bounce off the wall and be reflected back at you out of sync with the audio from the front of the speakers. That's a minor issue, but worth considering.

Setting up the speakers is easy. Unlike most 2.1 systems, the satellites connect independently to the sub-woofer. There are volume and bass controls, and headphone and line out jacks on the left speaker. The build quality is okay, but the speakers feel a little plasticky, and for £70 we'd expect better. Sound quality is good, but not without flaws. There's no doubting the performance of the sub-woofer, and you'll want to keep that bass control well below maximum if you want to avoid upsetting the neighbours. But we found that although treble was reasonably bright and crisp, mid-range frequencies were soft, almost muffled and the whole experience - bass apart - lacked punch.

There's nothing wrong with the Z523, but even at £70, you could do better. For £10 more, you could have Creative's Gigaworks T40 II, albeit without a sub-woofer, or, if creating music rather than just listening to it is your thing, M-Audio's AV 30 studio reference monitors are a better bet.