While it's fast making a name for itself in home entertainment with its range of Harmony remotes, Logitech is better known for its computer peripherals, iPod speakers and expertise in wi-fi technologies. PC aficionados also swear by the company's range of desktop speakers, which are often more stylish than the grey box sitting in the bedroom or study deserves. Combine some of those products, add a couple more features, such as THX-certification, and you have the Z-5450 Digital; a 5.1 speaker set designed to match a media PC, games console and/or DVD player in the bedroom or a less demanding lounge.
To begin with, it features wireless rears – a first for a THX-certified system. With Logitech's experience in this field, it's almost a no-brainer that the manufacturer has successfully implemented 802.11g technology. As long as the rear speakers are placed no more than eight-and-a-half metres away from the powered subwoofer (which contains the transmitter) they are driven remotely – any further than that and they can stutter and glitch, sometimes losing signal. But, that's over 27ft – if your lounge or bedroom is bigger you'll want something a bit more substantial.
There are, however, more pronounced trade-offs for wireless connectivity: unlike the front and centre speakers, the rears need to be independently powered, and each comes with an attached plug. This can be especially problematic in households (mine) where there's an absence of power points at the back of the room. You may find yourself employing long extension leads after all.
Click to enlarge |
The second caveat is that any signal beaming to the rears needs to be down sampled, if necessary, to 48kHz first. Fortunately, though, most audio CDs and DVDs fit within this frequency, so you'll rarely notice any loss in quality. It's only truly relevant when considering that the supplied digital decoder can handle DTS 24/96; although the rest of the satellites are fine with 96kHz, the rears clearly aren't.
A less annoying but notable point is that the system uses the 2.4GHz bandwidth often associated with wi-fi products, and placing the speakers or sub too close to a wireless broadband router can cause internet access on a computer to occasionally drop its transfer rates. However, the set does recognise conflicts and will scan through the bandwidth to find an empty slot so the side-effects tend to be minimal.
