Logitech X-540 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System with Subwoofer

I had a great 2.1 Harman/Kardon stereo desktop system with a large powered subwolfer for a long time. Last year, I added a creative 5.1 sound card to my PC build which allowed me to get the most out of my 2.1 system. This Fathers Day, my wife asked what I wanted and I knew it was time to upgrade to a 5.1 surround sound system. The Logitech X-540 system got great reviews, had the watts I wanted and was the right price. Set up went smoothly and after a reboot, I was able to adjust my creative 5.1 sound card software to get the most out of the new system. My first impressions are mostly positive. The pros are: - The sound is crisp and clean which I thought tinny at first until I adjusted my sound card graphics equalizer. I'll let the sound pros on the other reviews discuss the details. Overall, I like the sound quality which is just right for a PC system. As other reviews have noted, the bass is also good. I'm still playing with the frequency crossover on my sound card software so I don't have it dialed in quite yet. - The rotating speaker stands are genus; you can rotate to stand on the desk or rotate to hang on the wall. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the center speaker fit snugly on the monitor and isn't in danger of falling off. - The speakers appear to be well constructed and don't buzz when you dial up the volume. - I really like the wired remote which allows you to adjust the volume, turn on/off, adjust the bass and to use a matrix button for PC's that lack a 5.1 surround sound card. My previous system had the power switch on the subwolfer and was hard to get too; most of the time, I left the power on. - I like the fact that Logitech uses RCA cords rather than speaker wire for each speaker. The cons are: - As other reviews have noted, the cords are too short. I planned ahead for the satellite speakers and purchased a 25' extension cable to hang the rear right/left speakers on the opposite wall but the front right/left speaker cords should be 8' not 6'. The center wire was 8' and just right. - There isn't a speaker grill on the bottom of the subwolfer. Yes, the subwolfer sits on the floor and is downward firing. However, if you should pick the subwolfer up to move it for some reason, there is the tendancy to reach too far under it and poke the speaker with a finger. Overall Impressions: - I think many of the negative reviews for this system are because they don't have a 5.1 sound card. I wouldn't have bought a surround sound system without one. I moved my 2.1 system to my wife's PC which doesn't have a sound card and it isn't the same. - I don't think I would use this system for a TV (no special reason just a preference). While this system works great for a PC, I prefer a larger system for my TV. I currently have an older, more powerful Sony shelf surround sound system that works great with my directv receiver, Wei, and DVD player. - Once I hang the rear speakers on the opposite wall, I hope to be able to enjoy a true surround sound experience (still waiting for my extension cables). Even without the speaker separation, the system still sounds great.

Bottom line... If you don't have a computer with three audio outputs(rear speaker, front speaker, sub)I think you are better off looking at something else. If you have three mini-jack audio outputs to plug into, you are all set and have full controll over sound levels on all speakers from your pc/mac/whatever. If you have three sets of rca plugs to hook up to on a stereo or such, you are provided with one mini-jack to rca converter and will need to get two more to connect the rear and sub channels for full audio control from the unit this is hooked up to. This unit itself does not have any control of speaker levels aside from the main volume. You CAN hook this up by just using the green front audio input mini-jack, which provides music to the front speakers but then if you wish to expand the music to the rear and sub, you simply push the "matrix" buttom on the volume control box and then all speakers play. This works, but not all that well. Without independant control of the volume levels of the front/rear/sub you can't really tweak the sound to make the most of what a 5.1 surround system should be. I started by hooking up my ipod/iphone to just the green front speaker mini-jack input and using the "matrix feature to get "surround sound." It's not bad audio when set up like this, but sometimes you can hardly hear the rear speakers. The front, center and sub all sound great set up like this but without a volume control of the rear speakers, you really don't have the control needed to dial in great audio. I am going to be hooking these up to a computer that has the three plugs, and therefor full control of speaker levels, so I am giving it 5 stars for sound quality, appearance, cost, shipping time, and shipping condition. Oh yeah, speaker cable/wire length, it comes with what I feel to be fair lengths but if you want to really spread these out you will need to extend them (the speakers are connected to the back of the sub with rca connectors, so rca extensions will be needed for this. I did extend the two rear speakers for my needs). It's not Bose, but it is a fraction of the cost and it sounds really good!

I am so impressed with this product, and im glad I went with my gut on this one. For only being 70 watts, this thing packs a punch. The bass is indeed booming, and has a nice deep sound instead of a high pitch sound like other cheap systems. I personally use this for my blu-ray player and xbox 360. And I will give it 2 thumbs up. And one thing I really like about it.. is the fact that when you connect the speakers to the subwoofer... it has regular av cables instead of those wires with the copper exposed. This is much better and less annoying. Ive been playing halo reach on this baby, and the booming bass you get from when you throw a grenade is awesome!! The Matrix mode makes sound come out of all the speakers, but in a 5.1 way :3 . As for me... I didnt put the speakers all around the room... like you would normally do with surround sound. I instead just put them all around my tv, so that all the speakers face me. And that works just as well. So yes I highly recommend this if your a xbox gamer and want lots of good sounding bass for your grenades :). I would like to add that the wires for each speaker is really meant for a small room. Which is good for me since I have a 11x11 room. I would say that the rear speakers probably reach about 14ft, so keep that in mind. So to get surround sound on your xbox...all you have to do is connect all the speakers to the subwoofer as you normally do. Then get the attachment cable that comes with the product which is a green connector jack attached to a red and white audio attachment. Plug the jack cable that has the colors green, black and I believe the other is orange (its all in one) into the green slot on the back of the subwoofer ( so pretty much only plug the green one, and forget the others). Then plug that cable to the green attachment cord with the red and white on the other end. Then plug the red and white audio jack from your xbox into the red and white attachment I told you about earlier. Then press matrix button on the remote that connected to the subwoofer, and then booya surround sound :) . These speakers sound as good as a 300 or 400 dollar set. P.s .. if you want to have these speakers connected while having your xbox connected with a hdmi as I have it.... I recommend buying the separate audio out for the xbox... which is like 5 bucks on amazon.

I really like these speakers because they provide very decent sound (and volume) for the price. One word of caution, though. The subwoofer speaker is mounted on the outside bottom of the subwoofer cabinet, so be careful when you lift it that you don't put your fingers through the speaker. I would have liked to see some protection covering that speaker, but it still wasn't enough to take away a star. Since I do a lot of audio work, I was looking for these speakers to give me a good auditory experience. You won't be able to use these to mix down a commercial CD, but they do provide good clean sound. The key is to find a good balance between the overall volume and the sub volume. The wired remote makes this easy, but since no two songs are mixed the same, you may have to adjust this balance more than once. The matrix button can make things overly bright (naturally, because you just popped 2 high end drivers into the array), but again, you can often balance that with more sub (or less overall) to get a decent mix. I did find that the front speaker wires were shorter than they should be, but that only hurt me with the right front speaker. I just swapped the right front and left rear speakers (rear have longer wires) and the problem was solved without having to buy extension cables. Just make sure you plug the speakers into the correct jacks if you use this solution. So my real rating would probably be 4 1/2 stars, taking away 1/2 for the exposed sub driver and short front speaker wires. But the quality and volume I get out this package was well worth the price, so I decided to round up. These speakers were a pleasant surprise. Update 01/19/2013 After recommending these to a friend, I noticed the price had increased substantially. I purchased these in 2010 for approx $89 US, so they were a great value for the price. Seeing them selling for over $200, I would not rate them so high for that price. This doesn't change my opinion of the sound quality for general listening, but I would have expected a higher level of manufacturing quality and better sound controls for over $200.

I bought this speaker set to replace an old one that was dying, as well as to upgrade to surround sound. The sound quality is pretty good. It's not audiophile-level quality, but is better than I expected in this price range. I also like the control pod, which is a must in a modern speaker set. The pod also has a headphone jack, but I end up using the one on the computer itself. If I'm playing a game and have it configured for 5.1, the center channel doesn't get mixed into the stereo that the headphones use. If I plug into the computer directly, it mixes the center channel into both L and R. Cables are plenty long enough for my use, which is a desktop speaker system. I would not use this for a TV unless it were in a small space. Besides, you're better off with a real audio receiver and speakers in that case. It does NOT have a digital audio input. It does, however, include three stereo cables (front L/R, read L/R, and center/sub). So you would be hard-pressed to find something other than a computer to plug this in to. Even with the minor nits to pick I give this five stars, simply because I bought it for a specific purpose and it excels at that purpose. 2019 Update: Seven years later and it still sounds great. Again, it is not the absolute best sound but it is certainly not a lower-tier sound system. However, I have one gripe that came up a few years ago. The RCA connection to the front left speaker craps out sometimes. I will get diminished or no sound through that speaker, and it happens randomly. I have to reseat the RCA connector and test in the Windows sound control panel until it provides normal sound, then it works fine for anywhere from a few minutes to a few days. This is likely a problem in the cable itself. Maybe the wires inside are damaged? This started happening all of a sudden and I have never kinked the wires or otherwise mistreated them. Manufacturing defect? I don't know, but I will likely end up cutting off the existing connector and splicing on a new one. Thankfully I have a soldering iron and know how to do minor electronics repair - I have replaced enough cheap-o capacitors in various devices to be confident doing this. But if someone without those skills encountered the same problem, this would be quite frustrating. For this reason, I am docking one star from my initial review.

I needed 5.1 surround sound to play Skyrim, 2.1 speakers just won't do it for that game on Windows 7. I decided on these even though they are not the newest out there, but neither is my system. These give great, clear sound throughout the range. I am using an older audio card, Audigy 2, and had to install the latest drivers to get these to perform properly with Win 7, but they are really excellent. The wired remote is fine, good volume and bass control at your fingertips. I don't use the headphone jack but I did test it and it worked as expected. There is a mode to emulate 5.1 with a stereo source. I tried this out and it actually sounded very good. Mine are mounted as follows: fronts alongside my monitor, center on top of monitor, bass on the bottom shelf of my computer stand under my printer, and the rear speakers mounted on the ceiling about 5 feet behind me. Had to drill the speaker base and use screw anchors for the ceiling mount--the rears are designed for wall mount but the modification wasn't very hard to do. The wires for the rears are 14 feet long, so I purchased 10 foot extension cables for a few bucks (cheaper here than at Radio Shack) and I fished the wires through the ceiling. Measure where you plan to locate the rears and allow for going up the wall etc. The sound is really immersive this way. I use mid range volume and so do not experience any fade or distortion. Actually, when set at half volume the sound is way too loud for me. A true audiophile might detect some loss compared to a more expensive set of speakers but my guess is that most users won't. I am so glad I got these and I highly recommend them to anyone who needs 5.1 speakers and doesn't want to spend a fortune. Prompt delivery, two days early, even with slowest free shipping. You can't go wrong.

These speakers were easy to setup, but not the best. the sub-woofer is extremely underpowered, and the bass/matrix adjustments are useless. it works well for a small room, and even for a video game console. the sound separation and quality is very good, except when you adjust the bass too high it gets static-ey. at about 25-40% of its peak is a good spot. the cords for the front two speakers are too short. if you place the subwoofer on the ground, it will barely go under a desk and reach above your head when sitting down. the center and rear two speakers have a good length of cord that can probably go about 7.5 feet high if you need them to. the way they hang on the wall isn't the best, but it works. the base of the speakers twist to allow you to hang them or place them on the desk (3 of the 4 of mine are mounted crooked because the base/speaker do not line up). the only bad thing is that the balancing of the weight is very poor. it looks like this is a common design for all of the Logitech speakers. the nail is placed at the bottom of the speaker, while all of the weight is above the nail. as for the monitor mount in this set, it works extremely well with my LCD screen. it hasn't moved at all and is in an extremely good spot. overall they are worth the 50 bucks i got them for, but if you really are looking for something that is a good quality and has the overall movie experience, i would look at getting the 5300 or if you want top of line 5500 from Logitech (they are THX certified and the subwoofer is over 200 and 500 watts respectively vs. the 70 watts on this system) i am overall satisfied with the product, and i enjoy the quality and ease of use with the remote. i just wish the front 2 speaker cords were a few feet longer. -nabokovfan87 note: the speaker for the subwoofer is on the base of the speaker. meaning you will need some wood or something to set it on if you have carpet.

I've used every type of sound system there is except 7.1, and I was not dissatisfied with this system. I've been studying for the best True 5.1 surround sound system for its price and here it is. The volume control is perfect for me because it lays to the left of my keyboard for me to adjust the sound quickly on the fly. Warning: depending on your speaker setup you'll spend a bit of time adjusting your individual speaker levels on your computer. The back speakers were too quiet for me: Maybe they were too quiet because I set all 5 speakers equally distant from me. The quiet rear speakers were easy to make louder by simply raising their levels in Windows. I enjoyed gaming with this system. Games like Half-Life 2, Resident Evil 5, Dead Space (Really any game that supports 5.1 sound) sound brand new. It just feels great to hear sounds come from behind you than hear those sounds in front of you with them warped a certain way so that you know they came from behind. This system is great for identifying precisely what direction a sound came from, and it helps a lot in games where you need to know where a noise came from like Left 4 Dead. Matrix mode is flawed and sometimes doesn't work with certain programs, but I don't really care or mind some videos on Youtube and Hulu only shooting audio out of the front speakers. Anything important to me works on all 5 speakers with excellent separation of sounds! I recommend this to anyone who wants a 5.1 sound system with an amazingly cheap price for the quality. I bought this for $85, including shipping.