FutureFive New Zealand - Consumer technology news & reviews from the future
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Review: Logitech Z323 Speakers
Fri, 1st Jul 2011
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Whether you’re a laptop user who wants some speakers for your desk or you just want an inexpensive set for your desktop PC, this is a great starting point.

The set is comprised of a subwoofer with two satellite speakers. It connects to your computer via a standard 3.5mm jack or a 2 channel RCA cable.

When setting up the speakers, there is enough cable for the subwoofer to sit on the floor with the two speakers placed on your desk. The right hand speaker has an easy to use volume control that also turns the unit on or off.

When you don’t want its 30 watts (RMS) filling your room with sound, you can plug headphones into a headphone jack on the side of the right hand speaker. This may not sound exciting, but remember that the actual speaker set is using the headphone jack on your computer, so this feature saves swapping cables when you need headphones.

Next to the headphone jack is an auxiliary input, which is also extremely useful. This enables you to have your main desktop PC plugged in at all times, plus from time to time play music from another device like an iPhone. Its position next to the headphone jack also prevents scrambling around the back of your PC to plug in the second source device. To use this auxiliary input you will need an additional 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable (but they are not expensive).

While the unit includes the ability to plug in a DVD player or game console via RCA, if you are serious about gaming or movies we recommend you check out one of Logitech’s five speaker sets. Likewise, those wanting to transport the speakers won’t appreciate the subwoofer’s size.  But for the vast majority of kiwis wanting a set of speakers for their home or small office, we couldn’t fault them.

PROS: Inexpensive, conveniently located headphone jack and auxiliary input.

CONS: For what you’re paying, we couldn’t find much to complain about.