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Posted: December 4th, 2001
Written by: Tuan Huynh
The Test
DVD Performance
When testing DVD performance, I used Cyberlink Power DVD 4.0 XP set to 4 speaker mode. Dusing playback of the “Neo” demo on The Ultimate DVD Platinum, I turned M3D on and off to compare the sound. The quality of the sound was astonishing and not what I had expected from Logitech. The satellites sounded clear, the subwoofer was powerful and made the ground shake. When enabling M3D, the already good sound became better, bringing a feel of a virtual center channel to the 4.1 system.
Quality-wise, the Z560’s match if not surpass the Klipsch Pro Media 4.1 and Altec Lansing ADA890’s. This is surprising coming from Logitech, especially when the Z560’s cost about 1/3 the price of the Klipsch.
Gaming
For the usual gaming test, I fired up Counter Strike and joined some random server to play. While I’m not the best Counter Strike player, in fact I suck at the game. Nonetheless, the Half Life engine has one of the best 3D Sound audio engines up to date and is a good gauge for subjective audio testing.
The server I joined had about 20 people with gunfire going on everywhere. With gunfire going on everywhere, the speakers did a great job recreating the experience with clarity from the satellites and enough bass to disturb your family while they’re sleeping.
Just when I thought normal sound was good, I turned on M3D and was surprised. Rather then having all 4 channels output the same volume, the rear channels were ambient and only outputted aloud when there was gunfire nearby instead of outputting the same volume when the gunfire is far away.
If you’re an avid gamer and looking for a set of speakers to enhance your gaming experience, the Z560’s do a great job outputting the sound from your games.
Winamp
For music testing, I switched between M3D and normal 4 Channel (Stereo x2 mode via GTXP drivers) to hear which mode sounded better by playing various high quality MP3’s. After listening to a few songs with M3D and normal 4 channels, the clear winner is of course M3D. When listening to music, M3D makes the music sound like it was originally coded in Surround Sound. The rear channels replicate the front channels with greater ambience making it sound more like Surround Sound instead of Stereo x2 normally used by sound cards.
If you’re looking for bass, the Z560 subwoofer is top notch for bumping your favorite bass-filled tracks. To fully test the bass, I loaded up the old school hit by Sir Mixalot – “Baby Got Back” and maxed out the bass control. The song started off with clear sound coming out of the speakers with the girls talking, and then when the first bass signal came, I could feel the bass vibrating my chairs. If you’re into bass, the 188 watt Z560 subwoofer is for you.
To make sure the sound doesn’t distort or rattle at high levels, I turned the volume control up nearly all the way while listening to “Baby Got Back” and heard no static, distortion, or rattling. Logitech has indeed done their homework while developing the Z560’s.
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