Labs

Logitech's flagship Z-5500 speakers came top in our home-cinema Labs in Shopper 242, so we were curious to see how well they would perform in a PC-based environment. The main challenge is finding a home for the subwoofer, which measures 300x455x300mm. The stylish wired remote houses triple-analogue plus optical and coaxial digital inputs. Dolby Digital and DTS decoding is built in, but this isn't so relevant to PC users, as DVD-playback software can decode these formats and few PCs have digital audio outputs.

The subwoofer is capable of deep, focused bass at volumes that made us fear for our internal organs, and the satellites had no problems keeping up. At less terrifying volumes, music was full-bodied and detailed, and the tone was brighter than Logitech's G51 and the studio sets. This accentuated the surround effect in games and DVDs and flattered some music, but made other music sound aggressive.