| Logitech Z-5500 5.1 Speakers |
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| Written by John C. | |
| Tuesday, 11 April 2006 | |
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The Subwoofer The new 10 inch subwoofer enclosure of the Z-5500 Digital makes the 8 inch box used for the Z-680 look tiny. Subwoofers are becoming more and more crucial to the home theater experience. The Z-5500 includes the biggest subwoofer Logitech has ever used for a speaker system. All things being equal, a bigger subwoofer produces more bass and more volume because it's more efficient. In other word, it can produce more volume for the same amount of power. Both the Z-680 and Z-5500 subwoofers are powered with 188 watts but the Z-5500 is able to produce a bigger bang. Like the Z-680, the Z-5500 plays a little marketing head game - the subwoofer is 10 inches but the subwoofer grill is 12 inches. People automatically assume the woofer is 12 inches when they see it. Depending on how much of a showoff you are, you can tell them the truth or let them go on assuming. The Z-5500 uses a very big enclosure because Logitech went with a ported design. Unlike the acoustic suspended design employed by other Logitech speakers, the Z-5500 makes use of its back wave via a large 4 inch tuned port located at the side of the enclosure. The sound coming out of the port is combined with the front wave from the woofer to double the output. All things being equal, a ported system can play twice as loud as a sealed acoustic suspended system with the same amount of power. The downside of a ported design is the enclosure needs to be a lot bigger than a sealed system and the design is more complex because both speaker and port have to be tuned as a single unit. Other problems of a ported system includes "one note" bass, boominess and port whistling. Also a ported system unloads when it tries to play music below its resonance frequency. However, when correctly done, a port system can play sound just as well as a sealed system and get louder for the same amount of power.  The back of the Z-5500 Digital is where all the action is - you'll find the heatsink of the huge 500 watt amp and all the speaker and line level connections. The layout is really well done, all the speaker leads are clearly labeled so you know which speaker connects to it. Audio input is via the Digital SoundTouch breakout box to the 15 pin plug. Shopping 
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