I had high expectations for these speakers, based on their glowing user reviews. The Z-2300 is an exceptionally popular set amongst PC enthusiasts, even today (6 years since their release!). Unfortunately, Logitech designed these speakers for maximum profit. They're a step or two above your average set of PC speakers, but certainly nothing special. In fact, the predecessor to the Z-2300's (Google "Logitech Z-2200") was a beefier system, with larger satellites and generally higher sound quality. Logitech wisely realized that the average consumer would still be impressed with a bit less, so they released the inferior Z-2300. I purchased the Z-2300's not long after Z-2200's were discontinued, hoping they wouldn't be too much of a disappointment.
I remember my initial opinion vividly back in 2004. As Windows XP fired up and played the start-up jingle, I thought, "That's it?!" It sounded like someone had turned the treble slider way down. Moving on to music further revealed the Z-2300's true qualities: Super boomy bass, indiscrete highs due to a lack of tweeters, and very weak mids due to the tiny 2.5" drivers. Logitech compensated for the small drivers by raising the subwoofer crossover frequency to an unpleasantly high point (150Hz or so), but all this did was muddy things up.
To top it off, the volume control has poor balance at the lower 10-20% threshold of its potentiometer rotation. This results in a very annoying Left/Right imbalance at low volumes. Plus, the potentiometer creates a "scratchy" sound when turned beyond about 50%. I've since reverse-engineered the remote control and produced a higher quality version. Logitech's remote construction was surprisingly shoddy (very cheap single-layer PCB with junk foreign components and 5% resistor tolerances). No wonder it worked so poorly. Google "replacement Z-2300 remote" for images.
It's also a shame that all cords are hardwired to the components, including the speaker wires. This really limits proper speaker/subwoofer placement in large rooms, such as a finished basement. Staging is essential to proper sound reproduction. In general, placing brilliant speakers with poor staging yields worse sound than well-staged mediocre speakers. Bad speakers + bad staging = Utter failure. And thus, another failure of the Z-2300's.
SUMMARY: To any audiophile, don't waste your money on the Z-2300's. Buy a cheap stereo receiver and bookshelf speakers instead. I promise you they'll sound 10000x better.
If you already own Z-2300's, here's some good news: The internal amplifiers consist of decent A/B class chip amps. THD is unacceptably high at upper volumes, but acceptable (for PC speakers) at normal volumes. Anyway, you can replace the junk 2.5" satellites with a set of budget 5.25" or larger bookshelf speakers (8 ohms is perfectly fine). RadioShack sells an appropriate RCA-to-speaker wire cord. This also solves staging inadequacies. You'll be stuck with the Z-2300's high crossover, so choose speakers with somewhat weak mid-bass. My Z-2300 system is currently paired with a 32" TV and a set of Polk R15's. It could still sound better.
I remember my initial opinion vividly back in 2004. As Windows XP fired up and played the start-up jingle, I thought, "That's it?!" It sounded like someone had turned the treble slider way down. Moving on to music further revealed the Z-2300's true qualities: Super boomy bass, indiscrete highs due to a lack of tweeters, and very weak mids due to the tiny 2.5" drivers. Logitech compensated for the small drivers by raising the subwoofer crossover frequency to an unpleasantly high point (150Hz or so), but all this did was muddy things up.
To top it off, the volume control has poor balance at the lower 10-20% threshold of its potentiometer rotation. This results in a very annoying Left/Right imbalance at low volumes. Plus, the potentiometer creates a "scratchy" sound when turned beyond about 50%. I've since reverse-engineered the remote control and produced a higher quality version. Logitech's remote construction was surprisingly shoddy (very cheap single-layer PCB with junk foreign components and 5% resistor tolerances). No wonder it worked so poorly. Google "replacement Z-2300 remote" for images.
It's also a shame that all cords are hardwired to the components, including the speaker wires. This really limits proper speaker/subwoofer placement in large rooms, such as a finished basement. Staging is essential to proper sound reproduction. In general, placing brilliant speakers with poor staging yields worse sound than well-staged mediocre speakers. Bad speakers + bad staging = Utter failure. And thus, another failure of the Z-2300's.
SUMMARY: To any audiophile, don't waste your money on the Z-2300's. Buy a cheap stereo receiver and bookshelf speakers instead. I promise you they'll sound 10000x better.
If you already own Z-2300's, here's some good news: The internal amplifiers consist of decent A/B class chip amps. THD is unacceptably high at upper volumes, but acceptable (for PC speakers) at normal volumes. Anyway, you can replace the junk 2.5" satellites with a set of budget 5.25" or larger bookshelf speakers (8 ohms is perfectly fine). RadioShack sells an appropriate RCA-to-speaker wire cord. This also solves staging inadequacies. You'll be stuck with the Z-2300's high crossover, so choose speakers with somewhat weak mid-bass. My Z-2300 system is currently paired with a 32" TV and a set of Polk R15's. It could still sound better.
