Review of Logitech X-540 Speakers

!±8± Review of Logitech X-540 Speakers

With the recent announcement of their 0 5.1 surround sound speaker set, the Z506, Logitech has made yet another splash in the affordable sound solutions pool. While Logitech audio products have quite a bit of range on their price points (their popular Z-5500 surround sound system retails for around 0,) the company has recently sought to tap further into the "budget" market, and their X-540 speaker set did that beautifully. Much like the Z506, the X-540 is a 0 5.1 surround sound system. It was first released in late 2006 to warm critical reception, but took off in popularity as time went on. Reviewers both professional and amateur tend to agree that the X-540 delivers solid performance, particularly for a device as cheap as it is. My opinion tends to be that the most attractive part of this set is the price tag; while the speakers function well, bias can enter into the assessment of the product's performance in that thinking "for what I paid, this is well above what I expected." That said, I tried to review this product objectively, without factoring price too heavily into the equation.

First, the speakers set up beautifully, with the only issue I noticed being not enough cable length (you get a few feet; enough for most computer/TV setups, but setting up an entire room as a music hub could be problematic). Other than this, however, I liked the way the actual components connect to walls/platforms/monitors; their aesthetic isn't bad either. When you get to watching movies/playing games, you notice that while the sound is clear, the output is weaker than you'd expect, both in the left/right speakers and the bass unit. As far as games and movies are concerned, this really isn't a problem, but I wouldn't recommend using these speakers as part of a music setup.

As far as I know, these speakers have an extremely long life, although this is somewhat stereotypical of Logitech products. I haven't owned these speakers for more than a year, but I've seen reports that claim the life of these sets can exceed 3 years. Overall, the budget aspect of these speakers is what gives them their appeal, but as far as speakers are concerned, they don't lag that far behind more expensive models in quality. While "you get what you pay for" will always be applicable to products like this, Logitech has proven that you can get away with paying a bit less while still getting a quality product.