Logitech z600 Bluetooth Desktop Speakers Review

So im on the lookout for a new pair of desktop speakers, but i wanted a specific pair that had features i was looking for. Primarily the following.

• Bluetooth connectivity
• Good quality all round sound
• Enough bass to support the type of music i like listening to
• No cables (or minimum cables) for a clean desktop environment

So far i have tested 2 pairs of speakers the Edifier s25 and these speakers the z600 speakers.

There are a few reviews around that give some positive reviews on these speakers, each to their own, thats the beauty of leaving a review you will get an idea of what people think about them personally and then you make a choice on what choice you want to make.

Some highly recommendations i want to make before you go out spend your hard earn money based purely on a review.

• Do not purchase based on just a couple of reviews you have read
• If possible purchase from a brick and mortar store that allows returns and refunds
• If you grey import make sure you can return them for warranty, change of mind etc

The main reason for the above is purely to protect your purchase investment.

How many times have you purchased something online then to notice it was not what you expected or not quite right ? Its very hard to then return something from international online stores, not to mention it costs you more money in return postage.

Ok moving on.

I purchased this set of speakers from none other than my best friend Office Works.

Why, because they allow exchange, refunds with a receipt. They also dont ask you 100 questions when returning goods. As long as the item is good resell-able condition your ok.

Review Summary

Sound: 7.5 / 10
Build quality: 7.5/10
Style: 6/10
Connectivity: 5/10

The Review Breakdown

Sound: 7.5 / 10

After testing the Edifier s25 i was expecting something as good if not better because a few reviews did infact review these speakers as being a little bit better.

Maybe i was over expecting, but they did not deliver what i expected. They are good no doubt, but they do suffer some problems that i did not notice in the Edifier’s

The bad:

1. Woofer seems to be located on the bottom of the speaker, this most likely was done to give a better base response due to the enclosed nature of the speaker facing down towards the surface. The problem is though is that i could not help but notice a rumble on my desk and feet which was annoying to say the least. Who wants to feel their desk shake even at low volumes whilst working and listening to music ? 

   

2. The speakers are loud, no doubt it is almost impossible to put them at full volume. But the treble and mids overpower the lower bass frequencies, at high volumes it just turns into a spagetti of sounds. At lower volumes it sounds pretty nice with a balanced sound
3. I like to put my ear to the speaker for my own speaker to ear test for hissing sound. I could not help but hear and notice a hiss coming from the speaker, i thought it was the bluetooth connection so i tried via the AUX cable and i could still hear it but not as much, this leads me to believe its the speakers themselves, the higher the volume the more you hear the hiss at lower volumes it is not noticeable

The good:

1. The speakers are loud, just depending on the music you want to play will determine how loud you can go without distortion.
2. Decent overall sounds with decent bass, decent mids and treble sounds

Build Quality: 7.5 / 10

The bad

1. They seem a bit light on holding each speaker in your hands, compared to the Edifier’s, but there is a trade off here, they are compact so you cant have both.
2. The cable length does not seem to be long enough they are OK probably about 1.5 meters each speaker cable in length. If they were longer it would of been better as you would have more option for speaker placement.
3. The rubber grommets on the back that protect the ports have no latch to easily open then you need to have a pin or a sharp object handy to get to them easily.

The good

1. They are compact round cylinders so they will fit into any work space no problems.
2. There is no exposed parts, you cannot see the speakers themselves and it does not seem like you can remove the coverings. This can be good and bad depending on how you see it.
3. The speaker cable’s are flat design, you most likely wont have spagetti tangle problems under your desk and they also stand out from other tables so you can easily figure out what cables are what under your desk. The cables are also designed in a way you can easily hide them underneath things, eg.. skirting boards, or other devices giving you a cleaner desktop look
4. The buttons and connections on the back have little coverings that protect the ports

Style: 6/10

The bad

1. Personal opinion here, but im not really digging the round cylinder look as much as i wanted to. I cannot explain it, but i guess its something you either love or hate. I am trying to come to terms as to what i do not like and i think its the fact they really do not look like speakers in the first place, i think i like to see a tweeter and a woofer
2. The design of the speakers are like a cylinder on your desk you have no option to tilt them up. This probably means that the sound ends up coming through the speakers in a straight direction. If you think about it when your sitting at your desk the sound should be slightly faced upwards to hit your sweet spot (your ears) giving you a richer sound overall.
3. Because they are round cylinders and because the speaker covering pretty much goes all the way around, it is hard to know when the speaker is actually facing your direction properly.

The good

1. Space saving design you can put them into any environment and they would most likely fit
2. Easy access to volumn on the top of the speaker with a touch pad style control, you just keep turning your finger on the top of the speaker and the volume goes up or down

Connectivity: 5/10

The bad

1. The only reason i had to give this a bad score is because i simply could not get multiple devices connected at the same time and playing successfully, there is no support forums about it on the logitech forums and i tried for an hour to get this working successfully but it never worked.Actual bluetooth connectivity was easy and seemless, Windows 8.1 found the speakers very quickly and connected with no problems. The problems started when i wanted to connect a second device.These speakers are suppose to be able to pair 8 devices and have 3 devices connected simultaneously. This is fantastic (if only it worked).Once i had my first laptop connected and i then attempted to connect my Samsung Galaxy s4 it connected successfully, but when i went to play something i heard no sound.I went to my computer pressed paused, then came back to my phone pressed play and boom i heard the sound. I think thought wow its working, i pressed paused on my phone, pressed play again on my computer and i had no sound. This is when the issues happened, i had to disconnect reconnect to get sound again from my laptop and once that happened i had to to the same to the phone.This kept going on and on, WHY.This cant be this hard, the instructions are simple, pair both and press play and pause on each device the speakers will auto sense what is being played and only route the sound being played at once.

   Well in the end i gave up, it never worked. Considering these speakers are suppose to have this feature and they never worked for me it can assume this is a bug.

   It may work for you, maybe its my environment, but in the end this should of never happened and probably a bug in the software / drivers.

2. Well i have been using these speakers now for a good few days, switching between applications such as Spotify and Youtube and other apps, i have noticed a bug. Sometimes when in an app and you pause the music and switch to something else eg…. YouTube it will not switch the sound to bluetooth speaker it will revert to the internal laptop speakers. Hmmmmmm, does not always happen but another sign off some bugs.

The good

1. The ports are nicely integrated into the build of the device, it is a clean look
2. There is a bluetooth button you can press easily to pair speakers to a device
3. There is audible sounds when you turn them on, max volume, pairing so you know whats happening

Overall Experience

These speakers are nice and for $149 AUD from your local office works are a decent buy.

I am not entirely sure i would keep them for the fact that i think i do not like the cylinder shape much. I tend to like to see the speakers or at least have the option to remove the covering.

The sound is good, but i think that the base rumble on the desk will become a bit of a distraction for extended listening.

The fact that i could not get multiple devices connected at the same time means there is a problem, i do not want to spend my time troubleshooting, it should work out of the box.

NOTE: I am in no way affiliated with Logitech this is an honest and unbiased logitech z600 bluetooth desktop speakers review, i bought the speakers myself.