The Z-560 comes with 4 identical one-way satellite speakers, a front firing subwoofer with an 8" driver, a handy control box (called the SoundTouch Control Center) and all the required wires and cables. The SoundTouch Control Center has controls for power, master volume, surround (called fader), and subwoofer levels and a button for a DSP based feature called M3D Matrix technology. The Control Center also has an amplified headphone jack. More on these controls and features follows below. Each satellite speaker comes with a self-supporting pedestal that can be reversed and used as a wall mount.

The total system is rated to deliver 35Hz-20kHz. As with almost every multimedia speaker the subwoofer cabinet also houses the amplifier. In the case of the Logitech Z-560 the amplifier uses a 400-watt RMS, 53 Watts going to each satellite and 188 Watts to the subwoofer.

It’s clear right from first sight that Logitech has put a lot of emphasis on the satellite styling and external build quality. The speaker wires attachments use a binding post style, something usually found only on quality hi-fi components. The grills are removable and the metal stands can also be removed and reversed to allow for wall mounting. Moving to the actual drivers it gets even more interesting.

Each of the four fairly large (approximately 15 cm (6") x 10.2 cm (4") x 8.9 cm (3.5") (HxWxD) not factoring the stand which adds about an inch or the removable grill which adds about another 3.81 cm (1.5 inches) to the depth – (measured by me as no measurements provided by Logitech) use a fourth order front ported design. While most multimedia subwoofers are ported most multimedia satellites use a sealed design. Logitech does not get into specifics of why they used this design but it likely has something to do with the characteristics of their choice of driver. It’s also clear there is a small extension in the upper bass range resulting from the port which appears to be tuned to a peak frequency of about 190 Hz with a fairly sharp roll-off (down 10 dB at 86 Hz).

According to Logitech, the phase plug design offers several advantages over the more commonly used dust cap using drivers. First they say it reduces moving mass. Less mass, equates to higher sensitivity which in turn allows for a higher Sound Pressure Level (SPL) at any given wattage. Elimination of the dust cap means no stored energy in cap and no resonant energy behind cap. The phase plug adds thermal mass, which results in improved power handling. Finally the phase plug reduces time smearing, the effect of the same sound reaching the ears at different times, thereby resulting in less coloration of the sound. Of course you also see very expensive systems without phase plugs which clearly indicates that it’s not as cut and dry as Logitech would have you believe.

No parameters (e.g. +/- 3 dB) are placed on the systems stated frequency response and the crossover point between the satellites and subwoofer is not specified.

The bass-reflex subwoofer cabinet houses a single front firing 8" high excursion driver covered by a metal grill to protect the cone. The port is side mounted and is a very large radius, highly flared design that has been optimized to prevent turbulent port noise on high intensity bass notes.

When a port/box combination is properly tuned, low frequency air vibrations within the port are in phase with the cone motion and output is increased (it’s also worth noting that the sub must also be in phase with the satellites). A ported subwoofer cabinet can improve the deep bass efficiency as much as 50 to 100 percent over a similar sized sealed box. To be clear it’s not overall more efficient if it’s using the same driver as a sealed box. The effect of the port is to either improve the depth of the output by 1/3 octave or boost the output in that 1/3 octave. As noted, Logitech indicates that the sub is capable of reaching down to an impressive 35 Hz but as noted, no +/- dB parameter is offered.

We can also point out that most multimedia subwoofer use a ported design of one type or another. A notable exception is the newly release MegaWorks line from Cambridge SoundWorks which use an acoustic suspension enclosure (i.e. it’s not ported). For more on these subs you can check out our review of the MegaWorks 510D.

In the promotional material Logitech points out that they use a true linear design that is powered by a "massive toroidal power supply, the likes of which is usually only seen on much more expensive systems". In their press material Logitech also makes a point of emphasizing that their power rating is sustained Watts RMS measured to FTC standards in a not so subtle dig at Klipsch’s use of Burst Watts RMS or Maximum Burst Output. Interestingly, despite those claims they don’t actually make the parameters (primarily the THD and frequencies tested at for the subwoofer and satellites) of their power rating available as called for by the FTC standards. Much more detail on the effective loudness of the system will follow in the review but for now we can tell you that the output power has 53 Watts going to each satellite and 188 Watts to the subwoofer. In addition to the RMS rating the product box that my review unit came in specifies a maximum sound pressure level of 114 dB and an impressive signal to noise ratio of 100 dB (A-weighted).

Regardless of claims and counter claims, the power specifications are very impressive and very similar to the ProMedia 4.1 which sends 60 Watts Burst RMS, to each satellite and 160 Watts Bust RMS), respectively, to it’s dual subwoofer drivers. Our understanding is the Peak Maximum Burst Output differs from sustained Watts RMS in that the test period does not to exceed 30 seconds but this has not been confirmed by Klipsch.

The bottom line is that Klipsch still considers this PMBO rating to be Watts RMS but with the difference Watts RMS is most often given as a continuous measurement and Klipsch is using a maximum burst RMS measurement. According to Klipsch, if you put a continuous RMS and a Maximum Burst RMS amplifier in the same setup, you will not hear a difference in loudness between the two using typical real world material. They go on to note that the maximum burst test is designed to more closely mimic standard program material, so that modern amplifiers can be optimized for the application.

We have also seen some efforts by other reviewers to pull the Z-560 apart and from the individual components determine what the system appears capable of. While we don’t deny that this can be interesting information, our approach is to not dwell on trying to debunk raw power numbers. Our rationale is as an integrated system it’s more interesting to focus on the actual real world performance of the whole system where driver efficiency and design play a large part. This gets covered in the results of our loudness tests later in the review.

On the rear of the Z-560 subwoofer you will find a massive heat sink, a standard power cord, a DIN input for the control tower and four pairs of spring clip speaker connectors for the four output channels. The connection to the outputting device (typically a 4 channel sound card) comes by the way of two cables that are permanently attached to the control pod and terminate at the other end with PC99 color coded stereo mini-jacks.

The satellites are connected to the subwoofer/amplifier by utilizing the bare end of the provided (1.83 m (6 foot) front and 4.57 m (15 foot) rear) unattached 20 gauge sections of speaker wires. The other ends are connected to the back of the Z-560 satellites via binding posts. While some have made a big deal of this step I think it’s important to remember that at the other end the standard spring clips used to attach wires to many multimedia satellites are still used on the amplifier connections on the rear of the subwoofer. To me this makes the binding post approach on the Z-560 satellites more of a marketing tool than a notable performance improvement. Still, it’s does offer a quality connection to the satellites that overall is more flexible and effective than the 1/8" mono mini-jacks used by the ProMedia 4.1. Many people including myself sometimes found that those particular mini-jack connections would oxidize and result a scratchy) connections (easily fixed by jiggling the jack a bit).

The SoundTouch Control Center as noted has controls that lets users fine tune the listening environment with separate controls for power, M3D, volume, fader and bass. The unit can either sit horizontally or vertically in a stand that clips into one end. This unit attaches to the amplifier in the subwoofer cabinet via a DIN connection. It has the front and rear mini-jack connectors that go to what ever sound card or other outputting device you are using with the system.

When the power is on a cool blue light rings the larger master volume control that equally affects front and rear channel levels. As noted above the fader control is actually a rear volume control and the level can be turned completely off. That’s not the case for the subwoofer control and in fact almost my only complaint about this system is the fact that I would like the ability to turn the subwoofer level down a bit beyond the minimum possible.

This has been changed on the production unit to allow for lower subwoofer levels. However, you still can’t turn it right down and we don’t yet know how significant this change is but according to several reports those looking for much lower relative subwoofer response may still find it a bit high.

The headphone jack when in use automatically mutes the main speaker outputs. It functions the same way whether the power control on the SoundTouch Control Center is on or off, provided of course the unit is connected to a power supply. Sound quality from the headphone jack is very good and volume levels are excellent even when using my 150 Ohm impedance Sennheiser HD525 headphones. The M3D button is surround by a ring that emits a green light when the feature is enabled.

A frequent point of discussion on this system in our forums has been the build quality of the SoundTouch Control Center. Overall I find the quality is what one might expect for a $200 system which means it’s just fine to do what it was designed to do but does not ooze of quality, particularly compared to the rest of the system. Mostly that impressions comes from feel of the surround and bass control rheostats, which have a bit of a spongy or sticky feel to them when at either extreme. In addition, the volume control when the system is at low volumes (less than 60 dB for music with the sound card gain near maximum) is unbalanced with clearly more volume from the right channel than the left channel. This is as noted only an issue at very low volumes so not what I would consider a real issue. It’s also something others have reported on retail units so I know it’s not limited to the pre-production model.

If you have ever put a standard stereo source through a Pro Logic decoder then you will have a good idea of what the M3D Matrix technology sound like. M3D Matrix technology is a method of extracting the natural hall ambience hidden in 2 channel music sources to present a realistic surround sound effect with no artificial reverb or echo. It has no impact on the front channel output.

With M3D mode enabled the rear inputs of the Z-560 are completely disabled, so you won't want to use the M3D effects on any true 4 channel source material. In this mode the rear volume control instead allows you to set the strength of the M3D effects sent to the rear speakers.

The key differences from the Pro Logic effect and the reason why I think it sounds clearly better than the Pro Logic generated surround channel from stereo sources is, unlike Pro Logic, the M3D effect is not frequency limited so there is good bass and high frequency performance. That's not to say that high frequency response on the ambient surround effects is that important but to me it makes a notable positive difference. Just as with Pro Logic the M3D effect is always a mono effect, that is regardless of the source originating from the left or right channel the surround effect will come equally from both channels. That's unlike Creative's CMSS Music Mode, which, while sharing the Pro Logic frequency limitation, is a stereo surround effect. The CMSS Music mode can be found on the DTT2500, DTT3500 and likely Inspire 5700 speaker systems. QSound's QMSS, found on sound cards such as the Acoustic Edge, will give the best of both worlds with a full frequency stereo effect on the generated surround channels.

Getting back to M3D, just as with a Pro Logic decoder, any material that is in exact center will not play from the surround channels with M3D enabled. The result is you will often get a nice effect with any centered vocals staying with only the front speakers and just some of the instruments duplicated into the M3D generated surround channel.

Note that while there is clearly some appropriate front, center and surround channel separation on native Pro Logic material it is not a Pro Logic decoder and as such as not nearly as effective as such a decoder when it comes to full surround/front channel separation. That is, unlike an actual Pro Logic decoder there is a lot of leakage of front channel material into the surrounds and vice versa.

For more details on other stereo to 4 or 5.1 technologies you can check out our Stereo to 4 or 5.1 Expansion Technologies article.

Abit SP50

Altec Lansing ACS 56

Altec Lansing ACS 54

Altec Lansing ADA880 Dolby Digital

Altec Lansing ATP3

Boston Acoustics BA4800

Boston Acoustics BA7500

Cambridge Soundworks FPS1000

Cambridge SoundWorks FPS2000 digital

Cambridge SoundWorks 2.1 Digital

Cambridge SoundWorks DeskTop Theater 5.1 DTT2500

Cambridge SoundWorks DeskTop Theater 5.1 DTT3500

Cambridge SoundWorks MegaWorks 510D

Diamond Audio Technology ProMedia 3205

Klipsch ProMedia 2.1

Klipsch ProMedia 4.1

Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 Initial Review

Labtec APX 4620 Review

Labtec Edge-418 Flat Panel

Labtec's LCS-2514

Logitech SoundMan Xtrusio DSR-100

Logitech Z-560 Initial Review

MidiLand MLi-490

MidiLand S4-7100

MidiLand S4-7100 Plus

Monsoon MM-1000

Monsoon MM-2000

Philips MMS305 4.1 Initial Review

Polk Audio AMR-150

Polk Audio AMR-130

Videologic Sirocco

Videologic Sirocco Pro

Videologic DigiTheatre 5.1

VideoLogic DigiTheatre DTS

Videologic Sirocco Crossfire