Clearly conscious that gamers wanted something a little more in the speakers department, Logitech put its collective brains to work on something that would satiate the most ardent gamer's desires, and came up with the G51.
Design
A 5.1 sound system, the G51 is a series of "champagne" off-coloured gold, silvers and blacks. While you could separate the identical-looking satellites into front and rear by colour matching the cable terminations with the sockets on the subwoofer, more likely you'll figure out which is which by cable length alone. We wouldn't mind something even more explicit demarcating which is which. The centre speaker of course is immediately identifiable due to its horizontal orientation.
The subwoofer itself has a down-facing cone, to rumble all the more, and potentially get the floor vibrating in sympathy. Everything plugs into the subwoofer, and there's even two additional RCA ports for a secondary input -- potentially for a gaming console or portable media player.
Features
The G51 carries a few interesting tricks up its sleeve that makes it appealing for gamers. Ignore the misguided waste of time that is "customising" the speakers by being able to insert a print-out beneath the plexiglass on the satellites. More interesting is the separated control panel that connects to the subwoofer via a 15-pin port.
This features a large jog dial in the middle that is capable of altering master volume, bass, centre positioning, and more impressively, surround. This means the rear speakers can be easily jacked up independently in volume, taking into account the varied living domains of gamers, and that you finally can hear that enemy creeping up behind when you're meant to.
A headphone and microphone jack are built into the control panel, and it even remembers the volume level independently of the speaker volume when you plug in your favourite cans. Annoyingly, you can't keep your headphones simply plugged in and switch between them and the speakers -- it turns off the speakers when you plug in you headphones, and turns them back on when you pull out. Although this is still more convenient than jumping behind your machine to plug into your headphone jack, we would have thought Logitech would have gone the full mile and simply included a button for switching, eliminating the need to plug in repeatedly.
There are separate mute buttons for both volume and microphone, a "Matrix Mode" button that simply upscales 2-channel sound to 5.1, and a power button to shut the whole thing off.
Performance
Letting blast with an array of music heading from the heavy metal (Karnivool's "Themata") to classical (Carl Orff's "O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana) and pop (Barenaked Ladies' "Bull in a China Shop"), then loading up Half Life 2 for some blasting, we lent the G51s our sharpest ear.
The good news: Gamers will love them. They're perfectly fine and suited for all things gaming, with deep rumbles and great positional audio. No sounds were lost and clarity of the satellites was good.
The bad news: The bass is quite muddy with little definition, although it does rumble a lot, and music lacked the impact it should have, feeling slightly remote.
Perhaps this is a little unfair though -- our speaker tastes have been tainted by the earth shattering Logitech Z-5500s, which could possibly displace a rib with the volume and clarity they're capable of. They're also AU$300 more than the AU$299 G51s, and keeping this in mind Logitech's most recent offering is very good indeed.
Logitech's G51 should keep most gamers on a moderate budget very happy with their performance. Those who want the ultimate in clarity though should keep saving the pennies for the long time king of the hill, the Logitech Z-5500.
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joey
04/09/2008, 08:44 AM
rating
9/10
G51 excels most surround speakers . Provides good quality louid music.
Cons: the base thumps too loud and may ruin your music sometimes =P
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Phoenix
10/08/2008, 11:01 AM
rating
9/10
i got these a few days ago, as i was in need for a set of speakers that could do multiple stuff
Pros: Sounds excellent at all levels of volume, the bass is perfect
i am also not only able to plug in my computer directly, but also the the 2 sound RCA plugs from a console or dvd player, so that there isnt a need for an amp or second set of speakers.
Cons: cables arent long enough, with my set up, i had a bit of trouble trying to get everything to fit in.
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random1zer
01/04/2008, 12:43 PM
rating
10/10
I paid 139 at tiger direct. what a bargain great bang for you buck
Pros: loads on features
love all the connections on the pod
looks nice
Cons: none
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jds21
29/12/2007, 01:33 PM
rating
9/10
This is a spectacular speaker system and I bought it for $180 which makes it great bang for my buck.
It sounds great for nearly all types of music and gives an unbelievable performance when gaming
Pros: Excellent sound quality at all volumes
Exceptional bass for music and games - it is not muddy whatsoever so I don't know what these other people are on about; it gives off a good vibe - literally
Matrix mode - gasming mode really does make games feel lifelike and music mode makes my music sound like it is being performed live in my room
Control panel - control each part individually; sub, centre and rear
No noticeable distortion at high volume levels
Cons: The speaker cable lengths are nowhere near long enough - if it weren't for this i would give this a perfect score
Matrix mode can sound unnatural at times with some types of music but nothing too bad so it isn't really a big drawback
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DeAtomizer
28/12/2007, 07:55 PM
rating
5/10
Needed speakers badly as my old ones pooped out on me after 4 years of rocken and movies and games.
Pros: Looks nice. Love the Control Pod which has earphones and mic connection which is a huge plus for me.
Sound is good at med to low settings.
For the price of around $250 from your local Harvey Norman it is a good buy. If you want to rock the house down then i would look further down the isle till you find the Z-5500
Cons: Sound does not sound so good when needing some thump or when just needing to turn up the music for a quick solo vocal duet with Colin Hays.
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