Logitec Z550's VS Gigaworks?

Yucca · 29 May 2006 at 00:06

Hi all,

I know the Logitec Z550's are very popular and a good set of speakers but my question is, are the Creative gigaworks a better set if you could get them for the same price?

There still good quality as there creative, there louder and there 7.1 too, so is there anything that makes them worse off?

mnet674 · 29 May 2006 at 13:17

I have logitech z-680s (the predecessor to z-5500s) and at a recent lanparty I was next to a friend with the gigaworks speakers. The gigaworks seemed to have more clout in the bass department but were very thumpy in comparison to mine.

TooNice · 29 May 2006 at 15:52

Interesting. Comparing the Z-680 (not sure how much the Z-5500 improved on it) and Gigaworks, I found the Gigawork's satellite to be their selling point. It reproduces the high better. I also prefer the sub of the Gigaworks, but I was under the impression that the Logitech could shake the room more (though not necessarily as accurate), if you cramp it up.

So I went the Gigaworks from personal preference. I've not heard of many people directly comparing the Z-5500 with the Gigaworks. I remember a very small number of people doing a comparison on 3dss, and I think the consensus is that the Gigaworks remains better for music, although the Z-5500 has added even more power to the subwoofer, making it quite good for games/movies... and if you like the boom (though qualitively, I *think* that it was mentioned that they've improved over it's predecesor too).

Well, I doubt either outclass the others. From a connectivity point of view, the Logitech do have an advantage.

Yucca · 29 May 2006 at 18:49

So for the same price its worth me getting the gigaworks?

PureAppleJuice · 29 May 2006 at 19:00

Well will you be hooking anything else up to it? Logitech Z-5500's have pretty 'leet' connectivity.

Yucca · 29 May 2006 at 19:17

What do you mean by will i be hooking anything else up to it? I dont play an instrument or anything if thats what you mean? What can i hook up to it?!

And what do you mean by the logitecs having good connectivity? You mean i can hook up musical instruments to them easily?!

:confused:

Psypher5 · 29 May 2006 at 19:26

No he means you can have lots of things connected at once. for instance I have my pc and ps2 conntected, aswell as my mp3 player. Touch of a button on the remote lets me choose to what I want to listen to

Yucca · 29 May 2006 at 20:12

Can you not do that with the gigaworks?

fish99 · 29 May 2006 at 20:28

Gigaworks are analogue only, they have no decoder. You couldn't connect them to the digital out (coaxial or optical) on something like a DVD player or Xbox. If they are solely for your PC that doesn't matter though. I wouldn't get too excited about them being 7.1 either, there's little benefit over 5.1. One plus point is the Gigaworks sats are 2-way, ie they have tweeters, hence the comment above about them producing high frequencies better.

Yucca · 29 May 2006 at 23:48

Will the gigaworks be digital on my pc? ie will i get the feedback noise (the humming) that you get with cheap speakers? Surley not? I thought to be THX certified that had to be digital?

TooNice · 30 May 2006 at 08:56

No digital input on the Gigas. No humming either. It's a bit of a misconception that digital = higher quality. Digital is convenient (cabling wise), and sometime the only option (i.e. for connecting to a console). But a good source usually beat the DAC speakers. You can still do the Dolby/DTS decoding via software, which works fine.
That said, yea, 7.1 wasn't the real selling point for me.. and I do think that connectivity is the Gigas main weak point (but again, only from MM speakers point of view).

fish99 · 30 May 2006 at 10:14

Yucca said:
Will the gigaworks be digital on my pc? ie will i get the feedback noise (the humming) that you get with cheap speakers? Surley not? I thought to be THX certified that had to be digital?

THX means nothing at this price point, forget about it. There are plenty of really average PC speakers which get THX certifications. THX does not mean they have to be digital either. Also analogue does not mean they will hiss. The best hi-fi systems use analogue connections.

Also even 'digital' speakers still convert the sound to analogue, send it through an analogue amp and then through analogue speaker wires to analogue speakers. The only difference between analogue and digital is whether the DAC used is on the soundcard or in the speakers.