Logitech Z-5450 review

Trailing speaker cables all over the place is just as tedious in the office as it is in the living room, so three cheers to Logitech for cutting the two longest runs.

Both rear satellites are independent, and while they aren’t technically wireless – each needs a mains input – you can still arrange them up to 8.5m from the sub without hauling furniture around.

High audio standards

Even without the wireless factor, this is a well-specced set. Fully THX-certified, which is still a rarity in PC audio, it’ll also decode Dolby Digital 5.1, Pro-Logic II and DTS 24/96. Sadly the rears can only handle DTS 24/48, but that won’t be much of a problem for games and standard DVDs and CDs.

Sound quality is optimised for action, with great performance in games and suitably high-concept movies. Subtler stuff is less impressive, but entirely tolerable at the price.

Home cinema hero

If you’re living in a shoebox, you can even share them with your home entertainment set-up. The six-channel PC input is joined by two optical and one coax connection, so you can hook up your Sky box, Xbox or any other kind of box at the same time.

Switching between them is easy via the remote, although the lack of illuminated buttons means it isn’t perfect for cinema use.

Wireless interference

The weak spot is the wireless tech: it runs on the same 2.4GHz spectrum as normal Wi-Fi, meaning it’s potentially open to interference from your wireless network, or causing interference of its own.

But if you can get it playing well with your network – and the control box is designed to do that for you – then you’re all set.