Logitech Z506 review

We’re big fans of Logitech’s more budget-friendly speakers for their ability to produce astonishing quality sound at very reasonable prices. The company’s latest surround sound set is the Z506, which is only slightly more expensive than the superb X-530 set. We were keen to see whether the increased price would be justified by the improved audio quality.

With a compact subwoofer and svelte looking satellites, the Z506 is one of the better looking speaker sets we’ve seen. The front and rear satellites are free-standing, but the centre speaker can be placed on top of a monitor or television thanks to the clever fold-out stand. Almost all the controls are located on the right satellite, with power and volume both within easy reach. There’s a 3.5mm jack for attaching a pair of headphones, but bass control is on the back of the subwoofer. If it’s placed under a desk it can be inconvenient to change tone settings.

With so many inputs and controls, the right satellite connects to the subwoofer using a captive serial cable, with the remaining satellites using captive phono cables. With 2.7m centre, 2m front and lengthy 5m rear cables there’s plenty of flexibility for positioning the speakers around a room. Three 3.5mm inputs provide true surround sound when connected to a compatible sound card, or dual phono connections can be used to attach a games console.

All of our test tracks sounded excellent through the Z506 set; acoustic songs were suitably mellow but with crisp detail, even at low volume. Turning it up for our heavier songs, the speakers comfortably filled our test room with sound. Both rock and electronic music had plenty of bass, but the satellites could still be heard clearly over the subwoofer. Once we’d fine-tuned the bass, movies also sounded fantastic. The surround sound effect in Casino Royale’s opening chase scene was very convincing, with each speaker picking out finer details as well as all the major action.

Although it isn’t without its faults, we were still impressed with the Z506 set and its superb audio quality. It costs slightly more than the older X-530, but it has a greatly improved design and everything we played on it sounded fantastic. You’ll need to spend a lot more to get a better set of 5.1 speakers.