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I am a mid-tier audiophile whose primary interest is in headphones (I own several pairs in the $300 range), but I also like picking up audio products at thrift stores and as such, have auditioned a fair number of multimedia speakers. The Logitech Z-3 came out in 2003, around the same time when the company's THX-certified Z-2200 and Z-680 systems were generating a lot of hype. Perhaps to stay true to those speaker sets' popular design, Logitech decided to use phase-plug type drivers in the Z-3's satellites, which is highly unusual for speakers of this price range, and Logitech hasn't made anything similar since: The Z-4 switched to a dual dome driver design, as did the X-230, X-530, X-240, X-540, and so on. Logitech's build quality continued to decline since, with the newest Z313/Z506 series now using only ONE standard dome driver (the exact same unit used in their predecessors...), and they sound the way they look. The Z-3 was priced at $80, and based on comparative listening against other multimedia speakers I own or have auditioned, I can say the Z-3 easily outperforms its price class. The primary competitor of the Z-3 were the Altec Lansing VS4121 and the Creative I-Trigue 2200. I have auditioned the VS4121/4221 and my wife owns the I-Trigue 2200, so I will focus my comparison against those two. As far as the satellites are concerned, the I-Trigue 2200 offers the most neutral frequency response, while the VS4121 is peaky as hell & sounds like downright garbage. The Z-3 on the other hand is north of neutral - it has a hump around 4KHz and another around 16KHz, but unlike the VS4121, I find the tuning of the Z-3 to be quite pleasant. The two humps have the tendency to enhance female vocals and details in the treble, respectively - it's a somewhat aggressive-sounding set, but not in a bad way. The bass is where the Z-3 really shines over the I-Trigue 2200. The Z-3 has a very large subwoofer for its size, and it uses a very rare design (passive radiator, no port). The benefit of a non-ported subwoofer is that they tend to be a lot tighter. And indeed, the Z-3's bass is very tight & punchy for something of this price range, and the extension is very good as well. The I-Trigue on the other hand has a very sloppy bass presentation, muddy, loose, with very poor extension. All in all, acoustically I personally find the Z-3 to be a winner. Also worth noting is the excellent construction quality of the Z-3: The satellites feature solid aluminum enclosures, and the control pod features a large knob that's easy to operate. The potentiometer used for the volume control is very smooth and seems to be of very high quality - in fact I suspect Logitech uses the same parts for Z-3's control pods as the Z-2300 (their high-end THX 2.1 set).Read full review
Verified purchase: No
Good quality , Good appearance , Good sound for small office . Good auction price . I'm satisfied .