Logitech Z Cinema advanced surround sound system

Logitech also used laser tuning in an attempt to make a set of drivers - 2.5cm textile dome tweeters, 7.5cm ventilated mid-woofers and a 20cm long-throw subwoofer - that generate less distortion than those produced using only acoustic measurements. What's more, because the unit is connected to the PC with a USB cable, it can take a 24-bit digital audio signal, bypassing the PC’s soundcard and digital-to-analog convertors.

This means the system can assist most PCs regardless of their own sound capabilities. The system has also been bred to carry SRS' TruSurround HD technology to generate a surround experience for games and film. SRS TruSurround HD also aims to add definition to high frequencies and adjust the mix of centre information, particularly useful when the dialogue on a movie is a little muddy.

There's no way to plug in anything more substantial, like a DVD player

Now any good speaker designer will always warn against over-engineering a speaker. It can lead to a confused and ultimately unsatisfying audio experience. These puppies have so much technology loaded into them we were a little apprehensive that this might be the case here. Happily, our fears turned out to be unfounded. These things really do deliver a big, punchy, but detailed sound, which means you really can forget you are listening to music from a computer.

There's good news for movie fans too. Surround Sound is very difficult to achieve from a 2.1-speaker set up. Without five speakers - unless you're talking about the Yamaha type of soundbar, which bounces sound off the walls - ‘physco-acoustic’ techniques mean you are always just fooling the brain into ‘thinking’ the sound is coming from the side or the rear, and it's never quite as good as the real thing. The Z Cinéma does a good enough job, with an acceptable level of surround effect for a 2.1 system.

The main quibble here is that although the sound is great, you're still probably watching the movie on a computer monitor. So unless you've splashed out on a really flashy display, the picture quality sometimes falls behind the fidelity of the sound. Although you can plug an MP3 player into the system, there's no way to plug in anything more substantial, like a quality DVD player.