I love the sound of my Harman Kardon Soundsticks II, but I’ve been planning on getting rid of them for a while now. They have two major flaws.
1. The UI is terrible. There’s a knob on the subwoofer for controlling the level of the bass, which is fine, but the only other controls are two touch-sensitive buttons on the right satellite speaker, labelled + and -. These control the volume, and if you tap them at the same time, it mutes the signal. There’s no off switch, and no visual indication whether they are muted, or what volume they are set to. It’s also quite time-consuming to set your desired volume using + and – buttons, when a good old fashioned knob does the job so much better.
2. Since there’s no off switch, and the subwoofer sits there emanating a glow from its blue LED all night, I felt that I had no choice but to switch everything off at the wall whenever I turn the computer off. It’s a hassle, and I want to be able to switch the speakers properly off when not in use.
I had my eye on the Logitech Z-4 or Z-2300 which are 2.1 speakers with a nifty satellite unit that has a volume control, on-off switch, headphone socket and bass control on it.
Today in town I spotted a set of Logitech LS21 speakers at an attractive price. They have the same satellite unit (except that the bass control is on the subwoofer, but that’s no big loss) so I bought them.
I’ve discovered that this particular model is fairly quiet. I *think* they’re going to be loud enough for my needs, but I’m not completely certain. Also, the volume control on the LS21 is a scroll-wheel, whereas the more expensive models have a knob which gives you a visual cue as to what it is set at.
So maybe I’ll trade up in the future, maybe I won’t.
4 replies on “New computer speakers”
Do let us (well, me) know how they perform. I’m currently toying with JBL Spot speakers which are in a similar price range.
I believe that the JBL Spot speakers have the same touch-sensitive volume buttons as the HK Soundsticks. I would advise you to avoid them like Ebola.
I am now the proud owner of the Z4s – look ace, sound better! All I need now is a mute button for that noise it sometimes makes.. you know the one… sounds suspiciously like “turn that down!!!”… kinda random so hard to track down…
I think you probably made the right choice.
I’m doing okay with the lower-powered LS21s, though it does require me to have the volume levels for my OS and applications set to maximum – in the past I’ve always kept them at about 80%.
I have my suspicions that the power switch on the control unit isn’t actually a power switch, but is actually just a mute switch. The subwoofer still hums and draws a few watts even when supposedly switched off. Still, it draws fewer watts than the HK Soundsticks did, and at least there’s a green LED to tell me whether it’s muted or not.