Logitech LS11 2 Speakers

Introduction - Sometimes functionality is all that really matters. I'm often a picky customer. Especially when it comes to electronics. But frankly, I'm poor. When it comes time to purchase something that comes in a wide range of prices, you have to decide what's really most important.

 I recently found myself in need of a set of computer speakers. My computer came with speakers but I never hooked them up and I haven't got a clue where they went. I was pretty much content to use headphones since I have a decent pair and it would take a really expensive set of computer speakers to sound half as good as my headphones.

 However, what I needed speakers for was that I wanted to watch some movies on my computer with other people. I decided what was really important was that the dialogue was loud and clear. I figured if they at least sound as good as the speakers on an average TV, they'd be fine. If you've ever been shopping for PC speakers, you probably know you can spend about as much as you're comfortable spending. I decided I wasn't spending much more than $20.

The Purchase - Basically, the only real requirements that I had was that they not be expensive, that they not be too large, that they be active (powered) speakers and that they look nice.

 I spotted the Logitech LS11 speakers pretty quickly. The store I went to didn't have much in the price range I was looking for. A quick look at the box and specifications convinced me that they marginally met all of my requirements. They were around $19 so I bought them.

Out of the box - There were no surprises with these. Everything was exactly as I expected it to be and how it had been depicted and described on the box. If you look at the Epinions picture, that's exactly what they look like. The glossy black finish and shiny driver makes them look more expensive than they are. Basically, the biggest challenge was arranging the wires in such a way that they didn't make an unsightly mess on my desk.

 These are relatively short on features. They have a headphone jack and a line in jack (Obviously meant for an MP3 player or something). Unfortunately, the headphone jack only passes the audio from the source through. It doesn't amplify the signal as far as I can tell. This means the volume knob on the speaker won't control the headphone volume. I don't know much about these things but it doesn't seem like that would have been a very big deal for them to do since the jack is already there and there is an amplifier already built-in. But maybe there's more to it than that. I suppose the jack is convenient. The way I have my PC positioned, it's not the most convenient thing in the world to reach over my desk and plug my headphones into the computer's onboard jack.

Performance - As I expected, these are not that good for music. They might be just barely acceptable if you're in a pinch and they're the only thing you have. However, I didn't buy them for music.

 When I tried them with a movie, they really weren't bad. I was kind of surprised how far I had to turn the volume knob to get acceptable volume but I probably shouldn't have been. They're very small and not advertised as being loud. They are acceptable for watching movies if you don't need the sound effects to rumble. They obviously won't do that. They're perfect for Youtube videos. They might even work for some light gaming but they won't satisfy anyone who expects much.

Conclusion - These are exactly what I was looking for. They look nice, they sound OK and they didn't cost much. The only real con I found was that the wire that connects the speakers to each other is a little too short for my desk.

UPDATE - One other con that I forgot to mention before is that the green power LED on the face of the right speaker is very bright. This probably is one of those things that's almost unavoidable if you're going to buy powered desktop speakers but it's worth mentioning anyway. I have no idea why manufacturers can't (or won't) dim these things. Anyway, I just couldn't stand it so I cut out a small piece of black electrical tape and covered the thing up so I don't see it at all. I don't really need a power LED to let me know the speakers are turned on anyway. Fortunately, the lighting in my computer room is usually rather dim and I can't even see the tape on the speaker so it doesn't detract from the looks at all.

END UPDATE

 Basically, if you have realistic expectations and you don't need anything powerful or fancy, you can't go far wrong here.