Customer Reviews

Logitech Wireless USB Speaker Z515

5 star:		(73)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

This is a very convenient and well made wireless speaker. It can be used with virtually any device that can be paired up via Bluetooth, but I find them particularly convenient for use with small portable devices such as iPhone and iPad. It can also be used with your computer, either through the included wireless adapter, or via computer's own Bluetooth transmitter. I was able to connect this speaker to my iPhone 3G, my iPad and my HP laptop PC. The pairing was smoothest with iPhone and iPad, while with the laptop it took some time for all the appropriate device drivers to be installed. Even so, the computer was not able to recognize it as a speaker and it never showed up within the sound item of the control panel. I had more luck with the included USB Bluetooth adapter.

Even though the distance over which it can receive signal is supposed to be 50 ft, the actual experience will depend on the kind of physical environment in which you find yourself. If you are in a house will be able to receive wireless signal more or less smoothly from the neighboring rooms, but if you find yourself at the opposite side of the house with several rooms in between you and the speaker, then the signal will be very choppy at best. If, on the other hand, you find yourself outdoors or anywhere else where there is clear line of sight between your device and the speaker, you could potentially get away with being considerably farther than 50 ft. Another issue with Bluetooth are the potential interferences from other wireless devices.

Switching between different devices is a bit of a hassle, but not so much that it would make it frustrating. If the convenience of use is a major consideration, then I would recommend leaving it paired up with one device that you are most likely to use on a continuing basis. In my opinion, this is an ideal external speaker for the use with an iPad - it is very portable yet powerful enough to boost iPad's audio output.

The sound quality is pretty good, on par with most external PC speakers of this size. The maximum volume is fairly high, especially considering that the speaker can be powered by AAA batteries.

The speaker is well designed and solidly built. It can be inconspicuously placed in all sorts of environments.

The speaker comes with a carrying case, which will prevent scratching when you take them with you.

One issue that I had with this speaker is that it's not possible to control the volume directly from your device, but have to use the volume control buttons on the speaker itself. This almost negates the whole idea of having wireless speaker.

Overall, this is a solid and very practical wireless speaker that is particularly well suited for an iPhone or an iPad.

This product earns four stars in terms of our level of enjoyment. It might earn five stars in terms of Logitech's execution. The reason for the difference is that for this kind of product there are too many technical limitations that prevent it from being stellar at anything. Let me explain:

-This is a portable speaker system with two-inch diameter speakers. There is no point in complaining about how you can't use these speakers to DJ a party or outgun a home theater with surround sound. How good can two-inch drivers sound? I'm not talking about little Bose Acoustimass modules that are backed up by a whomping bass box. You get two, two-inch drivers and your imagination.

-I think the Bluetooth connection is the most convenient way to connect the speaker to your laptop / iPhone /whatever. But the audio quality suffers with Bluetooth.

-The USB wireless mode has a much better connection, but now you're back to dealing with the limitations of two-inch drivers. Also, none of the wireless modes worked well for video. There was always a slight and annoying audio delay. Who, you might ask, would use this for video playback? We do. To get around this, we do a hard-connect with a mini-stereo cord.

On the other hand, Logitech has pretty good execution on this product:

-It is small and solid. The USB wireless stick tucks nicely into the speakers when not in use.

-It has been pretty much plug-and-play (albeit with some Bluetooth settings, audio out settings, whatever your machine requires).

-The rechargeable battery is working well.

-The controls are sufficient and obvious.

On the whole, I think this is about as good a product you are going to get given the technical limitations at hand. We use this product daily and we enjoy the versatility and portability that it offers.

Update (7/11): We've had this for about three-quarters of a year now and we use it just about every day. I still think it is a great product for what it is. Over the summer, I've been taking the speaker outside on our deck and it is able to pick up the signal from the USB stick attached to a computer inside the house running iTunes. The connection drops out if you are going through brick, but through wood walls I get about a 20 foot range. The speaker provides acceptable ambient music; at its loudest settings outside, you can still have a conversation. We also use the speaker for a music workstation that we set up every now and then (an Alesis keyboard attached to an old Mac running Garageband). Again, it doesn't move the Earth, but it is still a pleasure to use.

To my way of thinking, the ideal user of this product will be someone who has a notebook/laptop that doesn't offer exceptional onboard audio output. If you're looking for a product that will give you better-sounding audio without having to drag speakers around or spend a small fortune, this is for you.

How easy is it to use? Very. It connects to the computer via a small USB receiver, which quickly installs itself- no driver issues or incompatibility messages. Once it installs itself, it works flawlessly. The Bluetooth works equally well- pairing is simple, so you can use it with Bluetooth-capable phones and media players.

How durable and reliable is it? Very. The battery life is robust- about ten hours between charges. It's well-built, plastic, but a nice heft to it without it being heavy. A carry-case is provided, and the carry-case includes space for the charger/AC adapter. The USB receiver hides invisibly in the back of the unit when not in use.

Why not five stars, then? Well, the proof of audio gear is in the playing, and that's where the Z515 comes up just a bit short. The performance isn't BAD by any means, but because both stereo speakers are (obviously) co-located, it ends up sounding a bit canned. To be fair, it doesn't sound any worse than standard laptop audio, but it really doesn't sound significantly BETTER, either (though it is louder than most of the machines I tested it with). Because of the lack of stereo separation, the audio playback doesn't really come across as significantly high-grade. I think the reason for this is that most people, when using a laptop, sit directly in front of it, and if the laptop has stereo speakers (which most do now, even if they're humble and unspectacular), then users get that ever-so-subtle yet ever-so-effective stereo effect. I don't know if most people will sit with the Z515 directly in front of them, and if they don't, they lose that subtle experience of stereo separation. It's not a BAD thing- it's just the inevitable result of having both sides of the stereo be so close together.

In summary, this isn't a BAD product- in fact, it's a solid product that totally delivers from the technical aspect, and that does precisely what its manufacturer says it will-, but potential buyers DO need to consider what they will expect the audio to sound like coming out of it. This isn't a home-stereo replacement, but if what you need is flexibility in where the audio in your computer or mobile device will go, the Z515 will get the job done.

The Logitech z515 Wireless Speakers are a compact, one piece unit...just over a foot long, less that 6 inches high and less than 4 inches deep. Total weight...just over 2 lbs. Priced under $80.00 at both amazon.com and Best Buy at the time of writing this review.

Features I liked:

1a.) Useable with battery only OR while plugged into wall receptacle (while charging at the same time).

1b.) A full battery charge should last about 10 hours

1c.) The power-on light also serves as a battery strength indicator...green-yellow-red, depending on the charge left.

2a.) Convenient portability. Small and light weight and has a little ridge in the back for your fingers, making it easy to pick up if you want to move it around.

2b.) Even comes with a soft carrying case for travelling/storage that also has room for the charging component.

3a.) Extremely easy set up for Bluetooth for my IPad...just go to settings>general>bluetooth>on>on

My IPad found and paired with the z515 in seconds and the speakers worked immediately.

3b.) Once connected, the Bluetooth range is about 50ft. before clarity diminishes.

4a.) Although you must physically turn these speakers ON/OFF, you can adjust the audio volume up or down from your I-device OR from the speakers themselves (at least I can with my IPad). AN ESSENTIAL FEATURE!...so important in fact, that these speakers would probably be rendered impractical for me, without this ability.

4b.) AND MAYBE MOST IMPORTANTLY, I can multitask from my IPad. I can listen to the news or music on my z515 speakers and switch Apps to check e-mails or surf etc...all WITHOUT interruption to my speaker broadcast. Without this feature the usefulness of these speakers would have been greatly reduced.

5.) The bottom of the speaker housing has a secure receptacle for storing the USB dongle. This device, when attached to a computer USB port, allows you to use the Logitech z515 speakers in conjunction with your desktop or laptop computer.

Concerns:

At this point only one...Rarely, when the z515 speakers are on, the wi-fi signal between my router and my IPad will suddenly stop! But the signal will spontaneously reconnect as soon as I turn the z515speakers off. Weird!

Impressions:

1.) STEREO...with small speakers only about 4 inches apart the stereo effect is, not surprisingly, not substantial. However they are good enough to produce that 'LIVE/VIBRANT' sound effect you only get with stereo and never with mono.

2a.) MUSIC quality...better than I'd expected from speakers this size. The bass...I thought was decent; the treble...a little thin and washed-out.

2b.) VOICE quality... talking, news etc...very acceptable.

Conclusions:

This is NOT a system you'd want if your looking for high quality sound.

This is a small, bluetooth speaker system that was made for PORTABILITY...it works clearly in any room in my house. Decent sound, given the size of the speakers. Perfect for vacation or times where more than one person would like to listen the news, music etc. It took me all of 5 minutes to make me realize that this small speaker unit, given the right circumstances, would become an indispensable part of my life that pertains to audio enjoyment. 5 Stars.

Ray Nicholson

No frills - simply right.

Solidly manufactured, quite heavy, nice rubber feet, simple on-off and volume switch, and built-in rechargeable batteries.

Decent sound - not hi-fi quality, but way better than a built-in, and good enough to enjoy Netflix movies from my iPad at the coffee table.

I've played with a bunch of blue-tooth headsets, and some have an annoying audio delay, that makes watching movies unacceptable. This speaker set has a minimal lag, at most 50mS - and you'd need an instrument to tell that it wasn't synced with the movie. Test: Netflix streaming to iPhone or iPad via built-in blue-tooth, and Netflix streaming to PC with plug-in dongle wireless audio connection.

Blue-tooth range is advertised as 50 feet - which I didn't believe until I tested it. It picks up my iPhone (A2DP stereo) at well over 50' - more like 70 - in an elecitrically noisy office environment with many PCs and phones all around.

The dongle-based wireless connection works immediately - plugged it into my Windows 7 PC (64bit OS) and the driver loaded and connected within 3 seconds.

Would have been 5 stars if:

1. Blue-tooth remembered the device - if you use multiple devices, you have to re-pair the first after using the second. Since the devices invariably remember the speaker anyway, you have to make the device forget the speaker before you can re-pair it.

2. It would pair with two blue-tooth sources at once - iPhone and computer, for example.

3. It auto powered off after 30 minutes of no audio. I keep putting it away with the power on, and getting it out with flat battery.

This is a nicely designed product, with price being a trade-off, but I have observed an intermittent issue with line-in audio playback...

Unboxing

========

The box the Logitech Z515 comes in is the right size for this product, not wasting any materials. Everything opened easily, without scissors or any frustration. The box includes the speakers, the carrying case, a unibody corded AC adapter, the USB wireless stick, and very short foldout instructions. Out of the box the device had some charge in it, it was at the orange level.

Charging

========

Charging goes from red to orange to green and when the charging is completed, the green power light turns off. This is a simple and clear signal that charging is over! Well done! As the instructions mention, it is green when battery is full, and then it goes to orange and red as it starts running out.

Using it

========

The device is nicely designed, with the power-in and line-in on the right side, and the buttons (volume-up, on/off, volume-down) on the back. There is no mute button, so you have to mute/unmute from the source device, or keep pressing the volume-down button. There are no other input/output slots. On the back there is a spot to store the USB stick when traveling or not in use, covered by the closing leg (see Amazon's picture #3). It feels sturdy. Audio is, as expected, better than cheaper computer/portable speakers, but don't throw your audio system away. The benefit of this is portability and convenience. The included case is nice but it is not padded, so you may want to use a different bag depending on your travels.

I used it with the USB wireless stick and also connected it to a variety of devices (mp3 players, Roku, LCD monitor audio out, etc) using the line-in input. Inserting something into the Line-In slot automatically switches playback to the Line-In device even if it was playing from wireless. When you take the line-in cable out, wireless audio resumes!

I did not use the Bluetooth feature.

Battery life appears to be in-line with the 10 hour estimate given by the product specs, but I did not measure it with a clock.

One tip: different devices have different volume levels, so sometimes you may get loud sound if the volume is too high, and sometimes you may not hear a sound if it is too low, so be sure to check if you have sources with different sound levels.

Other than the issue mentioned below, this is a nice device. The price, as usual, is a trade-off to consider...

Intermittent issue: randomly stopping playback from line-in

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I have observed an intermittent problem with randomly stopping to output sound from a line-in source. This happened a few times, at least three times each with these line-in source devices (4GB Sandisk Fuze, 16GB Sony Walkman E-series) and three different cables from different manufacturers. I have been using all these items (Fuze, Walkman, cables) for at least a few months each, and none of them has had this type of an issue. This happens only when the Logitech is used.

The workaround is simple: to get it to play again, unplug/replug the line-in cable from the Logitech side. Sometimes turning the Z515 off/on solves the problem, sometimes it does not.

This is an intermittent issue. It may be random, it may be a faulty unit, but I suspect it may have to do with a combination of actions, perhaps in some order. It would probably take hundreds of tests for me to narrow it further down and unfortunately I do not have the resources to do this. I remember one time this happened after the mp3 player turned off on its own due to inactivity, but I don't know if it is related. I often go from wireless to line-in and back to wireless and back to line-in. I don't know if this is a factor.

Obviously I do not know if I have a defective unit or the way I am using it is causing this problem.

I received this portable speaker today and I think it's great. As an avid listener of web streaming music, I particularly like the wireless USB connection that I can make from my computer's sound system to the Logitech speaker.

For a similar connection, I use a wireless iPhone app to send audio from my computer to my iPhone and iPad. While the app is okay, static and drops in the connection do occur. For the last few hours using the Logitech speakers there have been no drops in the connection, but there has been some static, especially when the speakers are moved around. I also need to point out that you can't remotely control the audio levels from your computer using the USB connection. You have do that on the speaker unit.

The Logitech speaker plays well with the iPhone and iPad Bluetooth connection. While the sound control of the speaker is bare bones (no adjustments can be made with base and treble, for example), the audio is great for bedside and bedroom listening. However, you cannot remotely control the audio level from the mobile device.

UPDATE: I did discover that you can adjust the volume from an iPhone, but not from an iPad.

The speaker also includes a nice little soft carrying bag that can be folded and put away when not in use. This speaker unit can easily fit into a suitcase.

Also, I have to partially agree with another reviewer that is is a hassle to switch audio sources with this unit, but that problem is equally attributed to the design of the iPad and iPhone in which you have to make several taps on the devices in order to enable the Bluetooth connection. By the way, as the instructions point out, the last Bluetooth device used with the speaker unit is the one that it will connect to. So you need to switch off the connection on one device in order to use it with another. With the USB connection on my computer, making the connection is just two-click process.

Finally, the unit does include a 3.5mm auxiliary input, but as far as I can tell this is not for earphones, or at least it doesn't work with my pair.

Overall, the Logitech Wireless speaker is good unit. Speakers in general are very expensive, so if you're looking for a wireless connectivity at somewhat affordable price, you might give this unit a try.

I decided to re-arrange my home office and go wireless with all the main pieces attached to my home computer.

After careful research, and reading reviews all over the Internet, I decided to go with the Logitech Wireless USB Speaker Z515.

For the most part, I am pleased. I ditched a wired speaker set that had a small sub-woofer (also Logitech, btw). The sound on the wired speakers was better, but I expected a drop-off in sound quality with the wireless set. The trade-off of getting rid of the wires for slightly lesser quality sound was worth it.

I am very happy with my purchase. These wireless speakers are very good, but wireless speakers will always play second fiddle to wired speakers when it comes to sound quality.

If you are in the market for a portable, wireless speaker the Logitech Z515 is an easy recommendation to make. It is well built, simple in it's design, unexpectedly simple to setup and use and a good performer. For a portable speaker, battery life is as important as decently/loud sound quality and the Z515 provided both for us. We watched hours of video from the laptop with it sitting across the room on the counter broadcasting sound to the entire living room instead of just to the single person sitting infront of the laptop.

For a $90 wireless speaker we found the sound quality good and the volume boost great. With more range-intensive audio (like a movie trailer with loud sounds and loud background music) there is some distortion at higher volumes, but we expected that given the price range and targeted use case for this speaker. If your use-case is gaming or movie watched, we would recommend a wired speaker system with dedicated speakers for the different low/high ranges of sound. This speaker setup would work fine for occasional movie watching or older/dialog-intensive movies like old Hitchcock films, but probably wouldn't be as pleasing as a wired solution for the same money with big blockbuster sound-tracks and broad range of sounds (e.g. Transformers).

If you regularly present in meetings at work and wish your laptop were louder (or some similar use-case), the Z515 was made with you in mind. Plop this down on the table infront of the laptop to supplement your presentation and you are all set. No need to lug any wires or cables around with you as the only "connection" the speakers need is the wireless dongle and it fits into a cubby in the back of the speaker itself.

The Logitech Wireless USB Speaker Z515 is quickly becoming my favorite gadget. (They really should give this thing a catchier name.) I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a portable speaker for their iPhone, iPad, iPod (or other music player). For this size and price, you can't go wrong.

The Logitech Wireless USB Speaker Z515 is a very well designed device. It's not packed as beautifully as an Apple product, but it's just as easy to set up. (And honestly, it's OK with me if I see a little brown cardboard when I take something out of the box.) Logitech includes everything you might need to use this device: a USB dongle if your laptop can't play music over bluetooth, a charger for the internal battery, and a protective case (with a separate compartment for the charger). There's a slot in the back to hold the USB dongle; the door for this slot doubles as a stand. The speaker is a little heavy for its size and has a nice solid feel to it.

Mating the speaker to my iPhone took about a minute. My phone stayed connected to the device (even between rooms, probably up to 30 feet away) with no problems. Battery life is good, but not spectacular. I got a few hours of play before the warning light went on. If you plan to go away for a vacation, make sure you bring the charger.

Sound quality was about as good as you'd expect from a speaker this size and price. It's not a bad sounding device. Balance is a little off (as expected, there's no low bass, and midrange is emphasized), but you can probably fix that with an equalizer on your computer or phone. Details are also a little muddy; I can't tell if this is from the speaker itself or from the Bluetooth connection. I think you can probably find better sounding speakers for the price (or for less money). However, what you give up in sound quality you gain in convenience.

What I like best about this speaker is that it's a WIRELESS speaker. It makes your iThing into an awesome remote control that gives you total control over what you listen to. Of course, can use it with other apps like Pandora. I especially liked this device during the baseball season; I listened to a few games with the MLB client while in the kitchen. I hadn't realized how limiting it is to hook up wires to your phone; Logitech removes this limit and makes it more fun to play music.