Just picked up a pair of Logitech Z-10 speakers at Future Shop for $79.99, $120 off. These are 2.0 speakers meaning they don't have a subwoofer but because you're not paying extra for a subwoofer, they concentrate on the little 3" midrange and 1" tweeter on the speakers themselves and WOW do they sound good. There is a digital crossover and bi-amp one for the lows and one for the highs and the result is a very clean sound making these speakers suitable for a wide range of music from hip hop to rock to jazz and just about anything you can throw at it. Acoustics come through crisp and clean, vocals are natural, and for you hip hop heads out there, the bass can bother your neighbours and sounds awesome from the tight bass you usually hear in the Eminem songs to the BOOOOOM BOOOOOOM in Diddy feat Nicole's Come To Me. I think too many people these days think that a subwoofer is required to reproduce good bass but these speakers prove otherwise. They're heavy speakers which could only indicate that the midrange woofers use a pretty heavy magnet. These are USB speakers (cable included) so you can bypass your sound card and go directly to the speakers' amps. It also comes with 3.5mm stereo to 3.5mm stereo for plugging in your iPod, and a chamois cloth to keep the piano black finish nice and shiny.
Now on to the Mac aspect of the speakers... the speakers have a display and 13 touch buttons, Power, Mute, Level, Volume Up and down, Display, |<<, ||>, >>|. and 1, 2, 3, 4. There's also a nifty little display that shows volume, bass, treble, and little applets that do everything from display current song titles, clock, internet radio, weather. Unfortunately when connected to a Mac only the first 5 buttons are of any use and applets are not compatible. The volume control will control Mac OS's system volume when connected via USB. It's a shame the song control buttons don't work since on Logitech keyboards they do work. Since it's almost been a year since these speakers were released, I highly doubt that they'll ever get to making Mac drivers but hopefully the price drop of $79.99 is an indication that they'll make a 2nd generation version of these speakers shortly. These speakers are in limited quantity and are sold out on futureshop.ca but I was able to pick them up at a more remote Future Shop, Scott Rd and 75A St in Surrey. If you're in the market for awesome new speakers for your Mac (or PC....), forget those 2.1 speakers and go with the Logitech Z-10.
).
