Interactive
The Interactive part consists of an LCD display and 13 touch-sensitive controls mounted on the front of the left speaker. The LCD display shows you information about the iTunes or other audio track you're listening to, what Internet radio station you're tuned into, or what your current volume, bass, and treble settings are. As mentioned, Logitech does not support interactivity on Mac systems out of the box, but Marc Liyanage's LogitechLCDTool shareware app brings the joy to OS X 10.4 systems.

"The joy," in this case is an amber monochrome LCD display that shows the aforementioned information along with the also aforementioned touch controls that allow you to take your hands off of your keyboard, reach across your workspace to the left speaker, and change the song, radio station, volume, or bass/treble level. That's right, this speaker system lets you control your audio from the front of the speaker instead of the comfort of your mouse or keyboard. See, it's an idea that seems really cool at first ("Buttons on a speaker? Screen on a speaker? Awesome!") but then makes little sense once you think about it. I suppose since you have to reach over to turn the system on you get one-stop shopping by programming the four preset buttons to launch your favorite Webcasts ... but it's really just kind of silly.

And while I did spend some time exploring the "extendability" features of LogitechLCDTool, trying to program the app to make my Z-10 display the current weather, sports scores, and RSS feed of my own blogs, eventually I decided it was really just easier to bookmark said things in Firefox or Safari and view them on my LCD monitor -- which has roughly many, many times the resolution and color depth of the Z-10's screen. There's nothing really wrong with the fact that the Z-10 has buttons and a screen, I guess. But there's nothing really right with it, either.

Speaker
On the other hand, the Z-10s sound fantastic and that's why they get a 4.5 out of 5 rating. I replaced my Logitech 2.1 sub/sat system with the Z10s and immediately threw a going away party for the subwoofer that had been creating a foot hindrance and sometimes annoying echo chamber under my desk. While subwoofers can of course extend and enhance the range of your speaker system, the fact is that most consumer grade systems installed in your average home office/bedroom/dorm room workspace are going to yield less than optimal results. In my case, I'd played with the subwoofer placement a fair amount before finally deciding to just give up and deal with the occassional lack of bass caused by turning the sub down so far and the occassional boomy bassline cause by placing it under my desk and flush against the floor molding.

Upon ditching the $75 2.1 system and installing the $150 2.0 system, I smiled a big smile. The Z-10s sound very good. They get pretty loud and throw out pretty good bass, but mainly they sound clear and accurate (relative to being a $150 set of computer speakers). They connect directly via USB or via an aux jack using the included 1/8" stereo cable; connected to one of my iBook's USB ports and set about five feet apart on my desk (the cable stretches to six feet) - forming as close to an equilateral triangle with my ears as possible - the Z10's yield clear, crisp sound, and a good stereo image across a variety of source material. I'm listening to Beth Orton's "Galaxy of Emptiness" from her Trailer Park CD right now, a track that's rooted with a heavy acoustic bassline and features various electronic and organic sounds lilting all etherally over the upper registers. Sounds great. Power pop heavy on the mid range? Foo Fighters sound great. Rollicking jazz that's all over the musical spectrum? Miles and Coltrane sounds great.

Having too many pairs of speakers in my apartment right now, I did some A-B testing with the Z10's. They easily bested the Klipsch ProMedia 2.0 speakers and Altec Lansing GT5051 2.1 system when it came to general sonic quality. The Tivoli Model Two ($199) 2.0 system - which isn't really a computer system but does feature an Aux-in jack compatible with my iBook - bests the Z-10's overall with a warmer, richer sound, but the Z-10s more than hold their own in the lower registers thanks to a bi-amped design rated at 30 watts RMS.

One qualm that some may have with the Z-10 is its lack of a subwoofer output. I haven't found this to be an issue, but I'm neither a gamer nor trying to make the system act like a home theater setup. I also can't understand cars that rattle storefront windows with their bass as they cruise down the street. Loud music? Sure. Loud music with bass you can feel? Yes. Loud music that's literally all bass, bass in your face, bass loud enough to wreck the whole place? Don't get it. The Z10s won't shake your house with their bass, nor will they provide thunderclap-like instant-on bass rumbles that some folks find necessary (and rightly so) to playing Doom or watching action flicks. If you want that, you're going to want to spend another hundred dollars at least on a decent 5.1 or 6.1 setup with a powered subwoofer.

But if you want good music on your desktop and wouldn't mind not having a sub enclosure underfoot? Check out the Z-10s, absolutely.

System
Overall, the Z-10 is a great speaker system. Finished in glossy piano black with matte silver accents, the speakers look good and are neutral enough to compliment any Mac setup - black, white, graphite, or other. A few small quibbles: Unlike other speaker systems that feature the common wired "remote pod" that brings a volume knob, power switch, and headphone jack within easy reach, the Z-10's controls and ports are all integrated into the left speaker. So using headphones and turning the system on/off will require reaching over to the enclosure. Not a big deal, but a minor point worth noting particularly if you have a large workspace or otherwise plan to position the speakers a distance away from your keyboard and mouse.

Beyond that, I recommend the Z-10 system highly on the merits of its audio quality. In my few weeks of using the system, I hardly notice the LCD screen anymore - let alone boot up LogitechLCDTool to enable the display of various information. I leave the speakers' internal tone controls at neutral and control everything with my keyboard and mouse as it's easier and frankly makes more sense to me. The only one of the 13 buttons I touch on the Z-10 is the power button. Which is fine - these speakers sound so good, who wants to waste time playing with their buttons?

The Logitech Z-10 Interactive Speaker System lists for $149.99 and is available direct from Logitech.com. They include a two year limited warranty. The LogitechLCDTool application is available as a shareware download from entropy.ch, and is compatible with Macs running OS X 10.4 or greater.