Logitech’s G560 speakers have RGB backlights that synchronize with your monitor’s current colors.
When Microsoft showed off its IllumiRoom concept back in 2013, I thought the technology must be right around the corner. Extending your display onto the surrounding walls using a projector—how hard could it be? Harder than I thought apparently, seeing as we’re five years on and there’s no IllumiRoom in sight.
But the new Logitech G560 speakers might bring us a hell of a lot closer.
To be clear, none of the tech in the Logitech G560 is unprecedented. It’s essentially your standard 2.1 PC speaker system with some very large RGB lighting zones on the front and back. The front is mostly decorative, but the two rear zones are designed to splash on your wall.
It’s cool! It’s really cool.
Lightpack is more affordable, but it’s a DIY kit you fasten around the edges of your monitor and the result is a hydra of wires that I’m not willing to deal with. And at $90 for the kit, it’s also not cheap.
So the G560 has a few advantages, as I see it. It’s easy to explain, because it’s speakers first. It’s the usual 2.1 setup many people already buy for their PC, two satellite speakers and a subwoofer. Easy. And because it’s functional, not just decorative, it’s also easier to justify. You’re already in the market for speakers, and the RGB functionality is just a cool bonus. It’s not like Hue or Lightpack where you’re buying it purely for lighting.
They also sound surprisingly good, at least from the limited testing I’ve done. They get loud, there’s little distortion, and the bass is very tight and precise. These tiny 2.1 setups have come a long way in the last decade or so.
[ Further reading: The best budget computer speakers: Surprisingly sound choices for $50 or less]
It’s for work purposes, I swear.
The Logitech G560 is already available to preorder for $200, and it’s supposed to launch in April—not the cheapest set of speakers, but pretty reasonable considering most decent 2.1 setups run in the $120 to 150 range. It’s a bargain compared to that Sound BlasterX Katana I mentioned earlier, which listed at $300 originally.
And hey, it’s the same price as four Philips Hue bulbs. Maybe that’ll put it in perspective.
