| Store | Price | Availability |
| Amazon.com Marketplace | $37.99 | In stock |
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| Let's get one thing straight up front: laptops are very cool pieces of technology. Thanks to more powerful batteries, wireless Internet and lighter, slimmer designs, laptops are both powerful and portable, while the addition of a dock, monitor and peripherals makes both a desktop replacement and a couch/road companion very doable. Yes, laptops are definitely paragons of technology, but the speakers they come with - well they're another story entirely. Your average lightweight notebook crams a speaker or two wherever the designers can fit them, and tiny and underpowered is the rule, not the unfortunate exception. However, that doesn't mean you need to suffer: the Logitech AudioHub, the subject of today's review, gives you the power of a 2.1 speaker system in a compact form, with the promise of a much better sound system than you'll get with those cheapo built-in speakers. As an added bonus, the AudioHub is a powered USB hub with space for some of the many USB devices that now surround any computer. Intrigued? Let's see if the Logitech AudioHub is worth the money. |
Review Verdict
The Good & Bad
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Essential Specs & Stats
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Setting Up the Logitech AudioHub USB Speakers
Where to Buy?You'll notice the AudioHub's compact design from the moment you open the box. The hub's central section, which houses the subwoofer and all of the AudioHub's electronics, features a sturdy black plastic construction with a cable organizer in the back and three USB ports on the side. The two satellite speakers connect to the central section by built-in plastic expanders, allowing you to increase or decrease the wingspan of the unit as necessary to fit around your laptop screen or desktop monitor. An AC power cable plugs into the left side of the AudioHub speakers and provides power to both the speakers and the USB ports, while a built-in USB cable exits the right side of the central section to connect to your computer. A large plastic dial on the side of the right satellite lights up when the AudioHub speakers are on, and acts as an independent volume control. There's also an orange LED on the back of the central section that tells you if the AudioHub has power before you plug it in to your computer.
 The AudioHub's overall shape is a little odd: think back to high school geometry and imagine a parallelogram attached to a triangle and you've got the profile of the AudioHub. The parallelogram, which houses the satellite speakers and the subwoofer, is Logitech's solution to the problem of getting the AudioHub as close as possible to your notebook (to save space) without blocking the angle of the open screen, and works well: I didn't have to compromise viewing space to use the AudioHub. Fully expanded, the AudioHub USB Speakers have 14 and a half inches of space for your laptop screen, which should be big enough for even the largest of notebooks.
Windows installs the AudioHub as a separate audio device (the AudioHub Speaker), which gives you a number of useful features: first, because the AudioHub is a separate sounds source in the Windows Sound and Audio Devices control panel applet, it automatically disables your laptop's default speakers while in use, and has its own default volume levels, separate from your laptop's internal sound card, so you don't have to worry about messing up any volume settings when you plug the AudioHub into your computer.
Second, Windows automatically switches to the AudioHub when you plug it in, and switches back to the internal sound card when you unplug the AudioHub, so there's no messing around in the Windows Control Panel every time you want to use the AudioHub speakers. Third, the large volume control dial on the right side of the AudioHub also acts as a power button; turning it on and off mutes and unmutes the Windows audio settings.
The Logitech AudioHub has three USB 2.0 ports mounted to the back part of the central section, right behind the right speaker. Because the AudioHub uses powered ports, devices like the iPod that won't work properly on unpowered hubs work without complaint on the AudioHub. I plugged an iPod, a scanner, and a printer into the ports and ran all three at the same time without any problems, so there shouldn't be any power issues, but two things about the hub bother me: first, their placement means you won't want to use the USB ports for anything but devices you don't have to unplug that often, like printers and scanners. Many smaller laptops come with only one or two USB ports, so sacrificing a USB port to a hub that makes it harder to plug in things like flash drives. Second, there are only three ports, which seems a little small for a hub, especially one large enough to hold multiple speakers.
The Logitech AudioHub includes two other features of note: first, if you have a webcam, you can mount it on top of the included stand, which fits into the front of the AudioHub. The stand would be useful for webcams mounted to the top of your notebook screen that you can't angle up to meet your face, or going back to the theme of permanent setups that floats around every angle of this product - for when you need to move your notebook and want to keep your webcam set up. Second, there's a nice large plastic attachment to the back of the AudioHub that serves as a cable organizer for all of the cables you'll be plugging into the AudioHub. The cable organizer is a simple wrap-and-forget setup, but can be really helpful if you're trying to eliminate the obnoxious clutter that disorganized wires always seem to cause.
With its variety of features and excellent sound, the Logitech AudioHub is worth a close look if you want to replace your laptop's default speakers with something with a little more power, and give yourself a few more USB ports in the process. However, the AC-powered design, placement of the USB ports, and additional features like the webcam stand all underscore how the AudioHub is a much more useful product for people who have a permanent place to use their laptop - anything from a desk to something with a dock and a monitor - rather than those who prefer to use their computer wherever they can find a seat and some WiFi access. For that reason, I give the Logitech AudioHub a conditional recommendation.
Reviewed by Eric B. Hanson, Contributing Editor |
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