Mar 19 Podcast #417: ZVOX 575 Single-Cabinet Surround Sound System
Podcast, Review Tags: Speakers, Virtual Surround 
We understand that many of our listeners don't have the space for a full blown home theater system. However, those same listeners don't necessarily want to listen to their movies through the TVs tiny speakers. For them a single unit solution is what the doctor ordered. The ZVOX 575 (Buy Now $699) is such a system that takes all of 10 minutes to un-box and start enjoying fuller richer sound from your home theater.
Listen to the show
Today's Show:
News:
- Web Connectivity a Bigger Deal for HDTV Than 3D
- Will you still buy home theater equipment that isn't 3D-ready?
- Comcast to deliver The Masters Golf Tournament in 3D to TV and Internet
- Google and Partners Seek a Television Foothold
- HDTV: 10 Things That Don't Make Sense
- Custom Lanyards Made Easy
Other:
- Support Big Brothers and Big Sisters Bowl for Kids Fundraiser
- Carbon nanotube wireless speakers
- 3D Glasses at Best Buy - What a steal!
- Automated Home - Streaming Your AVI & MKV Video Files to the iPad
- Top 10 Most Cliché Home Theater Demos
Its our five year anniversary and you get the prizes!
To enter simply follow us on Twitter. Follow Ara at hdtvpodcast and follow Braden at BradenRussell We'll select winners at random and announce them on our April 2nd show. Here is what you can win:
- Audioengine 5 (A5) Premium Powered Bookshelf Speakers.
- INSTEON Home Theater Lighting Control Kit
- The RedEye Remote Control System
- Aperion Home Audio Link™ System
- Calibrated Measurement Microphone from Cross-Spectrum
Open to residents of continental US only
ZVOX 575 Single-Cabinet Surround Sound System (More Info)
Features
- Dual powered subs and a 133 watt amp deliver stunning sound and bass to 35Hz!
- Requires only one connecting cord.
- PhaseCue virtual surround system to give you rich, three-dimensional sound with movies or music.
- MDF (medium density fiberboard) speaker cabinet, the same material uses in most high-end loudspeakers.
Setup
Simply open the box and place the unit on your TV stand, connect power, and connect the analog audio from the source to one of the two audio inputs, and power on. That's it! OK, so the simplicity of setup is also a weakness of the unit. It does not take digital audio but that doesn't matter. We'll talk more about that when we talk about performance. The 575 has a nice aesthetic feature as well. Its designed to be used as a stand to place your TV on top of. The Z-Base 575 is 36 ” wide by 16.5 ” deep by 5 ” high and supports up to 146 pounds (66.2 Kgs). This is a great space saving feature and when you place your TV on the unit it just looks like it belongs there.
There is no calibration of the 575. Instead the remote control is used to adjust the Subwoofer, Treble, and Volume. There is also a PhaseCue function that adjusts the virtual surround. Logitech has all the IR codes for the 575 so we were able to setup our Harmony remote to control the system.
Performance
As far as surround goes don't expect the 575 to perform like your dedicated home theater system. After all, it does not have digital inputs. All that aside we were quite pleased with how the unit sounded. Dialog was clear and and had texture. Music was wide and full. Sporting events seemed to be live. The 575 has a built in subwoofer which gave punch to whatever we watched. The subwoofer is what seals the deal on this unit.
There is some surround imaging that you get out of the 575 and your mileage will vary based on the room you put the unit in. We had mixed results depending on what we were watching. The remote has two buttons to adjust the level of surround, Phasecue+ and Phascue-. There are 8 levels of virtual surround. What we found is for listening to music setting it to the max gave you a wide sound image. The max setting for movies drowned out the dialog when there was affects of music. We found that for most movies a setting of 5 or 6 produced the best compromise. Not once did we feel that there were sounds coming from behind us. It was more about the front and how wide it sounded.
Don't get us wrong. We felt there was a big improvement over the speakers on the TV. The subwoofer helped add an additional dimension to the sound. When watching movies on the TV's speakers the big boom effects are lost. They were loud and clear on the 575.
Conclusion
The ZVOX 575 is a good solution for those who want more than a TV's speaker for watching movies and listening to music. Its a perfect device for an apartment dweller, den, or a bedroom because its so dead simple to setup. If you don't need the power of the 575 you can step down to the ZVOX 550 and save yourself $300.
Reader Comments (10)
Just listening to your great podcast at work on friday like usual and you mentioned some software for streaming video to the ipad. I have found some software that allows you to steam any video format and any audio format to any device thru the web (including live tv from your tv turners and recorded tv). This does include 3g and wifi. You can stream to any cell phone with data connectivity i have a g1 and listen to all 2 terabites of songs and audio books and movies I have purchased over many years. They have an app that you can install on the android phones and an app for the iphone i found it is worth it to purchase due to the fact it allows jumping forward on a long audio book. But you can also just use the web interface that looks great on the iphone and is functional on android but not as pretty. since i will be purchasing the htc hd2 on wed it has wifi broadcasting of the 3g data. So. when i purchase the ipad i will be able to steam live tv and all my media thru the hd2 phone to the ipad from any location that i have edge or 3g data connectivity. Wow. this kills the slingbox. ITS FREE and better. Thanks for the great podcasts.
Bill Winfrey in New orleans.
opps forgot to metion the software. its www.orb.com
Oooh, oooh, oooh! $450 for two pairs of glasses and a copy of MVA 3D from BB Canada? As they say in the Great White North: Take off, hoser....
+1 for Orb...I use on my Plex/Mini setup and it runs in the background. I use the web interface and iPod Touch app to view all my movies, video, music and pictures.
The server side is free (PC OR Mac)...the iPhone app is either $5 or $10.
Orb is also working a version for the mac that works with EyeTV for live streaming of OTA content! Agreed..Sling is overpriced and over-hyped :)
One thing - Orb cannot stream iTunes DRMed movies.
Hi!
I just listened to the podcast where you talk about Airvideo. It DOES work fine over 3G! At least I'm using it over 3G here in Sweden on my iPhone 3GS without any problems. Though, we have fairly good bandwith on the 3G in Sweden.
Just my 25 cents...
/Mr. Mac
Air Video works fine over 3G in the US. The video quality is better than the Sling App and it's very watchable. Set up was easy, requires forwarding a port on the router but it has UPnP. The only thing to watch is that it's a battery killer. Your not only running the video on the iPhone but the 3G or WiFi radio as well and running it continuously as you stream, so it will drain your battery pretty quickly. Well worth the price as it gives you access to all your video that would otherwise be sitting at home.
Ara when your looking down at your laptop with your 3D glasses on it won't make the laptop look funky it will just be dimmer like if you were to wear sunglasses inside. Also for the situation of watching TV together causally with the family I'd think you'd just turn the 3D off and not wear the glasses. 3D is meant for big event watching like a movie or a big football game or other sports were your focused on the game/movie and nothing else.
You mentioned a video on your last podcast.
I can't find it...
Hi Xaivier,
Just scroll up :-)
Ara