Listening Tests - Music

To check out the ZVOX 550's musicality, I popped in a couple of my favorite discs running it through some test material that I am very familiar with. Because I decided to set the Z-Base up in the 2-channel music room, I could not help but draw comparisons between this system and my 2-channel system. While I'm not ready to throw out my 2-channel system, I was impressed with the soundstage produced by this system. Here are some of my thoughts as I ran through a couple of my favorite disks. While I enjoyed playing with the PhaseCue effect during this review, I almost always landed on the best sound at the far negative end of the range. With just a couple of clicks, I could definitely hear the effect of spreading the music around the room, but increasing the PhaseCue effect added a strange quality to the mid-tone of the track. But even with the PhaseCue pulled as far out as possible, the Z-Base provided an amazingly wide sound stage on most of the tracks I listened to.

One thing I noticed while listening to music (that I did not notice while watching movies) was an audible pop every time I changed tracks. I attempted to reconnect the CD player a couple of times to make sure I had all the connections in tight, but nothing I tried would put an end to the popping. This is likely due to the low-tech always-on dual analog inputs which likely don't have any way to deal with the small voltage spikes incurred during the switching process.

CD: Sugarland - Enjoy the Ride
OK - So the fact that I'm an old country boy is now clearly out there. I won't even deny I like country music. The major test for me on any speaker system is how it handles female vocals. I can put up with some deficiencies, but I need for my ladies to come through strong and clear. This is an area where I typically run into trouble with iPod dock speaker systems and other smaller systems. I didn't notice any of that happening with Jennifer Nettles' vocals. On "Want To" the system produced a great, wide soundstage, but left Nettles vocal out front with a very natural sound. The mandolin section throughout "These Are the Days" is successfully reproduced so that it sounded like finger picking on a stringed instrument.

CD: Lyle Lovett - Pontiac
If there is a better-recorded disk than this one, I don't think I've heard it. I'm amazed every time I sit down and really listen to this disk. When I sat down with it again during this review, it was no exception. However, the Z-Base really struggled with the bass on this recording. Then again, no system at this price (and with a 5.25" woofer) can handle the low end of the bass line in "Simple Song". At high volume, there was audible bass distortion, but once I turned it down to more reasonable volume levels, the distortion went away and it did a remarkable job with the vocal track. One issue I noticed with this CD is that the system really cannot deliver the punch of the horn section and other similar passages. While the system sounded clear and very musical, it really never delivered any real oomph. If you added a subwoofer to the mix to help out with the lower end, its performance could potentially be improved.

Toy Matinee: Toy Matinee
The system really sounded impressive with this disk. It probably doesn't hurt that it's one of my favorites, but several of the tracks on this disk really allowed this system to impress. One of the most surprising things about this system was its accurate and detailed presentation of the music. Often lost on systems costing much more, the Z-Base 550 always allowed the music to sound like music. For example, you could actually hear the picking of strings in the intro to "The Last Plane Out", while many systems at this price you get the gist of the song, but you lose the details. I noticed all my favorite details in the music on this system. The toys chirping in the intro to "Toy Matinee" came in from way off to the left of the room. If you don't believe me ask my dog! He immediately got up and went to left corner of the room looking for a toy!

Listening Tests - Movies

DVD: S.W.A.T.
The first movie I used the Z-Base for was S.W.A.T. I know it's not exactly a blockbuster, but my wife was away for the week and my teenage son and I were in the mood for a little good old-fashioned violence. I must admit I was impressed with the way the ZVOX 550 handled the audio track. While the explosions and fight scenes didn't have great punch to them, the system was able to put out enough volume to make it very enjoyable.

DVD: The Patriot
The Patriot has plenty of scenes with surround effects coming from behind you, so I used it to test out the Z-Base's ability to get effects to the back of the room. The numerous fight scenes (especially the scene in the woods when they free Heath Ledger's character from the Brits) with bullets whizzing on all sides of you had sounds coming from both sides, but I never truly heard any surround information from behind me as I do with a 5.1 system. The musical soundtrack to this film really does a nice job accentuating the wide sweeping visual vistas throughout this movie. Another big bonus is the unit's ability to leave the dialogue coming from straight ahead, while allowing the soundtrack to spread out with its impressive sound stage.

High Definition & Standard Definition Television (via Comcast Cable)
We used the Z-Base 550 to watch a variety of television shows in our family room. The room is about twice the size of the music room where I did the music and movie reviews in and has a 30-foot ceiling. Generally I thought it filled the room adequately while watching football (HD broadcast) or the old traditional Christmas specials (standard definition). The sound stage and surround effects were a little less impressive in the bigger room, but the system was still a major step up from just using the speakers on our display.

Conclusions

For the right situation, this may be an effective solution to achieve much higher sound quality than typical built in display speakers. While the unit generated an impressive sound stage, it never produced surround effects that made me think I was sitting in my 7.1 theater (I don't think that is what ZVOX is shooting for with this product). Nor was it capable of producing room-shaking volume and bass. However, during the review I did find myself amazed by the sound quality and wide sound stage created by this system. Were it not for the puzzling decision to use mixing analog inputs on the device, it would provide a nice upgrade for folks that didn't want to (or due to physical limitations could not) go with a full blown 5.1 system. However, the annoying pops (we suspect related to the analogue mixing inputs) with every change of channel or track will hamper its attractiveness to true audiophiles.