VideoLogic ZXR-500 5.1 Speaker System

Author : Wayne Date : 29th April 2002

...Product	ZXR-500 5.1 Speakers
...Manufacturer	VideoLogic
...Supplier	VideoLogic
...Price	£79.99

 

 

The Subwoofer :

If the mention of a mere 5" driver didn't do enough to dampen my enthusiasm, the relatively compact enclosure (165 (w) x 250 (h) x 340 (d)) left me more than a little concerned that bass was going to be rendered sadly wanting. I don't want to give the game away too early but let's just say that most of my fears were unfounded with a little care.

Like the satellites the sub is finished in the same brushed aluminium effect plastic. The front fascia is plastic but the actual enclosure is wood and features two flared and tuned ports for increased performance. Having ports flared rather than cylindrical may seem like a minor point but flaring them actually serves to take some of the "whooshing" off the produced frequencies making them that bit more refined.

 

On the front face are the volume controls. From here you can independently adjust levels for the sub, front channel, rear channel and centre channel output. The biggest omission here in my book is the lack of a master volume control, something that I think should be standard an all speakers regardless of cost and quality. I'm also a little disappointed to see that the controls are on the sub at all considering that for most people this will mean getting out the prayer mat and dropping to all fours to make adjustments. Still, at this price something had to give and I'd sooner it was the control placement than the quality. There's no independent treble control meaning you'll have to tweak this from Windows but the speakers are fairly lively by default so it's not as big a deal as it could be. I find it hard to forgive the lack of a remote master volume control though, simply because for a lot of people with less advanced sound cards it's going to be a real nightmare to have to keep manually setting the levels on all four audio channels. I suppose it could be argued that people with older sound cards are less likely to be looking at the ZXR-500s but at this price I'm guessing many will be happy to buy with a view to upgrading their sound card at a later date. Even for those more advanced hardware that allows you to adjust bass and treble from the mixer it's not a very easy option to tweak the volume from within your favourite game when the neighbours bang on the wall and scream at you to turn it down! Below the four level controls is a green power indicator LED.

From the side you can see the second of the two ports.

On the rear the first thing you notice is the use of a pretty beefy heat sink. This thing actually gets quite warm to the touch after prolonged use so it's certainly not just there for effect. Moving down are the various phono inputs and outputs and the master power switch. There's no digital input which is no great surprise at this price point.

The connections from the five satellites are made to the five clearly marked outputs while the feed from your sound card (or other unamplified audio source) is made to the three pairs of inputs using the supplied cables. The manual that comes with the speakers is also fairly helpful should you get yourself confused but it's actually all very straight forward. The master power switch is also situated here and with no remote standby switch this again means hassle if you want to power the system down.

So now we know a bit more about the physical features that make up the ZXR-500s let's get to the important bit, how do these puppies sound?

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