Test 1 :

• Supertramp: Breakfast in America. CD
• Beethoven : The Ruins of Athens : CD
• Destiny's Child : Bills, Bills, Bills : CD
• Jean Michelle Jarre : Oxygene, Rendezvous, Equinoxe : CD
• Mike Oldfield : Tubular bells 2 : CD
• Yello - Oh Yeah : MP3
• Travis - Turn MP3
• Queen : Another one bites the dust : Cakewalk Scorewriter
• Beethoven : The Ruins of Athens : Sibelius Scorewriter

After a bit of fiddling to get the speakers set just how I wanted them I sat back in my chair and began the tough test of listening to about an hour of music (it's a dirty job but somebody has to do it). from about 10 minutes in until I closed down the last track the only question in my mind was "how?". That is.... how the hell has VideoLogic managed to pull off this masterstroke of audio Nirvana at a price that barely makes it out of the budget category? Of course having five satellites rather than two always makes for a more immersive experience, and the ZXR-500s weren't entirely without flaws, but the question remained "how?".

To try to sum up the overall experience is difficult, but I'll try. The sound stage was accurate and well defined sitting about a foot off the desk and seemingly extending behind the speaker placement. The very top end was sharp and precise to the point that if you closed your eyes you'd swear there was a moderately high quality tweeter operating on each satellite. The mids were reproduced in all their glory with the only criticism being that they were very slightly raw, something I'm sure will improve as the speakers break themselves in. The lows, unlike my first experience were deep, tight and completely free from any booming or misbehaving. No doubt those of you who like to be able to crank up the bass until it overpowers the rest of the range are going to be left feeling a little disappointed, there's not a lot of headroom for overdriving the bass beyond what would normally be considered "more than enough", but it's there in abundance and more importantly it responds well to increased volume levels. You're not going to be able to power the disco at the local hall with these speakers but you can certainly annoy the neighbours even without reaching the distortion levels. In fact volume was beyond my expectations given the power rating and certainly enough for most sane people.

Test 2 :

Max Payne : Game
Giants : Game
Quake3 Arena : Game
Incoming Forces : Game
eRacer : Game
B&W : Game
Project IGI : Game
Contact : DVD Movie
SpeciesII : DVD Movie
The Matrix : DVD Movie
Mars Attacks : DVD Movie
Blade : DVD Movie

From a gaming point of view the ZXR-500s performed equally well. Positional audio was right on the money and the full range of in-game effects were reproduced extremely well. Again the only possible drawback for some people may be the lack of exaggerated bass response. That's not to say explosions and other bass dependent effects were terrible because they weren't, you just won't be able to push as hard as you can on some other systems which to be fair don't necessarily handle the bass as well to begin with. If it's well controlled bass effects that float your boat you'll be more than happy, however if its chronically out of proportion window rattling bass you prefer you'll not find it here.

DVD's were also impressive with the ZXRs doing full justice to the five channel Dolby output. Again the full range of frequencies were handled beautifully with crystal clear highs and thumping lows. The worm tunnel sequence from Contact was quite an experience, particularly with the volume cranked up. The centre channel which primarily handles the vocals also made its presence felt throughout keeping spoken dialogue bright and lively and not allowing it to become swamped by other things going on. All in all a very accomplished display and as Videologic so proudly state, one worthy of much more expensive speakers.

As a final test I pumped a selection of test tones, white noise and pink noise through to test for spatialization and other less than exciting characteristics. Again this was handled well and running a few more demanding tones through the system using Passmark's Soundcheck v1.0 allowed me to adequately test all the way from around 18000Hz and down to 50Hz. This isn't quite in line with the quoted specs which are for the amp rather than the speakers but it's still beyond the range demonstrated by any other system I've tested even remotely close to its price range and it covers the 80Hz to 15000Hz range most often encountered in music and DVDs.

All in all I think it's fair to say that this was an accomplished performance and though they're not the best sounding speakers you'll ever wrap you ears round they're certainly better than anything I've ever heard in this price range.

Conclusion :

PROs

Incredibly Good Price
Excellent Sound Quality (with care)
Stylish Design
Good Volume Levels
Well Controlled Distortion At High Volume
Compact Subwoofer
Built-in Power Regulation
Channels Levels Can Be set Independently
Line In Jack

CONs

No Remote Master Volume Control
Speakers Vibrate When Not Used With Stands
Relatively Weak Bass
Cannot Be Wall Mounted
Could Use A Cable Retention Clip On Stands
No Headphone Jack
No Digital In

In Summary :

It's a tough call on whether to offer VideoLogic a wholehearted congratulations or slam them for some fundamental mistakes. If we run through the CON's in turn, the first is the lack of a master volume control. No matter how advanced or ancient your sound card the ability to adjust (or mute) the volume on all channels from a single point is something I consider essential. Creative offered it with their bargain basement FPS1000s so I can't understand their omission here. In a sense the price of the ZXR-500s is so good for a quality 5.1 system that I can almost understand the reasoning behind omitting it but I consider this a major functionality problem and I'd sooner pay a touch more and have it included.
The vibration problem when the speakers are used without the stands is as simple to rectify as applying three or four foam feet to the base of each satellite and is something I hope VideoLogic will incorporate quickly.
The lack of bass power is something that's also forgivable at this price but I suggest a little more information about proper subwoofer placement, and in particular the benefits of corner loading should be included in the supplied documentation which seems to suggest keeping the sub out in the open for access to the controls. To get the best from the sub it needs at the very least to be under your desk and against at least one wall. If you're lucky enough to be able to place the sub under your desk and in a corner then things improve further and you begin to see that despite the lack of raw grunt it actually does a very nice job. Because the controls are mounted on the front of the sub the temptation is to place it out in the open where you can easily get at them. All I can say is don't!
The inability to wall mount the speakers is again a strangely fundamental oversight and one that could easily be achieved with some very simple and minor stand redesigns. In fact all that's needed really is a hole in each of the three foot pads and a way of remounting the stand's locating shoe.
The addition of a cable retaining mechanism at the foot of each stand would also be a minor issue.
Finally the lack of a headphone socket is something I mentioned more for your information rather than a true gripe simply because most speakers at this price and indeed a lot of more expensive speakers lack this feature. The same holds true for a digital line in which is something often found only on much more expensive units.

So those are the negatives which remarkably do very little to dent my enthusiasm for what VideoLogic have achieved here. You've got to admire any company that can offer a fully functional 5.1 speaker setup that performs to this level and more importantly does it for under £80! If you're prepared to exercise a little care and experimentation with subwoofer placement you'll be rewarded with an incredibly well rounded sound that genuinely does rival systems costing much more money. Clean highs, ample midrange and tightly controlled bass serve to breathe new life into your games, your music and your DVDs in a way that nobody I know of has managed to do without a much higher price tag.
Whether you can live with the ergonomic shortcomings is something only you can decided but if your prime concern is sound quality and you're realistic enough to know you're not going to get quite the same quality as you'd get from a considerably pricier setup then I can only suggest you give these speakers the serious consideration they deserve.