ZVOX 325 High-Performance Single-Cabinet Surround Sound System

I bought these to replace an older 6 piece set of speakers. The old ones still worked well but I had gotten tired of the clutter that they created. I am very pleased with this outfit. It is about the size of the new receiver that I had also purchased and just looks better. The sound quality is very good...both for dialogue and music. BTW, they are in my great room which is about 20 feet by 30 feet with a vaulted ceiling and it fills the room with sound.

It took a little while to figure out how to connect to the receiver as the directions were not all that clear. I ended up having to connect to the earphone connection which works just fine.

I have a Panasonic 50" Viera that has good sound. But I wanted something that I could really get some quality volume out of. I read the reviews here, was impressed and bought one. After hooking it up I did a side by side comparison using a concert DVD. I was surprised and disappointed that the Viera had much better sound quality than the zvox325. That may say more good about the Viera than bad about the zvox. I hooked the zvox up to my laptop to play music CDs and the sound was indeed amazing. I suppose the lesson was that with a smaller TV that has a more basic audio system, the zvox would be an outstanding inprovement. But with a larger TV with a higher quality built in sound system, the zvox is actually a step down.

This combo speaker/amp does an incredible job given the size and price; the sound is much better than my built-in TV speakers. This product is only 17" wide (just like your other AV components) and just 5" tall. It uses better speaker components than those packaged, 5 piece theater-in-a-box units and has a decent base sound built in. Vocals are crisp and clean and better than traditional TV. Music is fuller and richer, particularly when bass is involved. Your money goes to good components within this single piece set-up. As advertised it creates some wide-stage effect: voices & crowd noise & instruments seem to be coming from several feet on either side of the box. Again, it's much better than traditional TV speakers and this synthetic surround effect is adjustable.

Hook-up is as simple as it can be with just one audio cable from yout TV to this unit and we love the fact there are no speakers or wires running around/outside the TV stand. If you have a powered sub you can add it but I didn't find it necessary.

As to full surround sound, the ZVOX does not do that. Sure, it provides a good rich and wide sound field, but for full surround you need three front speakers so you can have strong center (usually vocals) and strong left and right at some distance from the center -- and strong rear units as well. So, if you are looking for Star Wars effects or earthquake/tornado effects so you feel like you are in the middle of it, this is NOT for you; do plan to spend a lot more money and a lot of time hooking things up.

The ZVOX comes with a simple remote (On/off, Volume up/down, Mute). My husband and I don't use the remote and allow our TV to control the volume so as to not add one more remote for the family. (He has speakers on our Sony TV set to OFF and audio out set to Variable. Then we turn ZVOX volume up close to max and leave it alone. So the volume and muting for the TV can be controlled by standard TV or TiVO remotes as if the ZVOX doesn't even exist; and the ZVOX is smart enough to turn itself off when it doesn't detect sound from the TV for some period.)

Pro-
Solid sound
Small single unit
Very easy hook-up
No string of wires

Cons--
Not a five speaker surround sound system
If you add too much synthetic surround sound effect much of the vocals can get lost in the music or crowd noise (but it is adjustable.)

This is a 5-star device if you want solid improvement in your TV sound without having to find a place to locate 5 speakers (and mess with the wires and extra buttons) or buy a $$$$ 5' sound bar. I rate it a 4 star as it claims a bit more than it can deliver in terms of surround sound.

I needed a single-unit speaker system for use in a relatively small room, and this product fit the bill perfectly. Speaker quality is excellent, with very good bass and treble, and excellent reproduction of sound. The "PhaseCue" and Bass features are adjustable, so you can find the best settings for your space and media. Highly recommended.

After spending a couple of months looking for and reading reviews I decided that the Zvox 325 was the way to go and am I happy I did! It took less that 5 minutes to connect and the sound is amazing. My TV has never sounded better, but even more exciting is how my iPod sounds. I will be looking into the Mini for my smaller TV room.