For the average consumer, things were getting pretty complicated. Hooking up a decent system could take hours -- if not a whole day -- if you hadn't done it before. So the folks at Sony(R) came up with a brilliant idea: package an amp, tuner and DVD player all in one slim console, then bundle it with five little speakers and a compact powered subwoofer. Put the whole works in a big cardboard box. Then all we've got to do is come up with a name for it.....Home Theater In A Box!

HTIBs were wildly popular because they were affordable, reasonably small, and a LOT easier to hook up than a component home theater system. But most of them had a problem. Cheap, crappy-sounding speakers. The scary part was these speakers didn't look cheap. They looked cool and sexy, with silvery curves. Simple, cheap and visually-seducing -- what a combination.

But the fact is that then, and now, many HTIBs sound like you're listening to five really loud, really tinny TV speakers and a boomy subwoofer that just sits and thumps away the same 70Hz note, no matter what signal is sent to it. It's hard to blame the manufacturers for designing them this way. Today's consumer tends to shop with a checklist, not a pair of ears, while pushing his cart down the aisle. (It still amazes me that the store I started out in, with McIntosh amps, AR and Advent speakers, Revox tape decks and Thorens turntables evolved into a giant supermarket where people push shopping carts.) The customer tends to shop for features.... upscaling DVD player....100 watt amplifier....three HDMI inputs....sub-$500 price -- OK, I'll buy it. Even if he wanted to listen, he couldn't really give it a good test in a 60,000 square foot store. The point is that customers aren't demanding, or even asking for, good quality speakers. And they aren't getting them. They're getting lightweight, flexy-plastic cabinets with painfully-cheap speaker drivers.

And to rub salt in the wound, that DVD player that's built into your system -- well good luck on its technology staying current for more than nine months.

Call me a Luddite, but I think everybody should buy good old fashioned wood-cabinet speakers with high-quality speakers, voiced by someone who knows what they're doing. They might cost a little more. And they might not look like they belong on a space ship. But you'd be amazed how good your music, your movies, even your sitcoms can sound. And a good speaker system will last a good 10-20 years. Amortize your investment and it will cost you a couple bucks a month to get good sound.

If you ask people "what's the most important thing about a home theater system," most of the will say surround sound. But in our opinion, surround sound effects play only a minor role in creating a theater-like experience in your home. In fact, on our list of five key elements, it comes in last place. Here's the list:

1. Audio accuracy. A home theater system should sound "right." Musically accurate. It should have proper octave-to-octave tonal balance (each musical octave should have the same "weight"). You don't need "a golden ear" to tell the difference between accurate speakers and inaccurate speakers. The best way is to listen to a good vocal recording with non-amplified musical instruments (we used to wear out copies of Joni Mitchell's "Blue" in the 70s in stereo stores). Does the vocalist sound like she's in the room in front of you -- or like she's singing in an alley (or through a megaphone)? Does the guitar sound natural, or tinny? Is the piano strident or clear? This is important. Basic sound quality -- musical accuracy -- is WAY MORE important than anything else when you evaluate a home theater system. The sad reality is that most under-$600 surround sound systems use speakers that we would consider "highly questionable." Manufacturers put a lot of emphasis on watts, exotic features, gazillions of inputs and -- most important -- swoopy plastic cabinets. But they can't seem to muster the fortitude necessary to spend what it takes to put in good speakers.
2. Vocal clarity. This is a biggy. It shouldn't be that hard to create an audio system that allows people to understand spoken words. But we've heard a number of systems where vocal clarity, well, sucks. You shouldn't have to strain to hear the voices -- or crank the volume way up. A good home theater system will use high-quality speakers that reproduce the human voice with crystal clarity. Odd retro-fact: monaural speakers are great at voices. That's why the middle speaker(s) in ZVOX systems is "all channel" (our fancy way of saying "monaural").
3. Dynamic impact. If you're watching a "big" action movie or a concert video, you want the audio system to be able to go from "soft" to "very loud" without straining and without compressing the sound. Dynamics are often determined by some pretty predictable factors: speaker driver size, amplifier size and cabinet size. Smaller speaker systems -- including ZVOX models -- have less dynamic impact. Yes, we know everybody wants smaller and smaller speakers...and laptop computers....and iPods...and phones. But with speakers eventually smaller is NOT better. We've compared our ZVOX 425 system (five 3.25" speakers, two 4" long-excursion woofers, 133-watt amp, big cabinet) to our best-known competitor (incredible numbers of 1.5" speakers). On a big movie, with big special effects, we think there's no comparison.
4. Bass response. A home theater without good bass isn't a home theater. And by "good" we don't mean just loud. Bass needs to be accurate, wide-ranging and musical. It's pretty easy to design a subwoofer that thuds away with 60-90 Hz bass -- reproducing all bass as one sound (also known as a "one note subwoofer"). But bass that sounds right, especially below 60 Hz, is a different story. Try picking up the subwoofer that comes with an inexpensive home-theater-in-a-box. If it's as light as an empty suitcase, it's going to sound like an empty suitcase. Push in on its sidewall. If they flex, they're going to absorb the energy of the woofer instead of transmitting it. Listen to a recording of a stand-up bass -- you should be able to clearly hear the tonal differences between the notes, and to some extent you should actually "feel" the bass.
5. Surround effects. When home theater systems first came out, we all scrambled trying to find demo material that made the rear speakers seem important. Stuff coming from in back of you was cool, and it was sure different. It's fun to be "immersed" in the sound of a movie. But we believe surround effects are the least important factor on this list. Here's a story. About eight years ago, when I was VP of Marketing at Cambridge SoundWorks, I had a pretty serious surround sound system. But we were having our living room repainted, so everything had to be disconnected an covered with tarps. About a day after the system got put back together, I noticed that there was nothing coming out of the rear speakers. The painters hadn't connected the rear speakers. I decided to not mention this, and wait to see when any of my family members or friends mentioned the lack of rear speaker sound effects. Two months later, when nobody had said a word about it, I quietly removed the rear speakers and put them in the attic.
   

Bottom line: If you want a home theater system that you'll really love, the most important thing to consider is basic high fidelity. Realistic sound is more important than realistic sound effects.

Let's face it... the TVs on the market these days are just AMAZING! Digital, high definition pictures that make you feel like you're right in the action- they look great and are pretty affordable too. Everything you could want in a TV. Well, everything except great sound. That's where we come in. Our ZVOX systems bring room-filling sound to your TV without filling your room with speakers. Don't settle for a great picture with lousy sound. No matter what size your TV or room is, we've got a ZVOX that's right for you.

Have a TV in your kitchen, but you can't hear it over the dishwasher? Try our ZVOX Mini to boost the sound... you won't miss a syllable! Its small size makes it perfect for countertop TVs. You will be amazed at the sound that comes out of this tiny speaker. Music is rich and clear, with none of the tinny sound that most small systems produce. The Mini is a great on the go speaker system as well. Pack it up with the optional carry bag and rechargeable battery and any audio source becomes mobile! It turns laptops and MP3 players into go-anywhere jukeboxes. Bring this to your next barbeque and you will be the life of the party!

Who wants to worry about speakers in their bedroom? Usually we just suffer with the speakers that come built into the TV. Now you don't have to. Our ZVOX Mini, 315 or even the 325 would be perfect! Your late night favorites will sound so good, you'll never watch them on your living room TV again! (Unless of course you have a ZVOX there too...)

Need bone-rattling sound for your man (or woman) cave? Our 415 or 425 will absolutely blow you away. Inside the 415's slim cabinet are three 3.25" main speakers, a 4" subwoofer, a 4" passive radiator, an amplifier and our exclusive PhaseCue virtual surround sound system. And the 425? One cabinet, five speakers, two powered subwoofers, a powerful 133-watt amplifier and our proprietary PhaseCue virtual surround sound system - what's not to love there? Want more even more boom? Both the 415 and the 425 have an optional subwoofer output on the back for an additional subwoofer.

No matter the room in the house or the size of the set, we've got a ZVOX system that will work. If you aren't sure which one is best for your application, shoot us an email at info@zvoxaudio.com or give us a call (866-367-9869) and we'll be happy to advise you.

Looking at the back panel of this surround sound receiver reminds us of those contests where you're supposed to guess how many jelly beans are in the giant jar. Quick, guess how many connecting jacks are there! We aren't really sure, because each time we try we lose count. But it looks like about 115 jacks - so you could connect 115 wires and cables to the back of the thing. That's a lot of wire. It's also a lot of copper. Industry experts now predict that in 2007 the world will use over 18 million tons of copper!

The wire basketball in back of my TV

Several years ago, when I still had a 5.1 surround system, we had our living room repainted. So the painters had to unplug the TV and sound system and move everything into the middle of the room to be covered with tarps. What I discovered in back of the TV was a bale of speaker and connecting wires significantly larger than a basketball...all tangled up with each other in a frightening, dusty mass. There were two connecting cords in the wire-ball that weren't connected to anything at either end! I decided I had to clean things up, so I disconnected all the wires and started from scratch. Two and a half hours later I finally had everything put back together and working.

The experience was very instructional and very aggravating. It was one of the defining moments that lead to the creation of ZVOX Audio.

I never met anyone who looked in back of his or her TV and said "I don't have enough wires back here." Everybody hates wires. They're expensive ($100 for a 3-foot HDMI cable!!!). They're messy. And inevitably, the get plugged into the wrong thing. My current home theater setup is far, far simpler. I use a ZVOX 325 home theater system with one connecting cable. A DVD player with one (HDMI) connecting cable. And a cable box with one (HDMI) connecting cable. If you add in four power cords (TV, ZVOX, DVD, Cable Box), and one cable connecting wire, my system has a total of eight wires in the back. And I'm working on ways to cut that down. I'll let you know when I figure it out.

We exhibit at a number of shows each year, but our favorite is the Home Entertainment Show - sponsored by Home Theater and Stereophile magazines. We always see and hear things at the show that amaze us. But the most amazing things at the show are the prices. Most of the interconnect cables on exhibit sell for more than the price of our most expensive system (which, by the way, comes with two interconnect cables). For the price of a late-model car you can buy a high-end tube amplifiers. For the price of a brand new German sports car - 5-series - you can buy a three-part CD player or a component turntable.

And if you do - well good for you. We think it's probably a better way to spend your money than on the fancy car. But it all does seem just a bit silly. When I first got into this business, I was convinced that the expensive products were better. Until one day, in the listening room of a crowded stereo store in Dinkytown (a Minneapolis neighborhood near the University of Minnesota), I compared the Advent Loudspeaker to several competing models selling for over twice its price. I talked to Kenny, my store manager, about it, and he assured me I was wrong. The expensive speakers were better. But the more I listened, the more clear it became. The Advents were better.

I became fascinated by the idea that a company could pull off something like this. And later on I went to work for Advent, where I worked with Henry Kloss. I worked with him again at Cambridge SoundWorks. Henry really liked the idea of making great products that were really affordable. He was very, very good at it.

In the 1970s stereo dealers were always asking Henry to make a more expensive version of the Advent Loudspeaker. His response? "If you want better sound, buy two pairs and stack them on top of one another." As a result, hundreds of people - including myself - bought "Stacked Advents," perhaps the most ungainly looking speaker system ever sold. But boy did they sound good!

I'm not sure what my point is. I guess it all centers on my fascination with products that exceed one's expectations - products that sound great, for the price of good. I believe ZVOX home theater systems qualify. And so, apparently, do the large number of retailers who don't sell ZVOX for the simple reason that our systems cost too little. Over and over I've had retailers tell me we should sell our systems for twice the price, or more.

So the bad news is that a lot of retailers aren't interested in selling affordable, high-quality audio products. The good news is that real-world people - you guys - are apparently very interested in exactly that. Our sincere thanks to all our past and future customers.

We just got back from a vacation in Maine, where we stayed in a home where electricity is intermittent, and television reception non-existent. It's a good thing to do. Like many people, we tend to get a little TV-dependent. Watching eagles, ospreys and grandchildren running on the beach is better.

But a couple of times we did break down and let the kids watch a movie on our Mini Home Theater - a laptop computer and a ZVOX Mini. The whole theater - complete with a bunch of DVDs - fits in one fairly small backpack. And on those rainy days, it was nice to have around.

It's remarkable how much enjoyment everybody got out of this little system. Laptop computers have great video quality. And the Mini performed like a champ -- filling the cabin with high quality surround sound. And the whole thing took up less space than a bag of groceries.