With the growing number of DVDs supporting Dolby Surround EX
and DTS-ES decoding and with newer soundcards featuring 7.1
Output, it’s just a matter of time before the market gets
inundated by 7.1 Speaker system packages.
Videologic’s
ZXR-750s are touted as the “World’s First Integrated 7.1
Speaker System”, which as far as I know they were until
recently that Creative released a newer Inspire system to
couple with their 7.1 soundcards, however, what’s even more
attractive about the ZXR-750 is that it’s not meant to break
the bank but is offered at a very affordable price.
Featuring ConnX.1 and
SurFE, the ZXR’s can also up-mix 5.1/6.1 input to 7.1
channels.
Out of the Box
Setting up the
system itself wasn’t much of a hassle, after taking
everything out of the box, I was ready to position the
speakers and connect them to the Subwoofer.
Like with other budget systems, the
ZXR’s subwoofer houses the amplifier and inputs.
Connectivity
wise, the ZXR-750 offers both auxiliary stereo inputs and
multi-channel inputs via phono plugs. The choice of having
phono inputs opposed to more common mini-jacks may seem a
bit odd to those looking for use with a PC only, but indeed
these can prove very convenient given that DVD players
commonly feature phono outputs for stereo or even 5.1
output. So in either case Videologic has you covered.
Of some ironic
note, true 6.1 output was unavailable with the Audigy 2
because this soundcard uses a single line-out to carry the 3
rear channels (which the Inspire 6700 happens to support)
while no other soundcard outputs the rear channels in this
way, e.g. the Revolution 7.1 uses a 4th line-out
to carry the 2 Rear centre channels. The Hercules Digifire
7.1 & M-Audio Revolution 7.1 however connected just fine to
the ZXR-750’s 7.1 channel inputs.
Subwoofer
The Subwoofer
comes in a rectangular, grey finished, wooden enclosure.
Wood offers better quality bass and yields less distortion
than other materials (at least compared to other similarly
cheap ones). Design wise, its appearance hasn’t changed from
the ZXR-550, bar a proportionate increase in size and
weight, that is.
(click to enlarge)
As mentioned
earlier, the Subwoofer enclosure houses the amplifier and
all inputs on its rear. There’s an Input select button
located in the top left which allows you to switch between
Auxiliary (AUX) and Multi-channel (X.1) modes.
The ConnX.1 knob located just beneath allows you to select
5.1, 6.1 or 7.1, which will optimize
the output for the specified mode.
The Front of
the subwoofer as you can see isn’t as crowded as the Rear,
with only 4 volume knobs on it – Master, Centre, Rear and
Sub. As with most multimedia systems it also uses a (dual)
ported design (which provides improved bass efficiency at
lower frequencies) as opposed to a down firing one, with the
2nd port located on the side. As far as
performance goes, the subwoofer offers 28
Watts RMS of power and has a response range of down to 18Hz.
The Subwoofer responded well enough during testing. At about
50% sound could get a little ‘boomier’ although this could
be compensated with ease using the separate Sub control.
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on Technical Specifications (next page),
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