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The ZXR-750 comes with 7 identical satellites sporting
3-inch cones, each of them offering 8 Watts RMS of power.
For the price, the satellites performed acceptably with
nothing really to distinguish from those of similar systems,
i.e. the mid-range was somewhat muddy, bass & treble were
sufficient. Distortion in the satellites wasn’t noticeable
up to about 50% of the Master volume, which is pretty good
overall though.
 The
ZXR-750 can provide 7.1 playback from 5.1 sources by using
its built-in up-mixing feature – SurFE (Surround
Field Enhancement), which no doubt may prove
useful to those of you with a 5.1 Soundcard (there is no
capability to up-mix 2/2.1 or 4/4.1-channel sources
however). The image beneath illustrates how the system
handles playback of 7.1, 6.1 & 5.1 “sources” (this is
determined by what the ConnX.1 knob is set to, not the
amount of channels being used by them it should be noted):
As the diagram illustrates, no up-mixing is necessary when
using a 7.1 input, e.g. Revolution 7.1 & Digifire 7.1. For a
6.1 input the additional rear channel is created from the
other rear channel. With a 5.1 input, SurFE is used to
generate 2 additional rear channels based on a mix of the
surround left/right channels.
The generated channels work effectively enough with DVD
playback and enhanced the surround effect very nicely with
several titles I tried. For gaming purposes I’m less excited
about up-mixing however. As you’ll know from previous
reviews I’m not a great fan of up-mixing features,
particularly when it comes to 3D Audio supporting games
(given that generated channels are inevitably not positioned
as intended).
This of course raises the question; if you don’t want
to use SurFE what can you do about it? You may recall that
with the Inspire 6700 that that had a 5.1 -> 6.1 switch that
allowed you to easily enable/disable up-mixing features –
the ZXR-750 however doesn’t feature such a switch. I found 2
methods to do this myself: 1) simply unplug both rear
satellites when you don’t require the up-mixing 2) instead
set the ConnX.1 knob to 7.1.
Overall it’s a nice enough feature for those with a 5.1
Audio device, though disabling it if you don’t want it
proved a bit awkward.
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AMD Athlon XP 2400+
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256MB DDR RAM
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GeForce FX 5600 Ultra/Radeon 9700 Pro
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Abit NV7-S 2.0 (APU not tested)
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SoundBlaster Audigy
2
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M-Audio Revolution 7.1
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Hercules Digifire 7.1
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Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
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PowerDVD
XP (Dolby Digital Surround EX decoding, bundled with
Digifire 7.1)
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WinDVD 4
(Dolby Digital Surround EX decoding, bundled with
Revolution 7.1)
All latest Drivers/patches were installed for the
Soundcards/DVD decoders used. It was also tested on my
living room DVD setup, which consists of:
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Creative
SoundBlaster Extigy
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Sony DVD
player
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Philips
32” Widescreen TV
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