Customer Reviews

ZVOX 315 Sound Console - Surround sound speaker

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm an audiophile and while this is no $1000 electrostatic center channel with 75watt amp driving it, its a very good sound for the money and the form.
A simple black box putting out good simple sound. I have always liked the R+L R-L circuitry they use to get a wider soundstage. its not a goofy digital sounding processed sound, its smooth and warm. a little boomy but you have bass control and that can be balanced and it sounds like a lot more than just 25 watts in a box.

I'm using mine with an airport express to wirelessly provide tunes to my children in their nursery. its too much power for them, practically, and I find it outperforms all the ipod-accessory units including the bose.

its a nice good solid box with nice good solid sound for the money.
and the feature of turning off when there's no input signal is the kind of "well, duh!" good feature too many product makers forget. Thanks zvox...

I TAKE IT BACK. worked for 4 mos, then stopped turning on. trashed it.

I bought this unit to use as a sound system for laptop PC DVD viewing and iPod listening on the road. It is an extremely adaptable unit for anything with mini-jack or RCA outputs. Sound is very good for what it is, that is , a portable faux-surround sound all-in-one system. Unfortunately, after 1 initial use I put it away for 6 months and when trying to use it again it failed to work. I had to pay almost half of the initial purchase price to get it repaired (I suspect ZVOX just sent a replacement unit). It is too bad that such an innovative product suffers from such a high failure rate. Check eBay to see how many of these units are up for sale with the "no audio" or "good for parts" caveat attached. Great when it works, ZVOX needs to address the high failure rate and check their quality control before I would straight out purchase another product from them.

After reading a rave in Stereophile magazine about the 315, I had to hear it. I, too was impressed by the clarity of the midrange (some think it to be too prominent), the extended bass (with a nice subwoofer control), and the relative ease of setup. The PhaseCue is a phasey gimmick with which some listeners will be fascinated and others distressed. That's fine - if you're like me, you'll sijmply turn it off (just like that "wide" function on your computer's media player).

Feed this box a clean signal from any analog sorce, and you will likely be impressed with its sound. But enjoy it for only a fleeting moment, because it is probably going to stop working, just as mine did. I sent mine back (while under warranty) and received a replacement unit (probably a refurbished/repaired unit from stock). I powered it up, rejoiced in the sound, used it for a while and set it aside for a short time. I took it out the other day and ... well, deja vu, the thing doesn't work again. I have received no response from customer service yet (I'm waiting for the "send us the unit and $65 and we'll send you another repaired unit that will work briefly" response).

It's too bad. This is a nice niche product that has the potential to fit seamlessly into many non-audiophile/videophile systems and still provide audiophile/videophile quality. But folks, it doesn't. It just isn't reliable.

This unit has worked flawlessly for more than 8 months, running every day in the evening. It is a perfect solution for small to medium size rooms, and the quality of sound surpasses any of the products in this price range, including and in particular the highly promoted Bose so-called "portable". I have had a few questions, which were answered promptly and in surprising detail by email. I don't know any other company who have been so personally responsive, and actually had competent answers - something that's becoming increasingly hard to find with typical vendors with outsourced help desks.

Thank you zvox - great product.

Note that this review is for the ZVOX mini because Amazon has no product space for it.

I have owned the ZVOX Mini for about a year now. We use it for our TV sound system as well as to feed CD Players and iPods into.

For $200 this little box is amazing. It is smaller than the ZVOX 315 (check it out on ZVOX webpage) but the sound is big and full. You get a carrying case, a power brick, two 1/8 inch inputs, a remote, and two knobs on the front for volume and "tone".

Having heard the Bose and also seen the $500 price all I can say is that this little box is about 90% of the Bose sound quality for 40% of the price. Not only that but there is no moving parts to wear out (e.g. Bose CD player) and cause the whole unit to become dysfunctional.

ZVOX decided to do one thing and do it well. Hence their products consist only of is only amplified speakers and nothing more.

Oh yea, and the bass is pretty darn good. My one complaint about the Bose is that yes, it provides sonic clarity in many frequency ranges, but the Bass was a little weak and there was no way to tweak it. The ZVOX does have a way to play with the "tone" to increase bass and it is just as good at providing bass as the Bose.

So there you have it.

Highly recommended.....

I bought this to use in place of a full home theater system. I now have it under my 19 inch den tv. It improves on the speakers in the 19" TV, but nowhere near as well as my $50.00 Creative computer speakers when I hooked them up, just for comparison purposes. There is a marginal surround effect but it is very limited. The sound reproduction is better than that of the tiny speakers in the 19" set, but I do not find the sound particularly crisp. The one advantage it has over the computer speakers is that the volume is controlled through the TV. Otherwise, I feel like I spent $150 too much.

This product does the job it claims to do .. supplements the normal speaker system of my large TV. I turn it on and off manually instead of leaving it on all the time .. because of that I find that I seldom use it .. but that is my choice. The system works and it is there when I want it.

Great sound quality. Installation was simple. Just wish it had a remote as some TVs don't have an internal mute/switching option.