Soundbar Reviews

Zvox Audio Z-Base 580 Soundbar HT Labs Measures

HT Labs Measures

This graph shows the quasi-anechoic (employing close-miking of all woofers) frequency response of the Z-Base 580 Sound System (purple trace). The left channel was measured with grille on at a distance of 1 meter.

The Z-Base 580's listening-window response (a five-point average of axial and +/–15-degree horizontal and vertical responses) measures + 2.35 /– 3.64 decibels from 200 hertz to 10 kilohertz. The –3dB point is at 48 Hz, and the –6dB point is at 42 Hz.—MJP

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akak's picture
Submitted by akak on March 6, 2012 - 11:16pm

The Z-Base 580 is indeed a fine component, but it requires a week or two of breaking in to sound its best (this is true with many speakers, of course). Other than that, my only complaints are that there are only three settings for the virtual surround circuit (earlier Z-Bases offered up to nine settings) and, as noted in the review, the Z-Base input is switched along with the TV's if the Z-Base is sync'd to your TV's remote -- since Zvox has always argued for using the TV to switch sources, it can only be considered a bug.

TyDeL's picture
Submitted by TyDeL on March 14, 2012 - 9:05am

If I wanted an all-in-one soundbar like this, but had future plans to get a 5.1 system when I'm more settled. Could the soundbar act as a dedicated center channel speaker in a 5.1 setup?

Scott Wilkinson's picture
Submitted by Scott Wilkinson on March 14, 2012 - 10:06am
I wouldn't use this or any soundbar as a center-channel speaker. That's not what it's designed to do. Plus, it almost certainly would not match the tonal character of any front left and right speaker you might eventually get.
joefish6165's picture
Submitted by joefish6165 on March 14, 2014 - 6:54pm

I agree on tonal issue possibilities , but unlike most people all my speakers in my system are in wall , if you look at this speaker its techincally a wall laying down at least with my JBL/Harmon in wall speakers its magical

joefish6165's picture
Submitted by joefish6165 on March 14, 2014 - 6:50pm

You can use it as a dedicated center speaker so as long as you have center speaker PRE-OUT on your receiver

shorttimer's picture
Submitted by shorttimer on October 20, 2012 - 2:42pm

I recently did a lot of research on finding the best small speaker solution for my home entertainment system driven by apple tv. I debated powered speaker like the Audioengine A5 and a single bar system. I wanted something that would be good enough for music and video, sound decent, and be simple. Informed by this review, Ichose the ZBase. Not huge sound, but it fills a good amount of space, it does need a bit of breaking in like akak mentioned. Overall Im pleased with my choice, and would recommend it. Finally, there is a convenient go around for the "power switch" challenged mentioned by the author, as the ZBase will power on automatically when any volume button on your tv's remote is engaged.

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