Samsung HT-Z520: A Decent Surround Speaker System

Hope you're all having a wonderful Boxing Day (and that your Christmas was great as well). I saw a review of this cheap surround sound system on CyberTheater.com and thought I would share. Given that the Samsung HT-Z520 is only $194 at Amazon.com, it seems like a decent surround sound system for a low price. Might be worth it for a tighter budget, and cheap is the whole point of this site!

The Samsung HT-Z520 is a 5.1 channel, twelve hundred watt home theater system with four satellite speakers, one center channel speaker, a subwoofer, and a five DVD changer. You’ll also get an iPod dock, a USB port, HDMI input, wireless rear option for your rear speakers, AnyNet Plus capability, automatic upscaling for your DVDs, Energy Star compliance, FM tuner, Auto Sound Calibration systems and Smart Volume.

File this one under “not bad”.  The sound is loud, but nothing spectacular.  There’s a five DVD changer in here, which is always nice. And there are plenty of solid options, which is enough to put it, as I said, squarely in the not bad column. There’s nothing particularly great about this setup, but so too is there nothing particularly bad.

Downright BAD Cheap Surround Sound- Don't Buy This!

Just because the Coby DVD-937 has a great price tag ($95), doesn't mean it's a great system. They're trying to be simple and everything, but it's just not working. Has most of the features most other systems have, but it's just not cutting it quality-wise. It's pretty ugly too. Although most cheap surround sound is great quality, there's the occasional dud, and this seems to be it :P 

Now, while you’d think you had most of the basics well in hand, you’d be largely wrong. Yes, there’s a DVD player and all the speakers with a Dolby Digital surround decoder, but the sound on this thing is really rather unpleasant. It sounded muffled to me, and that doesn’t bode at all well for a system that depends on doing the simple things well because it doesn’t do much of anything but.

Surround Sound Radio?

Know how all those cheap surround sound systems I've been showing you have radios built in?

Well seems like some people are starting to roll out radio broadcasting that's actually IN surround sound! Check this out...

http://www.sa-cd.net/showthread/63586//y?page=first

Cheap 7.1 Surround Sound System: Onkyo SKS-HT540

 

I normally don't feature any 7.1 surround speaker systems either here or at the Cheap Surround Sound blog, but this system is pretty high quality, and comes at a price comparable to others I blog about.

For under $349 (The first option for sellers on Amazon costs $319), you're getting 2 front speakers, 4 surround speakers, a center speaker, and a subwoofer. Each is capable of putting out at least 130 watts of power (the subwoofer can do 230).

Customer reviews on Amazon are gleaming too. Dialouge is reproduced beautifully, movies sound great, and one reviewer especially enjoyed the front 3 speakers. All in all, I'd totally check out the Onkyo SKS-HT540 if you're looking for a cheap 7.1 surround speaker system.

Surround Sound for Under $200

Cheap surround sound just keeps getting cheaper and cheaper, while the quality of different systems gets better and better. With technology advancing and the home theater industry evolving, the consumer will always win. So what's amazing to me is this Samsung HT-Z320 system. It probably would have cost $600 a few years ago, but now it's only $170 on Amazon. Is it an incredible system? No. But it sure does the job, and can handle all your normal sports, movies, video games, and TV. And you know how I always talk about things getting cheaper when bought used? You can buy it used for $99 on Amazon too. 

Insane!

The Samsung HT-Z320 is a 5.1 channel thousand watt home theater speaker system that offers a center channel speaker, two front speakers, two rear speakers, a subwoofer and a DVD player. You’ll also get upconversion to near-1080p for your DVDs, Auto Sound Calibration systems, compatibility with a large variety of different formats, AnyNet Plus technology, an iPod dock, a USB port for playing music and videos directly from a USB drive, an FM tuner, one component video output, one composite video output, one HDMI output, and a headphone jack.

Just heard this cool Surround Sound system news.

Seems like GoldenEar Technology came up with a great cheap surround sound system! I'm reading the review from Cnet and it makes this system sound impeccable. I'll be checking it out soon to give you my personal opinion, don't worry!

December 8, 2010 6:00 AM PST

GoldenEar SuperCinema 3: How big can a little 5.1 speaker system sound?

Sandy Gross was one of the founders of two major speaker companies, Polk Audio and Definitive Technology, and now with GoldenEar Technology he's going for one more. I recently spoke with him about his new venture, and he didn't seem the least bit concerned about entering a rather tough retail market. He is in fact off to a good start and already has 100 brick-and-mortar U.S. dealers, and he will have overseas distributors coming aboard in the near future.

As soon as I heard Gross' SuperCinema 3 I understood why he's so confident. It's a lifestyle-friendly satellite/subwoofer system that sounds remarkable.

It comes with four SuperSat 3 satellites ($249 each), one SuperSat 3C center channel speaker ($249), and a ForceField 3 subwoofer ($499). The gloss black speaker cabinets feel extremely well-built, which is because they're fabricated from injection-molded marble powder infused polymer, a big step up from the more typical plastic, medium-density fiberboard or metal cabinets. That said, the wedge-shape, textured black finished sub is made from MDF, but it also appears to be well-built. GoldenEar Technology speakers are only available in black.

At 12 inches by 4.75 inches, the SuperSat 3 isn't tiny, but it's a mere 2.7 inches deep. The gently curved cabinets are decked out with two 4.5-inch mid/bass drivers, and one high-velocity folded ribbon tweeter (similar in operating principle to a Heil tweeter). Ribbon tweeters are the hot ticket for lots of high-end speakers, including my two personal references, the Magnepan 3.6 and the Zu Essence, but ribbon tweeters are rarely seen on speakers in the SuperSat 3's price range. The tweeter really does play a big part in the speaker's extraordinary sound quality. The SuperSat 3C center speaker sports the same driver complement, but the 3C's drivers are oriented for horizontal speaker placement.

Both speaker models can be wall-mounted via keyhole slots on their backsides, or used with the included table stands. GoldenEar Technology will offer floor stands for the speakers sometime in 2011.

The ForceField 3 subwoofer's underside reveals the quadratic planar infrasonic (passive) radiator woofer.

(Credit: GoldenEar Technology)

The ForceField 3 subwoofer features a proprietary 1,000-watt digital amp with digital frequency shaping electronics; a front-firing 8-inch active driver; and a special 9.6-by-11.4-inch quadratic planar infrasonic (passive) radiator on the bottom panel. Connectivity options include a direct RCA input as well as speaker-level inputs and outputs. GoldenEar Technology will have an optional wireless kit for the sub for $130 early next year. The sub measures a tidy 11.5 by 15.75 by 11 inches.

We've all heard promises about great sound in a sleek, lifestyle-friendly design before, but this time it's for real. The SuperCinema 3 sounds a lot bigger and better than you'd have any right to expect from something this small. The five SuperSats projected such a seamless, room-filling surround field I almost thought I was listening to seven SuperSats.

The ForceField 3 sub's blend with the SuperSats was perfect (with a 120 Hertz crossover set on the Denon AVR-1911 receiver). The sats and sub together had the poise of a much larger system, and I'd credit some of that to the ForceField 3's extraordinary bass prowess. I've never heard a sub this small go that deep, without forfeiting definition.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-20024736-47.html#ixzz17fDMz9ys

Downsized in Size and Price: the Yamaha YHT-593BL

Since I don't normally review specific models over at the cheap surround sound blog, I like to do that here, so today I'm taking a look at the Yamaha YHT-593BL surround speaker system. It's a little bit smaller then the YHT-693BL, but it's also a hundred bucks cheaper. It's probably a better value for what you're paying, so it's pretty in line with the things I like to review here. 

It's got great sound quality, and is pretty comparable to the 693BL, so don't worry about not getting as good of a sound. It's a very clear sounding system and sounds great for all sorts of sporting events and movies. It's got 525 watts of power, and the 4 surrounding speakers (not the center speaker or subwoofer) are wireless, so this is a nice looking system as well. The receiver is compatible with all sorts of hardware, including your iPod (comes with a Dock).

Here's what CyberTheater said about some of the other great features:

You’ll also get Bluetooth functionality, YPAO sound optimization (it’ll help with the setup of your speakers automatically), an RX-V467 receiver with HDMI ports and the capability to get your video and audio working with 3D function when supplemented by the right peripherals, the so-called “scene” buttons that change settings according to what media is being played (some scene features include Blu-ray or DVD watching, action game playing or iPod listening), Cinema DSP playback capability, and adaptive DRC.

This is worth surround sound!

Hate to show my classical music geekiness, but this one Blu-Ray release is worth buying a (cheap) surround sound system alone!

It's Disney's Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 all together. Amazing classical music with beautiful animation from Disney Studios. Both are classics, and have been mixed into some apparently great sounding surround for this release. What also excites me is that it includes a Disney collaboration with Salvador Dali entitled "Destino" that I've been fortunate enough to see many times, and is also incredible. 

Put this Blu-Ray in your surround sound system and crank it!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/warren-clements/fantasia-with-all-the-bells-and-whistles-and-hippos/article1822534/

Major Deal: Surround Sound + DVD Player + Extras for $100

This is pretty sick. You're getting a DVD player, Surround Sound system, Microphone inputs, USB/SD slots, and an FM radio all for $100. 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/211849/a_surroundsound_dvd_player_100.html

The Coby DVD938 puts a progressive-scan DVD player inside a complete (but modest) 600-watt, 5.1 surround receiver, and attaches five full-range speakers and a subwoofer. It even comes with an FM radio, microphone inputs (for karaoke), and a USB port and SD Card slot through which you can play your own media files. It's a good choice for a college student away from home for the first time.