ZVOX Blog
Why we don’t have multiple inputs and digital inputs.
A number of our customers – and product reviewers – ask us why ZVOX products don't include more than two inputs, and why none of those inputs are digital. Here's why:
Multiple inputs.
Most of our customers use ZVOX systems with TVs. Audio systems that have multiple inputs become the switching center for the TV/Home Theater system. But unless the audio system ALSO includes video inputs and switching (which can be quite expensive and complicated), we think this is a bad idea. Instead, the TV should be the switching center of the system. Your TV already has inputs for a DVD player, VCR, cable box or satellite receiver. And it probably has inputs for a game console and a camcorder. Your TV also has a remote control and a very large display (the TV screen) that is very helpful in communicating to you when you are switching between sources. So if you connect everything to the TV, then connect the audio output of the TV to the ZVOX system, you can use your TV the way you normally do, switching easily between cable box, DVD, game console, etc.
If, on the other hand, you switched audio through the ZVOX system and video through the TV, YOU HAVE TO SWITCH TWO THINGS EVERYTIME YOU WANT TO GO FROM TV TO DVD! For example, you’re watching a TV show and decide to switch to a movie on DVD. You’d need to use your TV remote to switch from cable to DVD….then pick up the ZVOX remote to switch between Input 1 and Input 2. If you forget to do that, you’ll be watching the DVD but listening to your cable box. Way too complicated. Keep it simple. Let the TV be your switchbox – then connect TV audio output to Input 1 on the ZVOX.
Digital inputs. For some reason people think a product is inferior because it doesn't have digital inputs. But trust us. We have compared ZVOX systems with digital inputs to those with analog inputs – and we are convinced that no one could hear the difference. Why? All sound has to be converted to analog before an amplifier can amplify it and send it to the speaker. This is done with a digital-to-analog converter (or D/A converter). Virtually all modern TVs have D/A converters built in – so they can do the conversion and send the analog signal out of the TV into the ZVOX system. If we were to add D/A converters to ZVOX systems, we would also have to add Dolby® decoders to the systems and pay royalties to Dolby, even though we don't use Dolby functionality other than to be able to "read" the incoming signal. So we would add significant cost to your systems simply to have the digital decoding take place inside our cabinet, instead of inside the TV, which is normally about 6-12 inches away from the ZVOX. We choose not do so because we don't believe it improves performance.
What does the future hold? There are some commercial TVs, and a small number of consumer TVs, that no longer include analog audio output jacks. So the only way one can get sound out is via a digital audio output. This situation, if it progresses, may force us to include digital inputs in future products.
—TH
Enough with all the wires!
Looking at the back panel of this surround sound receiver reminds us of those contests where you’re supposed to guess how many jelly beans are in the giant jar. Quick, guess how many connecting jacks are there! We aren’t really sure, because each time we try we lose count. But it looks like about 115 jacks – so you could connect 115 wires and cables to the back of the thing.
That’s a lot of wire. It’s also a lot of copper. Industry experts now predict that in 2007 the world will use over 18 million tons of copper!
The wire basketball in back of my TV.
Several years ago, when I still had a 5.1 surround system, we had our living room repainted. So the painters had to unplug the TV and sound system and move everything into the middle of the room to be covered with tarps. What I discovered in back of the TV was a bale of speaker and connecting wires significantly larger than a basketball…all tangled up with each other in a frightening, dusty mass. There were two connecting cords in the wire-ball that weren’t connected to anything at either end! I decided I had to clean things up, so I disconnected all the wires and started from scratch. Two and a half hours later I finally had everything put back together and working.
The experience was very instructional and very aggravating. It was one of the defining moments that lead to the creation of ZVOX Audio.
I never met anyone who looked in back of his or her TV and said “I don’t have enough wires back here.” Everybody hates wires. They’re expensive ($100 for a 3-foot HDMI cable!!!). They’re messy. And inevitably, the get plugged into the wrong thing. My current home theater setup is far, far simpler. I use a ZVOX 325 system with one connecting cable. A DVD player with one (HDMI) connecting cable. And a cable box with one (HDMI) connecting cable. If you add in four power cords (TV, ZVOX, DVD, Cable Box), and one cable connecting wire, my system has a total of eight wires in the back. And I’m working on ways to cut that down. I’ll let you know when I figure it out.
Home Theater To Go
We just got back from a vacation in Maine, where we stayed in a home where electricity is intermittent, and television reception non-existent. It’s a good thing to do. Like many people, we tend to get a little TV-dependent. Watching eagles, ospreys and grandchildren running on the beach is better.
But a couple of times we did break down and let the kids watch a movie on our Mini Home Theater – a laptop computer and a ZVOX Mini. The whole theater – complete with a bunch of DVDs – fits in one fairly small backpack. And on those rainy days, it was nice to have around.
Great for the price of good.
We exhibit at a number of shows each year, but our favorite is the Home Entertainment Show – sponsored by Home Theater and Stereophile magazines. We always see and hear things at the show that amaze us. But the most amazing things at the show are the prices. Most of the interconnect cables on exhibit sell for more than the price of our most expensive system (which, by the way, comes with two interconnect cables). For the price of a late-model car you can buy a high-end tube amplifiers. For the price of a brand new German sports car – 5-series – you can buy a three-part CD player or a component turntable.
And if you do – well good for you. We think it’s probably a better way to spend your money than on the fancy car. But it all does seem just a bit silly. When I first got into this business, I was convinced that the expensive products were better. Until one day, in the listening room of a crowded stereo store in Dinkytown (a Minneapolis neighborhood near the University of Minnesota), I compared the Advent Loudspeaker to several competing models selling for over twice its price. I talked to Kenny, my store manager, about it, and he assured me I was wrong. The expensive speakers were better. But the more I listened, the more clear it became. The Advents were better.
I became fascinated by the idea that a company could pull off something like this. And later on I went to work for Advent, where I worked with Henry Kloss. I worked with him again at Cambridge SoundWorks. Henry really liked the idea of making great products that were really affordable. He was very, very good at it.
In the 1970s stereo dealers were always asking Henry to make a more expensive version of the Advent Loudspeaker. His response? “If you want better sound, buy two pairs and stack them on top of one another.” As a result, hundreds of people – including myself – bought “Stacked Advents,” perhaps the most ungainly looking speaker system ever sold. But boy did they sound good!
I’m not sure what my point is. I guess it all centers on my fascination with products that exceed one’s expectations – products that sound great, for the price of good. I believe ZVOX products qualify. And so, apparently, do the large number of retailers who don’t sell ZVOX for the simple reason that our systems cost too little. Over and over I’ve had retailers tell me we should sell our systems for twice the price, or more.
So the bad news is that a lot of retailers aren’t interested in selling affordable, high-quality audio products. The good news is that real-world people – you guys – are apparently very interested in exactly that. Our sincere thanks to all our past and future customers.
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