Zvox Z-Base 580 Review | Zvox Z-Base 580 Price, Features and Complete Review

The great: The Zvox Z-Base 580's pedestal design is our favorite for a seem bar, looking more like furniture than home audio equipment. Zvox has additionally added several oft-requested features, including a front-panel display, digital audio inputs, as well as true input switching. The Z-Base 580 also excels at dialogue clarity, with several adjustment options to dial within the sound to your liking.

The bad: The Z-Base 580's overall sound high quality won't impress audiophiles, especially on music and dynamic action movies. Although the Z-Base 580 is larger and it has an extra woofer compared with the Z-Base 555, we found the sonic differences between these phones be modest. And $600 is a lot to pay for a seem bar, especially with the much better-sounding Harman Kardon SB 16 available in the same price.

The bottom line: The Zvox Z-Base 580 has a nearly perfect sound-bar design along with a solid feature set, but it won't please critical listeners and the smaller Z-Base 555 is really a better value.

We've been fans of Zvox's sound bars for years, but we've often griped in regards to a few missing features: no front-panel display, digital inputs, or true input changing. Zvox has recently released two new Z-Base units (the 555 and 580) and there's virtually nothing to complain about about the design and features end. The new front-panel display is excellent, there tend to be two digital inputs plus true input switching, and the Z-Base pedestal remains undoubtedly our favorite sound-bar design.

Still, the Zvox Z-Base 580 ($600 street price) fell just a little short of our (admittedly high) expectations. That's largely because of its seem quality, which isn't bad, but didn't impress us as much as prior Zvox units. We also didn't think the Z-Base 580 sounded that a lot better than the smaller (and cheaper) Z-Base 555, although the 580 does get louder because of its size and an additional subwoofer on the bottom, making it a much better choice for large rooms. If you're not picky about sound quality or are simply looking for an upgrade over your built-in TV speakers, the Z-Base 580 is a superb choice for large rooms, especially since the Z-Base 580 gets just about anything else right. But if you're planning on playing a lot of music or searching for big home theater thrills, you'll want to look competitors like the Harman Kardon SB sixteen or Vizio VHT510.

Design

Zvox's Z-Base design is so superior to the look of other sound bars, it's shocking that it hasn't been copied however. Most sound bars have a tubelike shape and are designed to sit before your HDTV. That arrangement can work fine, but it can look uncomfortable and sometimes the TV's IR receiver is blocked. The Z-Base design gets around many of these issues by acting as a stand for the TV. (The Z-Base 580 is made to hold TVs 37 to 72 inches, up to 160 pounds. ) The result is the Z-Base 580 looks more like a bit of furniture than an obtrusive home audio system.

The front panel is additionally surprisingly well-designed. At first glance there appears to be no front-panel show, but it lights up from behind the speaker grille when needed, telling you how the volume is or which input you're using. It's also large enough to become easily read from the couch, which isn't always the case on sound-bar techniques. There are just enough front-panel buttons along the bottom edge (in case you cannot find the remote), as well as a minijack input for quickly hooking up an iPod.

The worst you could say about the Z-Base 580's design is it looks bland. While the ends are capped with glossy black plastic, all of those other cabinet is made of medium-density fiberboard (MDF) with a matte-black finish. It is a muted look, which we like, but buyers looking for something more flashy is going to be disappointed.

The included remote is adequate, although unexceptional. Most of the buttons would be the same size and there's not enough button separation to easily control through feel. On the upside, there are larger buttons for volume up/down as well as mute, which make them easier to locate quickly. Overall, the remote includes a generic feel compared with the more thoughtfully designed Z-Base unit.