Vizio VSB210WS Sound Bar

Vizio bills itself as "America's HDTV Company," but the company has begun dipping its toe into the home audio side of the electronics pool with the VSB210WS. Billed as a "High Definition Sound Bar," the $349 package features a sleek-looking single speaker paired with a full-size 2.4GHz wireless subwoofer. While high-definition TV is something that is clearly objective, high-definition sound is something completely different. While we wouldn't sign off on the "high-definition" moniker for the VSB210WS (or any sound bar we've heard to date), we did find it to be a credible performer for the price. It's a stereo speaker, so it cannot promise much in the way of surround sound. That said, Vizio engineers gave the VSB210WS a noticeably fuller, more bass-rich sound than your average entry-level sound bar, and the inclusion of a wireless subwoofer makes it a good deal.

Design and features
The VSB210WS's sound bar and subwoofer are attractively finished in a high-gloss black plastic. Construction quality feels substantial and the speaker's brushed metal end-caps are distinctive. A removable black cloth grille covers the four 3-inch-high mid/bass drivers and two 0.75-inch aluminum dome tweeters. A built-in 15-watt-per-channel stereo amplifier powers the drivers. The 9.2-pound sound bar measures 4.82 inches tall by 39.95 inches wide by 4.33 inches deep.

Toward the center section of the front edge of the speaker cabinet, you'll find the power, input selector, volume, mute, and processing controls. Conveniently enough, the sound bar's built-in feet can double as wall brackets.

The small, black plastic remote control duplicates the speaker's controls and adds a subwoofer volume control. While this is a welcome addition, the sound bar doesn't have a dedicated display panel, so you'll have to make sense of the flickering LED lights to determine volume, input, and processing functions.

The 10-segment LED array is located behind the grille. The first seven white LEDs indicate volume level and input selectors. LED numbers five through seven correspond to the three audio inputs, the orange eighth LED indicates that the speaker and subwoofer have linked, and the last two blue LEDs refer to the sound bar's processing modes (These processing modes include SRS TruSurround, which produces virtual surround sound, and SRS Labs' TruVolume, which promises to minimize volume fluctuations.). When you mute the unit, the volume LEDs will flash. If you think all of that sounds confusing to read, our hands-on experience wasn't much better. This is something you'll simply have to get used to in order to understand the various functions of the sound bar.

The frustrating LED arrangement wasn't our only gripe with the system. You have to point the remote directly at the VSB210WS or it won't work--there's no leeway here. We also found that the remote turned the volume up or down a bit too quickly.

Connectivity is fairly basic: just two stereo RCA analog inputs and one optical digital input (one stereo RCA cable is included).

System setup is quite simple, as you only need to hook up your audio connections to the VSB210WS and adjust the subwoofer volume to your taste. But since the VSB210WS doesn't switch video sources, like your Blu-ray player or cable box, you'll have to remember to switch those on your TV manually, or set up a macro on your universal remote to handle the job.

Price Range : $ 179.99 to $ 269.00

Holiday Tech GuideLogitech Squeezebox Duet

Editors' Note: This review has been updated to reflect the addition of Sirius Internet Radio support, which was added to the Squeezebox Duet via a firmware upgrade in April 2008.

Digital audio is great--especially if you've got a multigigabyte music collection sitting on your computer, or you subscribe to an "all you can eat" music service like Rhapsody. The problem, for a lot of people, is that they're stuck listening to all that great music on the tinny speakers of their computer--or perhaps patching the laptop into their living room stereo system. Dedicated audio streamers have helped somewhat, but they have tiny little screens, which--like docked iPods--aren't very useful if you're sitting on a sofa across the room. And the best solution to date--the excellent Sonos Digital Music System--costs a pricey $1,000 for a two-room bundle. Enter Logitech's Squeezebox Duet: the $400 network digital audio streamer employs a winning handheld remote with a brilliant color screen (not unlike an iPod) that lets you navigate your entire music collection--including several online services and the majority of free Internet radio stations--from the palm of your hand, while you hear the music from the big speakers of your home stereo.

The hardware
The Duet is so named because it's a two-part system: the Squeezebox Receiver base station and the Squeezebox Controller remote. The base station is a nondescript black brick that pulls audio from a networked PC (Windows, Mac, or Linux) or the Internet via your Wi-Fi or wired Ethernet home network. The single button on the front of the base station is used to manually sync it to the network during setup. In addition to the Ethernet jack, the rear panel boasts both analog stereo (red and white RCA jacks) and digital (coaxial or optical) jacks. That means you can output your music to pretty much anything you want--be it a high-end AV receiver, a lowly boombox, or a pair of PC speakers--so long as it has an auxiliary input jack. There's no power button, but you can shut it off via your computer (more on that later) or the remote.
Speaking of the remote--the "Squeezebox Controller," that is--it's the real innovation here. Beyond the 10 buttons controlling standard functions (volume, play/pause, track forward/reverse), it features an iPod-like scroll wheel and a brilliant 2.4-inch color LCD screen (240x320 resolution, 256,000 colors). That puts the song navigation where it belongs: in your hand, instead of a small LCD readout halfway across the room. In addition to the wheel, the menu navigation is also largely iPod-like, so anybody who's familiar with Apple's ubiquitous music player should be able to pick up and use the Squeezebox Duet with no trouble. That said, the Controller's scroll wheel isn't quite as good as the Apple version: it's an actual wheel, not the solid-state touch-sensitive version on the iPod, and it lacks the iPod's speed-sensitive ability to quickly jump up and down through long lists.

The Controller includes a rechargeable lithium-ion battery (it's removable, too, so you can replace it a few years down the line when it eventually expires). The included charging station is heavy and metallic, so the remote won't be tipping over when docked. Interestingly, the Controller also includes an SD slot behind the battery compartment, a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, an IR transmitter, a small speaker (for menu clicks and other feedback), and a three-axis accelerometer (a la the Wii controllers). Few of those features have even been tapped yet, but they show how much room the controller has to grow with future firmware upgrades, both from Logitech and the avid developer community that's been active in developing past Squeezebox products. (Both the Receiver and Controller are firmware upgradable--just choose the "update" option on the controller menu for an automatic download.)
The Squeezebox Duet is an expandable system, so the two components are also available separately: add additional Receivers for $150 each and additional Controller remotes for $300 (thus, you're saving $50 by buying the Duet bundle). Moreover, the Duet system has been designed to be backward compatible with earlier Squeezebox models. That means that the Squeezebox "Classic" and the high-end Transporter can double as receivers within a home network, and the Controller remote can interact with those models as well. Logitech recommends not exceeding six to eight Squeezebox nodes (Controllers and Receivers total), after which the bandwidth constraints are likely to overwhelm most home networks. But if you're going for a home music system larger than that, you probably should already be considering stepping up to the Sonos Digital Music System anyway.

Features
The Squeezebox Duet can draw audio from two main sources: the Internet or a networked PC--Windows, Mac, or Linux. The breadth of the online sources is impressive and varied:

Online music services: If you like online music services, chances are you'll love the Squeezebox Duet. Thus far, supported services include Rhapsody, Sirius, Last.fm, Slacker, MP3tunes, Pandora, Live365, RadioIO, and RadioTime. (These are mostly premium services, but all of them offer a free trial period.) Also available is the complete catalog of the Live Music Archive, a free resource that includes thousands of live concert recordings.

Internet radio: Prefer free online music? The full panoply of online radio is available. Either access Shoutcast servers (divided by region or genre), or add your own bookmarked favorites through the SqueezeNetwork interface (see below).

Podcasts: As with the Internet radio bookmarks, you can add the feeds for your favorite podcasts on the SqueezeNetwork home page.

You'd think that controlling access to that wide range of online music sources would be a challenge, but Logitech and Slim Devices couldn't have made things simpler. All of the online music sources are aggregated under a single online location called SqueezeNetwork. Set up a free account (it takes about 30 seconds, and you don't need to give more than your e-mail address), and the SqueezeNetwork service provides a single location to coordinate everything: all of your account information for any of the premium online services to which you're subscribed. (The Squeezebox generates a unique PIN code during setup that you input to the SqueezeNetwork page, linking the two together.) The SqueezeNetwork home page is also where you add your Internet radio favorites and podcast RSS feeds (just cut and paste the appropriate URLs). You can even add text RSS feeds, for viewing Web clips on the Squeezebox Controller's screen.

Holiday Tech GuideSamsung HT-BD1250

Editos' note: Although our testing of the Samsung HT-BD1250 was largely positive, Samsung Blu-ray players have consistently scored low with CNET users. We examined this issue extensively in this blog, and it's worth considering before making a buying decision.

DVD home-theater-in-box systems seem from their spec sheets to offer a lot of value, but are often seriously disappointing to use, with lackluster audio and video being the norm. So far, our experience with Blu-ray HTIBs has been the exact opposite; almost all of the systems we've tested this year offer a legitimate home theater experience and the Samsung HT-BD1250 (street price as low as $500) is the best budget system so far. We were fully expecting lifeless sound after our review of the Samsung HT-AS730, but the HT-BD1250 proved our prejudice wrong, offering credible sound quality even with stereo music--a tough feat for HTIBs. Its built-in Blu-ray player is as good as the standalone Samsung BD-P3600 and streaming options like Netflix and Pandora should fully complement your physical media collection. We had our quibbles about the usability of the design (although the system looks good) and, like all Blu-ray HTIBs at this price, it lacks HDMI inputs--you'll need to step up to the Samsung HT-BD3252 or LG LHB977 if you want HDMI connectivity. But these shortcomings are outweighed by the systems strengths. Yes, it's a little more expensive than competing budget systems, but if you can spare the extra bucks, the Samsung HT-BD1250 is well worth it.

Design
The HT-BD1250 is a 5.1 system; the included speaker package consists of four identical, smallish speakers for the front/surround, a slim center channel, and a subwoofer.
Design:
The HT-BD1250 is a 5.1 system; the included speaker package consists of four identical, smallish speakers for the front/surround, a slim center channel, and a subwoofer. The four bookshelf speakers sit 8.3 inches high, and have a stand built into the base. The front of the speaker has a glossy black finish, while the rest of the cabinet is matte black. Looking through the speaker grille, you'll see a rare sight on an HTIB speaker: both a tweeter and a woofer. The speakers aren't as small as the ones included with Panasonic's Blu-ray HTIBs, but we didn't find them overwhelming.

The center channel is tiny, coming in at just 11.8 inches wide by 1.9 inches high by just 2.7 inches deep, and should easily fit under any TV. It has two unusual, rounded-rectangle-shaped drivers, but Samsung doesn't provide anymore information about the speaker. The subwoofer is average-sized for an HTIB, but sounds bigger than it looks--more on that in the performance section.
The main receiver/Blu-ray player combo unit features a design that looks slick on the showroom floor, but is kind of a pain once you get it home. The front panel has a trapezoidal shape that tapers toward the bottom. It's covered with a glossy black finish, while the top of the unit is awash with Samsung's dark red "Touch of Color"; it's a distinctive look, although it's a magnet for fingerprints.
We were less impressed with the functional elements of the design. The unit looks buttonless, but that's only because the controls are touch-sensitive keys located on the top of the unit. We're not fans of touch sensitive buttons to begin with (although these work pretty well), but the top location makes them even harder to use; you need to see the markings to know where to press and if the unit is in a cabinet, that can be difficult. Even worse is the volume control. Instead of a knob, there's a flat, spinnable disc on the top of the player, an inch or two away from the front panel. If you're thinking of stacking another device on the HT-BD1250, like a cable box or game console, you'll be blocking access to the volume knob. That's not a problem on any of the other Blu-ray HTIBs we've reviewed.

The included remote gets almost everything right, with one exception. The basics are good: there's a big directional pad, an eject button, button rockers for volume and tuning, and playback buttons of Braille-like nubs to make it easier to navigate by feel. The problem: the two important Blu-ray navigation buttons--pop-up menu and disc menu--are relegated to tiny buttons at the bottom, making them difficult to find.

Setup
We were starting to think that auto speaker setup was well on its way to becoming a standard feature, but we've recently reviewed a few home-theater-in-a-box systems where setup is a do-it-yourself affair.

The Samsung HT-BD1250's speaker setup is completely manual, so it's up to you to adjust the volume levels of all the speakers and subwoofer, and calculate listener-to-speaker distances. We strongly recommend performing the setup because straight out of the box the HT-BD1250's center channel volume was much too loud and the surround speakers were too low in volume.

You'll find the manual setup located in the Sound Edit part of the onscreen menu. Navigation logistics aren't the best or the worst we've seen; just follow the User Manual's instructions and you'll be fine.
However, we were disappointed to note the HT-BD1250 doesn't offer direct access to its speaker and subwoofer volume adjustments. The only way to change those is in the Sound Edit onscreen menu. To get there you first need to stop the disc, bring up the menu, make the change, and then restart the movie. That's no fun and it's worth pointing out that the competing LG's LHB953 lets you make adjustments "on-the-fly."

Features
The HT-BD1250's built-in Blu-ray player has essentially all the same functionality as Samsung's standalone BD-P3600, except the 7.1 analog outputs. You can read the full review for more information, but the main points are it has full Profile 2.0 compatibility, onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, and streaming content from both Netflix and Pandora. You'll need an Internet connection to access BD-Live features or Netflix/Pandora; the HT-BD1250 has an Ethernet port for a wired connection and it's also compatible with the Samsung LinkStick WIS09ABGN USB Wi-Fi dongle, although its $80 price tag makes that option much less attractive.

Price Range: $489.00 - $549.99

Aperion Intimus 4T Hybrid SD (cherry)

We've reviewed a lot of speaker packages over the years, but fewer and fewer of them feature large full-size speakers. That's because the market has been migrating to ever-smaller designs. And while Aperion Audio still offers plenty of beefy, monolithic speakers, the company has a wide selection of smaller models that don't take up quite as much of your living room's real estate.

Case in point is the Intimus 4T Hybrid SD. In addition to offering Aperion's smallest ever center (the 4C) and satellite surround speakers (4B), the package includes the unique 4T tower speakers for the front left and right channels. However, "tower" is something of a misnomer here: the 34-inch tall 4Ts are a mere 5 inches wide and 7.5 inches deep (sitting on bases, for better stability, that are a bit larger: 8.25 by 10). They don't have the imposing bulk we associate with most floor-standing speakers--and they obviate the need for stands or finding dedicated shelf space. Rounding out the system is the 8-inch Bravus subwoofer (which has received some design improvements since we've seen it last). The system costs $1,569 at Aperion Audio's Web site.

The speakers
All of the Intimus 4T Hybrid SD's speakers share the same 4-inch woven fiberglass woofer and 1-inch silk dome tweeter. The 4T tower and 4C center speaker feature a pair of the 4-inch woofers while the 4B satellite has just one. We noted that when setting up the entire Intimus 4T Hybrid SD system the five speakers' tonal matching was exceptionally good. That manifests itself with superior surround imaging. Likewise, the advantage of the towers' dual woofer design was far from subtle. The speakers' all-metal binding posts provide a secure connection with bare wire, spades, or banana plugs.

The 4C center speaker is just 5.33 inches tall by 12.8 inches wide by 5.5 inches deep, and the 4B is even more compact--it's 8.75 inches tall by 5.33 inches wide by 5.5 inches deep. The solid feel and build quality of the cabinets is extremely impressive. Aperion's real cherry wood veneers and high gloss black finishes are on par with high-end speakers costing more than double than Aperion's prices. All of the speakers have removable black cloth grilles. Floor stands as well as wall and ceiling mounts are available for all Aperion satellite and center speakers.

The Bravus 8D subwoofer
The Bravus 8D subwoofer has an 8-inch aluminum woofer on each side of its cabinet (both covered with removable black grilles) and a built-in 150-watt amplifier. The 33-pound sub comes with four metal "spike" feet and a set of pointy rubber cones. The subwoofer is 13 inches tall by 12 inches wide by 12 inches deep.

The cabinet is constructed of 0.75-inch thick high density fiberboard, cross-braced for additional rigidity. Connectivity options include stereo and LFE line-level inputs, plus speaker-level inputs. The sophisticated subwoofer has Music, Movie, and Game modes, each of which can be customized beyond the factory defaults via a small LCD screen built into its front panel. Adjustments can be made via a directional pad next to the screen or the included credit card-size remote control. Having a remote control for your subwoofer is a great convenience because we often like to adjust the sub's volume for different sources, but it's a pain getting off the couch to do so.
The menu lets you tweak parametric equalization to help deal with difficult room acoustic problems. That's nice, but unlike other subs with auto EQ, the Bravus' EQ is completely manual. You really have to know what you're doing and use a SPL meter (such as Radio Shack's 33-4050) and a CD or DVD with test tones to get anywhere with the sub's room tuning potential. On the bright side, Aperion fixed two annoyances we saw in an earlier version of the Bravus 8D: the LCD screen is now far more legible, and the built-in directional pad is far more responsive

The Best Ever Home Audio

Pioneer VSX-1019AH-K
Editors' Note: Pioneer has announced that this 2009 product will be replaced by the Pioneer VSX-1020 as of April 2010.

The iPod is the most popular audio gadget of the decade, which is why it's incredibly frustrating that it's not easier to use it with your AV receiver. Either you're stuck using a patch cable and getting up from the couch to make playback changes, or you have to shell out for a pricey proprietary iPod dock. That's why we were so excited when we saw the Pioneer VSX-1019AH-K (and its step-down cousins) at CES 2009; just plug your iPod into the front panel USB port using the included iPod cable and you can navigate your music using your TV screen. That's a unique feature in this price range and the VSX-1019AH-K also has a full suite of standard features, such as four HDMI inputs, 1080p analog upconversion, and multiroom functionality. Even better, we were blown away by the sound quality of the VSX-1019AH-K for a $500 receiver, despite our initial worries that it weighs significantly less than last year's VSX-1018AH-K. With no major shortcomings, outstanding sound quality and its unique iPod-friendly USB port, the VSX-1019AH-K is our top midrange AV receiver pick and thus earns the Editors' Choice award.

Editors' note: The review has been updated since publication in June 2009 to indicate that the VSX-1019AH-K has earned the Editors' Choice award.
Design:
It's tough to make an AV receiver stand out from the pack, but the VSX-1019AH-K is likely to catch your eye on a retail shelf. That's mostly because of its glossy black front panel finish, which gives it a high-end feel, although it picks up plenty of fingerprint smudges. There are two large knobs on each side of the unit, one for volume and one for selecting inputs. Toward the bottom is a push-out cover that reveals more inputs, including the USB port for easy iPod connectivity. The LCD screen features bright white lettering and we had no trouble reading it from about 9 feet back. As long you keep the VSX-1019AH-K looking fingerprint-free, we think it's one of the best looking receivers in its price class.
The included remote control is decent, although a bit cluttered. The clicker does a good job of separating functions like the directional pad and playback controls, but the master volume buttons should be more prominent. Some of the buttons also serve dual functions, which can get confusing, but that's pretty standard on AV receiver remotes. As always, you can alleviate many of these problems with a quality universal remote. Even better, the GUI works seamlessly if you plug in an iPod/iPhone to the front panel USB port. The GUI pops up and lets you browse your music collection using the standard iPod categories, such as artist, album, or genre. Movies and photos can also be played back, but only if you use the "iPod control" scheme, where you use the actual iPod for navigation, rather than the GUI. Yes, we would have liked if movies and photos were also accessible via the GUI, but it's not a big deal unless you plan on watching a lot of movies/slideshows on your TV. As nice as the GUI is for functions like iPod navigation and assigning inputs, we really wish it handled more of the functions available on the VSX-1019AH. For example, when we wanted to activate the VSX-1019AH's "sound retriever" mode (which claims to make compressed audio formats sound better), we were forced to navigate menus using the unit's single-line LCD screen. Even then, we couldn't find it and had to spend way too much time digging through the lousy manual to discover that it only worked on particular sources. The good news is that all the basic functionality of the VSX-1019AH is easy to access via the GUI of standard remote buttons, but those looking to use all of the receiver's functions will encounter some headaches.

Setup
We're generally big fans of Pioneer's MCACC (Multi Channel Acoustic Calibration) automatic speaker calibration system because it's easy to use and gives excellent results. The system automatically determines speaker sizes, speaker-to-listener distances, sets the volume levels of all of the speakers and the sub, and calculates the subwoofer crossover point. We also like that all of the measurements are taken from just one microphone position.

Price Range: $499.00 - $512.19