It isn't always the price that prevents people from splurging on a high-quality sound for their entertainment setup—often times, it's the space, especially for those living in small (yet quaint) apartments in metropolitan areas. 

Many companies have entered this ring attempting to bring big, booming sound to smaller rooms by creating surround sound "bars" and other "virtual surround sound" products, but the ZVOX Audio 550 is the first I've seen that actually is designed to slip underneathyour HDTV for a seamless look—check out the picture and you'll see what I mean.

The 550 is a very simple product at heart. In the box, there's the speaker, which stands at a slim  28" by 14.5" by 3.5", some gold-plated RCA cables, a power supply, and a small remote control. Installation also is a no-brainer: Remove the speaker from the box, place the speaker down on your TV stand, place your TV on top. Connect the RCA cables and the power supply. Boom, it really is that easy. (Good for those who aren't exactly up-to-speed with technology.)

Now, space-saving solutions like bring high-quality sound to those who may not have access to the space, but they aren't intended to compete with home-theater systems directly head-to-head. Think of it more like an audio complement to your HDTV. That being said, the S550's sound quality is straight up excellent. The speaker was connected to a number of analog sources (DVD, MP3 player, laptop, PS3), and sound quality was full and clear in all instances. Sound, even at maximum volume, sound was not distorted, and the speaker full, clear bass, although the box could not reach some lowest frequencies (which is expected). Also, there was absolutely no rattle or other stray noises in any instance.

On the other hand, there are a few pretty nagging complaints I have about the speaker. First, the remote is small, flimsy, and leaves a little bit to be desired. Additionally, if you lose the remote, there's no way to control the speaker settings without it—at least a volume dial somewhere on the speaker would have been nice. Secondly, there's no way to know how loud the device is or what levels the subwoofer/trebel settings are on since there isn't any sort of LCD-screen readout. I know this is probably to have a nice continuous design, but even placing these things on the back panel would have worked. Optical inputs would have been nice as well, but not a complete necessity.

Overall, the exceptional sound performance, simplicity, and usefulness in its design makes it easy to look past the few weaknesses that the 550 has, but it's $500 price tag can be tough to swallow (although it does come in at a reasonable cost when compared to other virtual surround sound bars). However, if you've got a little more cash than space to spare, the ZVOX 550 is a great choice for adding a complete, full sound to your HDTV.

ZVOXaudio.com - ZVOX Audio 550