Digital Trends

HSU VT-12 Speakers

March 5th, 2004 | by Douglas MacLean

Introduction

In order to be fair I have to say this up front; I tend to dislike satellite speakers. These little speakers do not match the performance or frequency range of a full speaker containing a tweeter, mid range and woofer.

Well, at least that was my attitude when I opened the box of Hsu Research's Ventriloquist VT-12 speaker set and the matching SFT-1 subwoofer. Now, after listening to them I seriously have to reconsider my long held opinion. These speakers, when properly set up and calibrated, provided a rich, full response over the entire audible spectrum.

Add to this a price under $500 and you have a winning combination. I have not seen performance and affordability combined in such a small size. For a little icing on the cake this speaker system comes out of the box ready for 6.1 matrixed audio.

The HSU Research Ventriloquist VT-12 and SFT-1 subwoofer.

Theory

A reviewer usually does not have to go into the theory behind a speaker system, however, this is no usual set of speakers. In our experience, the typical satellite speaker does not do a good job of reproducing the entire spectrum of audio frequencies. Most disconcerting is the failure to address the important range between 80 — 250 Hz. This range of the spectrum is so important since it is the middle of normal human hearing. Smaller speakers usually are very poor in this range resulting in a tinny sound.

This black hole of sound is addressed in a novel manner by Hsu Research. Instead of connecting the front and rear speakers directly, they are channeled through the center speaker. This center speaker contains a pair of 4” by 6” woofers that can handle the frequencies ignored by the satellite sets. This arrangement also takes much of the low-end burden from the subwoofer, which is commonly overused with satellite set ups. The VT-12 makes considerable progress in filling this sonic hole and provides a full, rich sound.