Digital Trends

HSU VT-12 Speakers

March 5th, 2004 | by Douglas MacLean

Installation: Wiring

Since the front setup is different than most, the VT-12 requires a two extra sets of cables. However, it is not so overly complicated as to be a problem even for the most novice of home theater enthusiasts. Instead of connecting the front speakers directly to the receiver you run the wires first to the center speaker. From there wires go out to the fronts. To make this task as painless as possible all speakers in the VT-12 set have five way, gold-plated binding posts.

The actual step of connecting the wires was straightforward, once you get used to the extra wires that are required. Not only are the included instructions more specific than you usually find with speakers, but there is excellent online support to help with any problems you may encounter.

Many people are already familiar with this type of wiring from their sub woofer where the front speakers come off the sub instead of through a direct connection. The difference here is the woofers of the VT-12 center speaker are better suited for the 80 to 250 Hz range than a normal subwoofer.

The rear of the center channel hooks up to the front satellites.

There is a growing interest in the new Dolby EX ad DTS ES seven-channel audio formats. Included with the VT-12 is an additional satellite speaker for use as a rear center channel. If you have invested in a true seven channel receiver or amplifier then you can just connect the rear center speaker to the appropriate terminal. If you are still in the realm of six channel audio then the VT-12 simplifies adding the seventh speaker.
Basically, you connect the rear center speaker between the terminals for the normal rear speaker. You can only get matrixed sound from the rear center but most currently produced EX and ES audio tracks contain the matrix information. 

While the VT-12 does not come with a subwoofer, Hsu Research offers a wide variety as a separate purchase. They included their STF-1 subwoofer for the purpose of this review. The set up of the subwoofer is pretty much the same as with any such speaker.

Installation: Placement

What really separates the installation of the VT-12 from other surround speaker sets is that the placement of the speakers is much more critical to the quality of sound than other sets we've tested. This is where the online support offered by Hsu Research comes in handy.

Knowing that their consumers may have some problems getting the speakers positioned just right, they have a very extensive form on their Website to provide assistance. Once you enter the dimensions of your room, the make and model numbers of your equipment, the locations of the doorways, some listening preferences and the audio sources you have, they will get back to you in a matter of days with a detailed list of instructions.

We noticed while testing these speakers that even small variations in placement of the speakers will drastically alter the audio characteristics. It did help to make sure that if the center speaker was on top of the television, that it was angled slightly down. This seemed to help with creating the simulation of the lower frequencies coming from the small front and rear speakers.