Digital Trends

HSU VT-12 Speakers

March 5th, 2004 | by Douglas MacLean

Testing the Speakers

The VT-12s came with two discs to help in calibration and testing. The first is a DVD-R created by the company that includes scenes from some well known Dolby EX films including Finding Nemo, Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings and Harry Potter.

Also included is a music disc with some incredible orchestral pieces on it. Once we set the speakers up according to the suggestions received from the form on the Website, the performance was far better than we had expected. The tone was rich and full; closing your eyes, you may think that the speakers are far larger than they actually are. The front speakers provided the usual separation of channels, as did the rears. The STF-1 subwoofer boomed into the room shaking the floor. HSU Research picked the right tracks for testing because the speakers performed extremely well with the test disc provided.

When we set up the speakers using our standard calibration discs, Video Essentials and Ultimate DVD Platinum, we lost some of the mid range and lower end performance that we expected. Using the company's online assistance, we received a detailed list of positioning instructions for the placement of the speakers. When we followed those instructions the effect was very noticeable.

HSU recognizes that the placement of their speakers is more critical than with the typical speaker systems. They provide an online form where you provide detailed information about your room, the listening environment and your listening preferences. They then customize instructions for the best possible sound from their speakers. Even slight alterations in what they told us resulted in some loss of the effect, that is mid range and low end sounds that appear to come from the front and rear speakers.

It appears that a normal calibration cannot take into account the novel approach of having the lower frequencies coming exclusively from the center channel. The VT-12 is very sensitive to even slight changes in the position. This may provide some problems in the initial set up and does somewhat restrict just where in your room you can place the speakers. Thankfully the support staff at HSU is more than willing to help out.