Home Theater & Sound’s Products of the Year for 2008: Hsu Research Home-Theater Speaker System and PS Audio Power Plant Premier Power Conditioner . . . and a bonus: our Video of the Year

Home-theater components run the gamut: some are conventional and affordable, others exotic and expensive. This year, Home Theater & Sound’s Products of the Year are an interesting study in the unconventional and the technologically interesting: A high-value speaker system that uses horns? A power conditioner that regenerates AC power? These products are not what you typically find at big-box stores, but they’re easily accessible and produced by companies that have solid track records: PS Audio and Hsu Research. Our writers tell you a bit more about their selections:

Hsu Research HB-1 Mk.2 / HC-1 Mk.2 / VTF-3 Mk.3 Home-Theater Speaker System

I’m writing this at 32,000 feet, on the way home to Seattle from Illinois, after seeing my stepson on his return home from a tour of duty in Iraq. The snowy, cold weather in Illinois was horrible for somebody recently acclimated to relatively mild Seattle winters, but it was a good week anyway. All of my wife’s kids were together for the first time in two years, and her son was home, safe from the dangers of war. As we checked in for the flight, we decided to splurge, and upgraded our cattle-car nonstop coach tickets to first class. Why end a perfectly good week of vacation with 4.5 hours spent packed like sardines in a can? So here I sit, a drink and a cheese omelet under my belt before 11:00 a.m. Life is good -- all for $150 extra a ticket.

Which brings me to the subject at hand. The Hsu Research home-theater speaker system -- HB-1 Mk.2 bookshelf model, the HC-1 Mk.2 center, and the VTF-3 Mk.3 subwoofer ($1449 USD) -- is the real deal, and the HB-1 Mk.2 is first-class accommodations for $149 each. Speakers are the last, most important link in the audio chain -- no matter how good the components that precede them in that chain, if the speakers aren’t right, nothing is right. Thankfully, these speakers are right, in a big way. They do nothing overtly wrong, and get so much completely right that I hate calling them "budget" speakers. This is no small step forward in inexpensive speakers, but a redefinition of the standard. The Hsus’ qualities are spot on, their transient response is impressive, and their soundstaging belongs in a whole other class. I’ve spent far more for far less loudspeaker. Dr. Hsu should be proud of this accomplishment.

More important, the Hsu system is a pure joy to listen to. I’ve had speakers in the house that are technically more accurate, but as dull to listen to as a lecture on quantum physics. That was never an issue with this system; it was always lively and enjoyable, no matter what music or movie soundtrack I listened to through it. It’s a lovely system for an audiophile, but a phenomenal one for the music lover who just wants something fun to listen to.

Life is too short to not have a little fun. For only $150 more, it would be a shame to not enjoy first class for once. And when you can get these speakers’ level of performance for a pittance, it’s hard to say no. That’s why the Hsu Research HB-1 Mk.2 / HC-1 Mk.2 / VTF-3 Mk.3 home-theater speaker system is Home Theater & Sound’s Product of the Year.

. . . Jeff Van Dyne
jeffd@hometheatersound.com

PS Audio Power Plant Premier Power Conditioner

In my experience, a power conditioner -- unlike a loudspeaker or an amplifier -- doesn’t usually make a big difference in the sound of a home-theater system. However, the improvements resulting from a good conditioner, while usually smaller in scale, can provide improvements that can be significant.

The PS Audio Power Plant Premier ($2195) significantly enhanced my enjoyment of my home-theater system. Immediately apparent were improvements in transparency and a significantly lower noise floor. Musically, my system never sounded better. I’m sure you’ve read reviews in which the writer felt as if he or she was hearing a song "for the first time"; the Power Plant Premier helped me appreciate the meaning of such an experience.

The Power Plant Premier also provided my entire home-theater system enough outlets to supply each of my valued components from a seemingly bottomless well of clean, regenerated power -- 1500W, to be exact. Scenes in such films as Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World require so much power that, when I play them at reference volume levels, lights dim in other rooms. With the PPP in the system, the lights didn’t dim as much, as power was never an issue. To properly reproduce a film soundtrack, you need to give your components enough juice to do their thing; the Power Plant Premier handily shouldered that responsibility.

My expectations for the qualities of power conditioners are now forever changed. In the end, what’s really special about the PPP is its ability to help my system shine. The easily audible improvements it wrought in my system make the PS Audio Power Plant Premier Home Theater & Sound’s Product of the Year.

. . . Randall Smith
randalls@hometheatersound.com

WALL-E (Three-Disc Special Edition)

I’m sure a few curmudgeons will take me to task for picking this Pixar animated feature as the best video of the year. It’s a "nice" movie, it’s rated G, and I felt good after seeing it. So what? In my opinion, heavy dramas and bawdy comedies are much easier to make than a genuinely heartfelt film that plays to all levels, and WALL-E can be enjoyed by little kids and big kids. It makes us believe the impossible -- that two robots can find love, and that the human race can rise above its baser nature to do the right thing. That’s magic, and one of the main things that movies are about.

The geniuses at Pixar went to great lengths to get the look of this movie right, studying anamorphic movies so they could program their computers to produce a computer-animated movie that would convey the glories and quirks of super-widescreen films. And since WALL-E was created almost wholly in the digital realm, there’s no problem, and no loss, in transferring it to Blu-ray. In my mind, WALL-E is a perfect five-star film, and its detailed video is of the same quality. Gone are the days of the artificially "clean" backgrounds of early CGI features; WALL-E’s backgrounds have natural-looking atmospheric effects, such as dust. All audio channels are active throughout the movie, and every sound, from thunderous explosions to sotto voce robotspeak, is accurately reproduced from the DTS-HD Master Audio tracks. For in addition to being dramatically sound, the Blu-ray edition of WALL-E is a technical tour de force and demonstration disc.

The Three-Disc Special Edition includes an extensive set of very appealing extras, as well as a digital copy of the film you can download to your computer. If you don’t want that, the two-disc edition contains everything else, at a lower price. As I write this, Amazon.com lists used, "like-new" copies for under $20. That’s one of the better bargains going in a grim financial time when we could all benefit from seeing an upbeat movie that offers hope, positive values, and extraordinary entertainment. I predict it will win Best Animated Film when the Oscars are awarded later this year. I think it should win Best Picture. Here at Home Theater & Sound, it wins Video of the Year.

. . . Rad Bennett
radb@hometheatersound.com

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