OTHER TECH

The Short Form

$500 / slsaudio.com / 866-395-5345

Plus

•Crisp, accurate sound •Wide and deep soundstage •Flat panel-friendly design

Minus

•Limited bass output •No HD video switching on receiver •Complex setup for an HTiB

Key Features

•Price: $500 •QS-SAT24R satellite: 1.3-inch circular aluminum ribbon tweeter, two 4-inch woofers in sealed enclosure; 15 in high •QS-SUB 100 subwoofer: 8-in composite-paper cone driver in ported cabinet; 100 watts RMS; auto-on/off switch; 9.5 x 18 x 19.5 in, 33 lbs •QS-AVR500 receiver: 125 watts x 5 (one-channel driven); 17.4 x 5.5 x 13 in; 21.2 lbs

Test Bench

Measurements showed a 5- to 6-dB response bump between 1 and 6 kHz and a peak in the tweeter output at 15 kHz. Dynamic capability was surprisingly good for a satellite with a pair of small, 4-inch woofers. The subwoofer's upper frequency limit was barely adequate to mate with the satellites, and while dynamic capability is well-distributed, it does not extend to the lowest frequencies. - Tom Nousaine The A/V receiver exhibited typical response, distortion, and noise characteristics on the test bench, but predictably lacked significant power reserves. Although it measured 112 watts into 8 ohms with 1 channel driven (it would do more with the matched 6-ohm satellites), and delivered 94 watts x 2 in stereo, protection circuitry limited power output to 28 watts per channel with all five channels driven. - Daniel Kumin Full Lab Results

SETUP HTiBs are supposed to be easy for home theater newbies to set up, but, truth be told, the SLS Audio Q-Line Silver isn't. Oh, SLS makes a valiant effort, supplying color-coded speaker wires and presetting some key receiver adjustments such as speaker size and the internal subwoofer crossover. But the simple fact is that every surround sound system requires you to balance the levels of the individual speakers and set delay for the surround channels - two procedures that, short of having a microphone-driven auto-setup feature, are just plain complicated for the average person. The SLS Audio Q-Line Silver surround sound system is no more difficult to install than any other receiver/speaker combo; just don't expect Grandma to do it by herself unless she's an MIT grad (and not in botany).

MUSIC PERFORMANCE Fully savoring the irony of mating a $500 HTiB with a $21,000 state-of-the-art television, I set the SLS Audio Q-Line Silver up alongside the gargantuan 65-inch Sharp LCD panel we had in the shop for evaluation. (Hey, it's my job.) After performing all the speaker balancing and diddling a bit with the subwoofer volume, I sat back for a taste of two-channel stereo.

Mmmm ... good! "Take the 'A' Train," from Bill Berry's For Duke (Ellington) tribute album on M&K Realtime Records, is a classic audiophile treat I often play to check a system's veracity in the mids and highs. The brass on this toe-tappin' track are miked so tightly and recorded with such bold dynamics and natural timbre that you can easily hear when the metallic character of the instrument bodies has been lost or when a rising high end causes them to become shrill. The SLS Audio Q-Line Silver surround sound system handled this track with surprising ease and sophistication. A lone cornet blare about midway through the song burst forth with a jolt that made me sit up even though I'd known it was coming, and it had a soft, metallic edge that didn't strafe the room - just like a real instrument. The feathery brush work on the cymbals was also reproduced with an accuracy and unstrained transparency that lent realism. Many speakers, even much more expensive ones, flatten that sound to where it becomes more like brush-on-paper than brush-on-metal.

Other fine details like the breathy, reedy sounds from the mouthpiece on the sax were also readily apparent, and I was impressed with the definition of the string bass. I shouldn't overstate it - the sub definitely lacks deep reach into the low frequencies, and our measurements revealed a gap between its upper limit and the satellites' lower limit (something I hadn't noticed while listening). But what's there is tuneful and fairly loud without being boomy - a frequent fault of HTiBs. Imaging was also excellent for such an inexpensive system. The soundstage was both wide and reasonably deep, even with that huge TV stuffed between the speakers, and the ribbons lent a good sense of acoustic "air" to the original recording space.

That ability to recreate a space, whether real or artificial, was strongly evident on multichannel music as well. Keeping with the classics theme, I tossed on the 5.1-channel SACD mix of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Okay, I admit it - I wanted to hear what the Q-Line Silver speakers would do with the cacophony of ringing bells that marks the beginning of the song "Time." The 5.1-mix spreads the bells out all around the listener, and with the surround speakers placed six feet up on shelves to either side of my chair, all that ringing emerged from a single, seamless space. Not once during this album filled with surround-channel effects did the surround speakers ever call attention to themselves - they just did their job when called upon, giving no hint of their location. And the bells and chimes sounded as real and present as I've ever heard them, each clearly delineated and reproduced with an appropriately sharp attack and natural decay. My only complaint was that on this and other tracks with hard-driving electric bass, I sometimes could hear the sub struggling to keep up.

MOVIE PERFORMANCE The themes in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line run from unrequited love to adultery and addiction - all of which make for much whispered dialogue between Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) and June Carter (Reese Witherspoon). When I watched this DVD on another system with a well-regarded $1,000 speaker package, I strained several times to hear the dialogue. No such problem with the SLS Audio Q-Line Silver surround sound system. In one early scene, Carter and Cash bump into each other in a diner after a performance and speak about the brother Cash lost in childhood - she in a quiet, raspy voiced laced with laryngitis, he in a hushed and heavy Southern drawl. Every word and vocal inflection was easily followed. At the same time, the system did a great job realistically handling a dynamic scene in which Cash, angry at himself for his behavior with June, destroys his dressing room. The clank and crash of glass as he knocks several beer bottles off an end table, the twang and crunch of an acoustic guitar he breaks into splinters, and even the wrenching metal of pipes and running water that accompany his yanking of a wall sink from its moorings were all reproduced with striking volume and realism. As with music, the surround satellites did a great job of creating ambience, from the acoustics of the small auditoriums Cash played in his early days to the nature sounds of the open farmland where he grew up.

BOTTOM LINE SLS made some very crafty decisions about where to cut corners in the Q-Line Silver surround sound system. Though the system got plenty loud in our 12 x 20-foot room, it frequently had to be set to the top of its volume range, and it got coarse when pushed hard; it would undoubtedly struggle in a larger space. And serious movie lovers will surely hanker for deeper, more powerful bass. But the SLS Audio Q-Line Silver surround sound system is so right in the fundamentals and offers such a refreshing and refined alternative to typical HTiB fare at this price that I can't help wondering what the company's more expensive speakers can do. Say what you want about the corporate name - "superior" comes off pretty cocky in this very competitive field - the Q-Line Silver suggests that those folks from Missouri probably know good sound when they hear it.