In recent years, speaker manufacturers have increasingly aspired to capitalize on the technical requirements of home theater installations, focusing their efforts on achieving excellence in multi-channel setups. The trend has transpired for obvious reasons – greater revenues and profits are clearly achievable in selling seven speakers instead of a mere two… While this trend has increasingly improved the performance of movie sound, it has definitely come at the expense of increasing improvement in two-channel, and to a lesser extent multi-channel, music.

For this reason, it is a welcome situation that speaker maker BG Corp. (formerly Bohlender Graebener Corporation) has continued to dedicate itself to improving stereo music reproduction at the same time as it has added multi-channel cinematic capabilities to its speaker repertoire. The company’s flagship home line, the “Z Series,” is an excellent example of a “hybrid” system that is just as adept with music at is with the wide ranging demands of home cinema.

At the heart of the “Z Series” is the “Z7” Floor standing tower speakers, a pair of which would easily sate most audiophile desires, just as they form a gorgeous centerpiece to the other 5 channels in a full 7.1 setup. The “Z7” is constructed from a sold hardwood casing, with each speaker weighing in at a hefty 42 pounds, slightly less than some competitors, but certainly attesting to the speaker’s solid construction. The drivers are made from pure aluminum cone, while the tweeters are a unique and proprietary PDR design.

Moreover, BG employs a Linkwitz-Riley crossover network for all of the individual models in the Z series, with air core inductors and polypropylene capacitors, meant to ensure that all individual varieties of sounds, from highs to lows, are directed to the proper place at the right time. The Z Series is highly engineered to exacting standards that ensure proper crossovers within each model and as a 5, 6, or 7-channel installation as a whole.

Rounding out the full home theater system are the “Z1” bookshelf monitors, the “Z5 LCR” (for left, center, right for front voices and rear ambient sounds), and the “Z Sub.” Each model employs the unique technological aspects of the “Z7” previously discussed, and each model sounds wonderful on its own merits. Indeed, to save a bit of cash one might substitute a “Z1” bookshelf pair as both front and rear channels, eliminating the higher-priced and bulkier “Z7” from the system and ensuring even greater consistency in the four main channels due to the “Z1” identical construction times four.

In similar fashion, the “Z Sub” would form the centerpiece to any system, delivering low frequency sounds to any system currently lacking a quality subwoofer with sufficient beef to shake the floor and rattle the walls. Yet there is little doubt that the “Z Series” performs at optimal power as a cohesive whole, making for little planning and fore-thought required to achieve a gorgeous multi-channel sound right out of the box.

So buyers who are looking for a high quality home theater system accommodating up to seven full channels of cinematic sound are well recommended to consider BG’s “Z Series.” The biggest choice in setting up such a system relates to the decision as to whether to go with the “Z7” towers for main front channels, or to stick with the “Z1” bookshelf models all around. By contrast, for a music-only system, the “Z7” towers are the obvious choice for stereo sound, but two “Z1’s” would be great choices for audiophiles on a budget.

Best of all, if you are like many consumers with an avid interest in listening to high quality music on your main stereo system while also regularly employing your system for movie sounds, BG’s “Z Series” is about as close to the “best of both worlds” as you can currently find on the market. BG’s dedication to excellence in construction, and using only the highest quality of speaker materials ensure that the “Z Series” delivers mind-blowing music just as it is sure to wake up the neighbors with multi-channel cinematic sound.