ZVOX, the Swampscott company behind some truly amazing single-cabinet home theater speaker systems, had announced an “Ugly TV Contest,” where consumers can show off that fire hazard maze of wires behind their television for a chance to win a ZVOX Z-Base 550 soundbar.

"TV wire hairballs are a growing problem in our society" said ZVOX founder Tom Hannaher. "It started out 30 years ago with a simple VCR hookup, but now there are cable boxes, Xboxes, Blu-Ray players and multi-speaker surround sound systems. It’s a real mess. I’m suspicious that wires mate and produce offspring back there!"

The ZVOX Ugly TV Contest is designed to draw attention to this pernicious malady before family pets or young children are lost in the copper jungle that exists behind most modern TVs. “I have four children including a seven-month-old boy who’s just learning to crawl,” exclaims Kate Connors, Internet Marketing Manager at ZVOX. ‘”He could get lost in the wire jungle.”

Entry photographs should be emailed to info@zvoxaudio.com, with “Ugly TV Contest” as the subject line of the email. Entries must be received no later than April 30.

Plasma and LCD TVs become more and more affordable, affording more and more consumers with stellar picture quality. But for audiophiles who want great sound to go with their great picture, decent sound equipment has remained rather outside of the reach of the average consumer.

The ZVOX 440.

Swampscott-based ZVOX, self-proclaimed pioneer of all-in-one home theater system, is introducing two new high-performance sound bars at affordable prices.

Made of hand-crafted wood cabinets and premium grade sound parts as opposed to the usual plastic and cheap components seen in typical all-in-one sets, the sets generate virtual surround sound from three compact speakers and a built in subwoofer all from a slim profile.‚  Set-up is simple, with just a single jack connecting the TV and speaker bar. And because green features are all the rage, the sets will put themselves into stand-by mode after a few minutes without any input.

The ZVOX 430.