Definitive Technology BP-3000 TL, BPX, BP-2004, C-3000, L-3000 Brochure
...
T H E A T E R O N E
Definitive Techno l ogy
BP-3000 TL Sp e aker Syste m
These speakers are definitely macho enough
for you. Are you macho enough for them?
by Jeff Cherun
A . If you don’t have
the real estate for the
behemoth BP-3000s,
the BP-2004 will work
just fine in front.
B. Sorry, apartment
dwellers, but at 55
inches high, the
BP-3000 probably
won’t even fit through
your door!
C. The C/L/R-3000
center’s powered
sub gave it that
extra oomph.
Much as we like to think we buy
products for their performance,
practicality, and price, the real driving force behind product development in American industry usually
boils down to machismo. And the
defining concept of machismo is,
of course, “bigger is better.” Guys
want big cars with 400-horsepower
V-8s, big watches with heavy metal
bands and silver-dollar-sized faces,
and big .44 Magnums that
nearly tear
your hand off
when you fire
them. The
A
B
“My universe was shaken…
these speakers are amazing…”
same goes for speakers. Nothing
can stir the Neanderthal soul like
a hunkering tower speaker,
coupled with bestial subwoofers
capable of snuffing out a candle
poised 10 feet away.
Definitive Technology has been
offering exactly this type of product for years, although they’ve
injected a cognizance of interior
design by taking steps to make the
loudspeakers seem less mammoth
in size. The company has recently
upped the ante with their newest
flagship speaker, the BP-3000 TL.
Featuring a massive 1,000-watt
internal subwoofer in each speaker,
the BP-3000 is, at least on paper, a
speaker to be reckoned with. At 55
inches in height, it’s meant to be
placed in a larger home theater
room, so apartment dwellers in all
probability need not apply. In
addition to the BP-3000, Definitive
sent us a pair of BP-2004s—a
smaller speaker with a built-in
subwoofer—for the rears. Also,
C
this review marks the debut of a
great idea: the world’s first center
speaker with a built-in powered
subwoofer. It’s a natural; all five
speakers in the system have their
own powered bass portion, making
for 360 degrees of full-range sound.
The BP-3000 is a bipolar d e s i g n ,
with four 6.5-inch cast-magnesium
basket bass/
m i d r a n g e
drivers complemented b y
two 1-inch
a l u m i n u m -dome
Home Theater/ December 199 8
T H E A T E R O N E
Definitive Technology BP-3000 TL Speaker System
tweeters. To round out the low
end, Definitive has supplied
the biggest powered subwoofer
in a tower speaker yet (an amp
providing a whopping 1,000 watts
of power, connected
to an 18-inch cast-
D . On back, the
C/L/R-3000 sports
three sets of fiveway binding posts
for triwiring.
TESTING SYSTEM
Proceed AVP preamp/
processor, Krell KAV 500
amplifier, Sony DVP-S7000
DVD player, Pioneer Elite
Pro 200 RPTV, Monster Cable
interconnects, and Kimber
Kable speaker cable
basket woofer.
bipolar design, with two
5.25-inch c a s t - m a g n es i u m basket p o l y - c o n e
upper bass/midrange
drivers, coupled with two 1-inch
aluminum-dome tweeters. For the
bottom end of the frequency spectrum, there’s a 10-inch bass driver
powered by 125 watts of juice.
features two 6.5-inch castmagnesium b a s k e t bass/midrange
drivers, flanking a 1-inch aluminum
dome tweeter in a D’Appolito array.
To make this arguably the first
full-range center speaker,
speakers. There is a bass level
control, and also a line-level input
for the low-frequency-effects
channel from Dolby Digital or DTS,
in case you want to feed the
subwoofer output from your
receiver or preamp/processor
directly to the speakersvia
D
The BP-2004 is also a
The C/L/R-3000 center c h a n n e l
Definitive threw in
a cast-basket longthrow 10-inch
woofer, powered by
a 150-watt amplifier.
On the BP-3000s,
there are three pairs
of five-way binding
posts, allowing the
user to triwire the
Y - c o n n e c t o r s . However, I found
this connection method overly
complicated and lacking in a real
sonic payoff; I’d recommend
sticking with just speaker cable.
The rear panels of the C/L/R-3000
center speaker and the BP-2004
surround speakers are
very similar to the BP3000’s panel, except
that the BP-2004 has
only one pair of binding
posts for single wiring.
Setting up this system
was a piece of cake.
Sandy Gross of Definitive
Technology urged me to aim the
BP-3000s at the listener, and after
trying a few different speaker
positions, I definitely agree w i t h
him. As with all the bipolar loudspeakers I’ve ever auditioned,
the BP-3000s present a huge
soundstage, but it becomes more
focused when directed at the listener. I also placed the BP-2004s
behind the listening position, a couple of feet out
from the corners of the
room, and directed them
at the listening position.
By the way, if you want
something a little less
bombastic (and more
affordable) in the rear,
you can opt for Definitive’s excellent BPX bipolar surround speakers.
Now, for the most
important part of any
product review—how did
this system perform?
Well, after I got it dialed in, I have
to say that my universe was
shaken. I’ve never heard bass so
clearly delineated and so deeply
reproduced from anything but an
army of standalone subwoofers.
From the highest highs to the
lowest lows, even at very aggressive volumes, I never heard any
distortion or roughness. Normally,
I get a little anxious when things
get so loud, but with this system I
found myself completely at ease,
simply delighting in its performance. The front soundstage was
just huge, all the while providing
better localization of instruments
than you typically hear from bipolar
speakers. That’s not to say the BP3000 is so brutish it can’t do t h e
delicate thing; on Natalie Merchant’s O p h e l i a CD, a recording
BP-3000 Main Speaker $4,500/pair
BP-2004 Main Speaker $1,498/pair
C/L/R-3000 Center Speaker $999 each
Definitive Technology
(410) 363-7148
www.definitivetech.com
that features a mix of
acoustic instrumentation
and raw-sounding vocals,
the BP-3000 excelled. To
get things going a bit, I
dumped the City of
Angels soundtrack into
the CD player, featuring
Peter Gabriel’s new
track, “I Grieve.” This
track starts off very
moody and quiet, and
builds up into that usual
Gabriel drums-and-bass
groove that I like so
much. The BP-3000 loved this
song, yearning to reproduce it
Home Theater/ December 19 9 8
Loading...