Definitive Technology BP2X, PowerMonitor 500, PowerMonitor 700, C 2500, L 2500 Gear Manual
...
control all the way up. (At this point,
you don’t care that your coworkers are
beginning to talk behind your back.)
Finally, you reach the stage where you
deny there is any such thing as bass
response. You convince yourself that
it’s all an illusion that the elite have
created to keep the masses enslaved.
Well, my friends, if you’ve known
the heartache of basslessness, if
you’ve ever been debassed, or if
you’re currently bassmentally challenged, your days of suffering are
over. Thanks to Definitive Tech’s
PowerMonitor 700, you can now walk
with your head held high and your
tone controls set to neutral. Here,
ladies and gentlemen, available for
the first time to ordinary human
beings, is a bookshelf speaker with
balls—er, I mean bass.
Lest you think that Def Tech is just
being loose with the definition of a
bookshelf speaker, like calling
War and
Peace
a thin novel, let me assure you
that’s not the case. Sure, there are
smaller bookshelf speakers out there.
The PM700 comes in at a modest
16.75 inches tall. While that’s taller
than a vinyl LP, it’s still within reason
for a bookshelf speaker; and, at only
6.8 inches wide, it won’t take up a lot
of real estate on a shelf, either. More
problematics is the 14.125-inch depth,
which is still 14.125 inches no matter
how you look at it. If you’re planning to
place the speaker in an entertainment
cabinet designed to hold 17-inch-deep
equipment, though, the depth shouldn’t
be a problem. So the PM700s are big
enough to be respectable, but not so big
that they’re repugnant.
Like the majority of Def Tech’s
speakers, the PM700 is elegantly fin-
ished with glossy black end caps on
its top and bottom. Although it looks
similar to Def Tech’s bipolar offerings,
the PM700 is a forward-radiating
speaker. Since it isn’t a bipole, this
speaker works on a shelf, in a cabinet,
on a stand, or even as a center channel
(it’s video-shielded, so you can place
it as close as you want to your TV).
A black sock on the front and sides
covers the PM700’s naughty bits, while
a peek at the back reveals a port slot,
the AC power cord, a red LED, an LFE
input, hefty gold-plated five-way
binding posts, and a volume
control for the woofer.
Several of the items in the
last paragraph should have
caught your attention: a
There are some things you just don’t
expect to find together—say, peanut
butter and foie gras or Anne Rices’
vampire Lestat in a Garlique commercial. Other combinations may be
more desirable and more elusive: a
multiterm politician with integrity, for
example, or computer products that
not only work as advertised but do so
consistently (wow, what a concept!).
Rarer still is that mythical, mystical
creation, immortalized in song and
story and lusted after by speaker
designers since the invention of the
voice coil: the bookshelf speaker
with bass.
I know. The mere thought gets you
all warm and goose-bumpy, doesn’t
it? Subwoofer/satellite systems have
come close to producing such speaker nirvana—especially when you can
hide the sub away and vehemently
deny its existence until your buddies
threaten to tear the place apart unless
you come clean about the source of
the bass. However, while three-piece
speaker systems can be great, they’re
not always the answer. Sometimes,
you just can’t include a subwoofer in
your system (i.e., domestic harmony
or space constraints simply won’t
allow it). Those who have ever lived
with bookshelf speakers sans subwoofer know the pain and suffering
that’s involved. First, there’s the crav-
ings, the unfulfilled feelings, and the
depression. (Unfortunately, there’s
no BassoDerm patch to get you
through this stage.) Then, there’s
the embarrassing period when you
just turn your receiver’s bass
Definitive Technology
PowerMonitor 700 Speaker System
Bass beyond belief.
By Darryl Wilkinson
“Happily, the
detail and precision
of the PM700s’
mids and highs
offer an elegant
counterpoint to the
majestic low-end
power”
GEAR GUIDE
electrifying ... a phenomenal pair of bookshelf speakers”
“
A. Def Tech’s old
faithful BP2X bipolar
surround speaker is a
nice match for the
PowerMonitor 700.
B. The PowerMonitor
700 isn’t tiny, but it
still qualifies as a
bookshelf speaker—
until you hear its
bass, that is.
C. The C/L/R 2500
also sports a powered woofer.
D. This system does
not need the PF15
TL
+
sub, but it does provide that last bit of
low-end punch some
of you may desire.
“Simply amazing ... classical
music and jazz
are just as
impressive
through these
speakers as
rock and rap”
A
D
B
C
bookshelf speaker with an AC power cord, an
LFE input, and a volume control for the
woofer? That’s right. In addition to a 1-inch
aluminum dome tweeter and a 5.25-inch castbasket upper-bass/midrange driver, Def Tech
has surreptitiously slipped an 8-inch subwoofer and 250-watt amplifier beneath that soft
sock. In other words, what you expect to be a
standard, run-of-the-mill two-way bookshelf
speaker is actually a dynamic three-way powerhouse that’s liable to get you kicked out of
your apartment or cited by your local homeowner’s association for disturbing the peace.
Yo u ’re just not supposed to be able to get
this much bass out of a speaker this size. I was
impressed by the PM700 prototype that I
heard at the Consumer Electronics Show in
January, but listening to the real thing in my
own room with familiar demo material was
really electrifying. After being amazed by the
way the PM700s convincingly breezed through
Jennifer Warnes’ “Way Down Deep” (
The
Hunter
), I dug out other discs with demanding
bass passages, like Peter Gabriel’s
“Sledgehammer” (
So), Loreena McKennit’s
“All Souls Night” (
The Visit), and—I couldn’t
resist—the Red Elvises’ “Rocketman” (
I
Wanna See You Bellydance
). I know it sounds
cliché, and I hate to say it—but damn, these
speakers rock!
The PM700s handled the pressure so well,
I moved on to Jim Keltner’s “Drum Improvis-
ation” from Sheffield Lab’s
Drum & Track Disc
for a final test of the PM700s’ courage under
fire. I hate being repetitive, so I’ll say this:
Damn, these speakers roll! The drums pounded, and the PowerMonitors came charging
through, ready to tackle the next task.
Obviously, I found the PM700s to be quite a
phenomenal pair of bookshelf speakers, but
that’s not to say you won’t benefit from a good
subwoofer if you have the room for one. The
PF15
TL
+
that Def Tech sent along blended
perfectly with the PM700s whenever I added
the sub during music listening. It turned what
was an impressively fulfilling experience into a
near-ecstatic one. That’s doubly true for the
Keltner drum piece, which went from being an
enjoyable piece of bass artistry to being an allout frontal attack on the senses.
Exceptional bass response
isn’t all these speakers have
going for them, either. If it
were, it’d be like putting a
Ferrari engine into a Yugo—
all muscle and no finesse.
Happily, the detail and precision of the PM700s’ mids and
highs offer an elegant counterpoint to the majestic low-end
power. Classical music and
jazz are just as impressive
through these speakers as rock
and rap.
Whether they’re bookshelf
or floorstanding models, speakers aren’t just for music anymore; so, along with the
PF15
TL
+
came a C/L/R 2500
center-channel speaker and a
pair of BP2X surround speakers
to use in a 5.1-channel system
with the PM700s. After I set it all
up, I listened to the system without the sub, using only the powered woofers in the PM700s and
the C/L/R 2500 to provide the
bass response in my listening
room. The system’s performance on movies
like
Apollo 13 and Gladiator was very good—
leagues better, in fact, than anything you’ll get
from other speaker systems this size (unless
you have the benefit of a separate subwoofer).
It’s simply amazing that the three front speak-
ers can generate as much soundtrack bass as
they did.
Still, I refrained from making my final
judgement until I’d run the system through the
U-571 depth-charge torture test. I’ve heard
systems that have absolutely pounded me during these scenes. I’ve also heard systems (nice,
expensive ones) that have pulled up lame with
blown woofers as a result of this submariners’
vision of hell. I can’t say that the PM700s
pounded me as hard as I’ve ever felt—that
would take these speakers out of the arena of
rare and into the realm of total fantasy—but
they sure gave these scenes a hell of a run for
their money. I was tremendously impressed,
and I can’t think of a small, subless system
that even comes close to this one in terms of
its bass performance. I did miss the excitement
that a setup with bipolar speakers in the front
can produce, such as Def Tech’s BP2006
TL
system (November 2000). Still for movies, I
can’t imagine a better bookshelf-only package
than the PM700 system.
As was the case with music, adding in the
PF15
TL
+
subwoofer gave the system that last
bit of depth and dimension that took it from
the level of simply outstanding to the “got to
have it” category. Watching
movies without the subwoofer
was like awakening on a cool,
crisp morning in the mountains,
with your sense fully alive. You
feel energized and fully in touch
with the world after a wonderfully restful night’s sleep. Hearing
those same scenes with the addition of the PF15
TL
+
is like dropping acid on that same morning
and suddenly having your consciousness expand to take in a
whole extra dimension. (Not that
I’m advocating psychedelic
drugs—home theater gear is definitely a more-legal way to
expand your mind.)
What it boils down to is this: If
you need small speakers and can’t
or don’t want to fit a subwoofer into
your life, you must consider the
PowerMonitor 700s for both twochannel and 5.1-channel systems.
For an overall balance of sound,
there is nothing else in this size
range that performs as well. The
PM700’s adjustable bass-volume
control lets you easily integrate this speaker
into your room on a stand, on a wall-mount
bracket (although it’s kind of big for that), on a
shelf, or in a cabinet. I’m not a big fan of
putting speakers in cabinets, but lots of people
do it (it pains me greatly that they don’t take
my feelings into account, but I’ll get over it). If
you’re going to hide this speaker in a piece of
furniture, the bass-level control offers enough
flexibility to get the most out of such an installation. If you decide to add a subwoofer like
the PF15
TL
+
later on, the volume control will
make the task of integrating the speakers easier. Or, if you just do the right thing and add
the subwoofer at the start, you’ll simply have
one kick-butt system to begin with—with
enough bass to let your less-fortunate acquaintances come over for therapy sessions.
Definitive Technology seems to thrive on
shaking up the speaker world, literally and
figuratively. This time is no different. With the
PowerMonitor 700 speaker, they’ve once again
turned on the “Fasten Your Seat Belt” sign.
“I was tremendously
impressed ...
there is
nothing else in this
size range that
performs as well
”
“a dynamic three-way
powerhouse ...
this speaker works on a shelf, in a
cabinet, [or] on a stand
”
“
one kick-butt system ...
leagues better, in fact,
than anything you’ll get
from other speaker systems
this size”
E. No, your eyes do not
deceive you. The
PowerMonitor 700’s
back panel features an
LFE input, an AC power
cord, and a volume control for the speaker’s
internal subwoofer.
“Fasten your seatbelts ...
these speakers rock”
11433 Cronridge Dr. • Owings Mills, MD 21117 • (410)363-7148
www.definitivetech.com
Excerpted from the December 2001 issue of HOME THEATER. Copyright © 2001 by PRIMEDIA. All Rights Reserved.
E
HIGHLIGHTS
• Built-in amplified woofers slam like
those of much bigger speakers
• Eminently entertaining
• This is not supposed to be possible
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