Definitive Technology Bipolar SuperTower BP7000SC, BPVX, BPVX/P, C3000, L3000 Brochure

HIGH-PERFORMANCE THEATER

moving experience (literally) that
you could easily find yourself
shouting, “Amen, brother!” and
“Crank it up!”—even if you’re the
strictest of the Amish. In fact,
plunk the Pope down in front of a
pair of these mighty towers belting
“You and Your Folks/23

rd

Psalm,”
and it’s quite possible that he’ll
sign up on the spot to be a key­note speaker at the next Southern
Baptist convention. These speak­ers are that good.

I’ve always liked Definitive
Technology’s approach. They build
great-sounding speakers that ordi­nary folks like you and me can
afford. Does that mean that, if you
own a pair of fine MartinLogan or
Sonus Faber speakers, you should
dump them at your next garage
sale and buy a pair of Def Techs?
Not necessarily. Does it mean that,
when you scrape together your
leftover cash (after you’ve paid for
day care, signed this month’s

mortgage check, filled up a gro­cery cart, and bought a DVD or
two) and buy a pair of Def Tech
speakers, they’ll sound as if you
spent three or four times as
much? Damn straight.

Most of us equate the word value
with mid to lower price points,
probably because manufacturers
promote higher-priced gear on
aspects other than value. That puts
the BP7000

SC SuperTowers in a

somewhat difficult
predicament. At
$5,000 per pair
($7,495 for the
home theater
system that the
company sent me),
the SuperTowers
are certainly up
there when it
comes to what ordi­nary schmoes like
me can afford, so
they’d better be a

I don’t know much about the
Blind Boys of Alabama. I assume
that these soulful gospel songsters
(being musical advocates of the
truth) are indeed blind, as well as
from Alabama. From the pictures
on their

Higher Ground CD, it’s

pretty clear that they’re not boys.
However, since they’ve been
singing together for over 60 years,
they were no doubt qualifying
youngsters when the name stuck
for good. (The Blind Boys-to-Men
of Alabama doesn’t have quite
the same ring, either.) What I do
know is that listening to

Higher

Ground

’s
“People Get
Ready” and
“The Cross”

through
Definitive
Technology’s
new over-the­top-of-the-line
BP7000

SC

SuperTowers
is such a fun­damentally

B

C

A

A. Talk about an

all-in-one package:

The BP7000SC has

two tweeters, four

midrange drivers,

and a 14-inch woofer

that’s powered by an

1,800-watt amp.

B. The BPVX/P is a

bipolar surround

speaker with an

internal subwoofer.

C. The C/L/R3000

center speaker is the

lone direct-radiator

of the group.

Definitive Technology
BP7000

SC SuperTower Speaker System

Praise the Lord and pass the SuperTowers.

by Darryl Wilkinson

Sound as if you spent three or four times as much
... these new creations are simply extraordinary

“Speakers that will

be equally welcome
in a symphony
conductor’s home
or the wildest
frat house”

”

“

“What a leap

this is ...
Definitive
Technology
has taken an
evolutionary
step to the
next level”

“these speakers

are that good”

lot of speaker for the money. In
terms of performance, the compe­tition at this price level gets pretty
intense, so they’d better sound
flippin’ awesome, too.

What exactly do you get for the

money? The BP7000

SC is tall, stand-

ing 52.5 inches high, but the 8.9­inch width and 16.6-inch depth
mean that it takes up only a bit
more than a square foot of floor
space. You might worry that such
a tall, slender speaker would be
unstable or easy to knock over.
Fear not: The BP7000

SC’s 100-

plus pounds keep it locked solidly

in place, whether you use feet or
spikes (both are included). Here’s
a tip: Lest you want to risk being
nailed to the floor like the silver­masked opponent who battled
Maximus in

Gladiator, be careful

when you move the BP7000

SC with

the spikes in place. Your best bet
is to position the speaker first and
then install the spikes. In trade­mark Def Tech fashion, a sleek,
black sock covers the BP7000

SC’s

private parts, except for the
exposed back panel, which con­tains the speaker connections,
LFE input, subwoofer volume con­trol, and amp-cooling vanes. The
usual hard-edged end caps are
replaced with gorgeous, softly
sculpted ones. Even though it’s a
modest design change, it makes
quite a difference, giving the
speakers a much more-prestigious
look. On the other hand, while the
spikes certainly do the job, they’re
a little wimpy compared with the
rest of the speaker.

The mirror-imaged, bipolar

BP7000

SCs include powered

subwoofers. Although a 1-inch
aluminum dome tweeter and two

6.5-inch bass/midrange drivers
reside on both the front and back
of the tower, the front and rear
drivers use separate and different
types of crossovers. The BP7000

SC

is designed to achieve more-linear
frequency- and phase-response
curves and to be easier to drive
with most amplifiers. The sub­woofer section in each BP7000

SC

is the equivalent of a Def Tech
SuperCube Reference subwoofer.
One 14-inch long-throw SuperCube
active woofer is mounted in the
tower’s relatively acoustically
small lower section, along with
two 14-inch passive drivers. An
1,800-watt digitally coupled Class D
amplifier powers the trembling
trio. The SuperCube technology is
one of the latest and, in my opin­ion, most successful methods of
producing prodigious amounts of
bass in a small enclosure. Just to
give you an idea of what a leap
this is, Def Tech’s previous top­of-the-line BP3000

TL incorporates

a single 18-inch woofer with a
1,000-watt amp. Don’t think that
hooking up such a beast is a prob­lem or requires special expertise.
You can get all of the benefit of
the bipolar technology and the

Definitive Technology BP7000SC SuperTower Speaker System

HT Labs Measures: Definitive Technology BP7000SC SuperTower
Speaker System

This graph shows the quasi-anechoic (employing close-miking of all woofers)
frequency response of the BP7000SC L/R (purple trace), C/L/R3000 center
channel (green trace), and BPVX/P surround (red trace). All passive loud­speakers were measured at a distance of 1 meter with a 2.83-volt input
and scaled for display purposes.

The BP7000SC’s listening-window response (a five-point average of
axial and +/–15-degree horizontal and vertical responses) measures
+2.50/–3.64 decibels from 200 hertz to 10 kilohertz. The –3dB point is at
22 Hz, and the –6dB point is at 21 Hz. Impedance reaches a minimum of

2.92 ohms at 424 Hz and a phase angle of –37.82 degrees at 154 Hz.
Sensitivity averages 91 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz.

The C/L/R3000’s listening-window response measures +2.39/–1.43 dB
from 200 Hz to 10 kHz. An average of axial and +/–15-degree horizontal
responses measures +2.73/–1.65 dB from 200 Hz to 10 kHz. The –3dB
point is at 37 Hz, and the –6dB point is at 33 Hz. Impedance reaches a
minimum of 2.16 ohms at 310 Hz and a phase angle of –33.93 degrees at
170 Hz. Sensitivity averages 93.5 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz.

The BPVX/P’s three-face averaged response measures +3.42/–3.02 dB
from 200 Hz to 10 kHz. The –3dB point is at 38 Hz, and the –6dB point
is at 35 Hz. Impedance reaches a minimum of 2.73 ohms at 457 Hz
and a phase angle of –47.74 degrees at 224 Hz. Sensitivity averages
91 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz.

—AJ

Definitive Technology BP7000SC SuperTower Speaker System

HIGH-PERFORMANCE THEATER

“Gorgeous, softly

sculpted ...
a much more
prestigious look”

“SuperCube tech-

nology is one of
the latest and,
in my opinion,
most successful
methods of pro­ducing prodigious
amounts of
bass in a small
enclosure”

“You’ll be instantly

smitten with the
life and energy
(and bass) that
come from the
BP7000SCs”

“From a value

standpoint, the
BP7000

SCs are

large, bipolar
speakers with
beautiful aesthetics
and the equivalent
of two steroidally
enhanced, powered
subwoofers”