Definitive Technology BP2006TL, BP2X, C/L/R 2300, C 2300, L 2300 Brochure
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Sandy Gross, founder of
Definitive Technology, is the Mark
McGwire of hi-fi. Somehow, this
guy has been able to come up with
one incredible speaker home run
after another. As a result, there are
two problems when reviewing a
Def Tech speaker system. The first
is that there has been so much
praise and adulation
penned in
the past that
it’s hard to
be complimentary
without
being repetitive. The
second problem comes
when it’s
time to pack
up the
speakers and
ship them
away. You
start babbling wild
excuses to
extend the
deadline.
“My cousin’s cat died … so much
stress … I haven’t had time to listen. I need another week….”
Eventually, though,
the painful time
comes, and there
you are with tears
and packing tape,
handing off your
newfound loves to
an oblivious UPS
guy. “Treat them
gently,” you beg
the guy in brown.
(Man, it’s tough
being a reviewer.)
Undaunted, I
jumped at the
chance to review
the latest home
theater system
from Def Tech.
Even if you’re not a baseball fan,
you’ve probably heard of Mark
McGwire. After crushing the previous single-season home-run
record a couple of years ago,
McGwire continues to pound the
ball out of the park to the delight
of Cardinals fans everywhere. Yet,
despite his imposing form and
incredible swing, McGwire (like
most power hitters) strikes out
with some regularity. Of course,
who’s going to complain to a guy
who has hit 72 home runs in a
single season?
“With the
BP2006TL
system,
Definitive
Technology
has hit the
ball out of
the park —
and I don’t
think it
has come
down yet.”
Definitive Technology
BP2006
TL Speaker System
By Darryl Wilkinson
HIGH-PERFORMANCE THEATER
“these are not just
fine music speakers
— they’re fantastic
music speakers”
“the launch
sequence in
Apollo
13 made the hair
on the back of my
neck stand up.”
“Like Strapping Yourself onto a Rocket Sled
and Lighting the Fuse”
I’ll admit to some concern, though
— having had ample listening time
in the past with Definitive’s big
boys, the BP3000TL and the
BP2000TL. As a friend of mine
said when he heard I was going to
review the new BP2006TL speakers, “But all they’ve got are dinky
little 8-inch powered woofers. Why
do you want to listen to something
like that?” Such are the perils of
prosperity — when you’re around
great gear a lot, it’s extremely easy
to get jaded. The next amp’s got to
be bigger. The next CD changer’s
got to hold more CDs. These are the
times when you just have to be
thankful and
remind yourself
that, in less fortunate places in the
world, some people still listen to
audio in mono.
The gear that
arrived was a pair
of the new
BP2006TLs for
the left and right
front channels,
the new C/L/R
2300 for the center channel, and
a pair of old standbys, the BP2X
bipolar rear on-wall speakers. It’s
physically a pretty small system.
The BP2006TL speakers stand just
a little over a yard tall (38 inches),
but they’re only 6 1/4 inches wide!
In addition to being sleek and narrow, these speakers are less than a
foot deep (11 1/2 inches). Flanking
a television or even out in the open,
the BP2006TLs pleasantly blend in
with the rest of the room. Heck, an
average potted plant takes up more
space in your room than these
speakers do.
Visually, the BP2006TLs follow
the wildly popular form of their
bigger brothers. A black fabric
sock covers all but the last inch
or so of the top and bottom of the
speaker, where black-lacquered
end caps add an elegant touch.
The sock, aside from neutralizing
the physical appearance of the
speaker in the room, also contributes to the quality of the sound
by eliminating any baffle effect a
speaker grille might have on the
performance of the speaker.
The driver complement in the
BP2006TL consists of two 4 1/2inch cast-magnesium-basket polymer midbass drivers with a 1-inch
pure-aluminum-dome tweeter …
and that’s just what’s in front. Since
this is a bipolar creation, the same
combination is reproduced on the
backside of the speaker. That
“dinky” 8-inch subwoofer, strapped
to its own 250-watt amplifier, invisibly fires from the side of the
speaker. Interestingly, Def Tech has
a patent on the integration of a
bipolar array with a side-firing
woofer. Once again, they’ve done
the obvious while everyone else
was oblivious.
Def Tech unleashed the idea of a
powered subwoofer built into a
tower speaker with the BP2000.
Reviewers and consumers ate up
the idea like a hot bratwurst late in
the fourth inning. It’s definitely con-
venient. There’s no need to find
room and run wiring for an extra
subwoofer box in your listening
room. That alone might have made
the idea a bestseller, but, according
to Def Tech, the idea really originated as a way to make the speaker
sound better. Dual
subwoofers (one in
the left speaker and
one in the right
speaker) can pro-
vide more-linear
bass reproduction
throughout the room
than a single one
can. Since the sub
is right there near
the tweeter and midbass drivers, there
are fewer potential
timing or phasing
problems. And,
“I’m still having
flashbacks from
the first 20 minutes of Saving
Private Ryan”
“another advantage of
incorporating the
powered woofer into
the C/L/R 2300 is that
it creates a great
bookshelf speaker”
“It’s a deliciously,
deliriously entertaining setup”
A
C
B
A. Despite being
the old-timer in the
bunch, the BP2X
bipolar surround
integrates very well
into this new system.
B. Sleek and narrow,
the BP2006TL will
blend in nicely with
the rest of your room.
Plus, the built-in sidefiring sub eliminates
the need for a separate subwoofer.
C. Thanks to its
internal powered
sub, the C/L/R 2300
center channel sounds
deceptively big.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Big sound from relatively
small tower speakers
• Great center channel that
would also make a good
bookshelf speaker
“the BP2Xs sounded
great”
“the C/L/R 2300 is
goose-bumpingly
great”
“DefTech
unleashed the idea
of a powered subwoofer built into a
tower speaker”
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