Definitive Technology SuperCube II, StudioCinema 350, StudioMonitor 350 Brochure

little bit of New Orleans in every
speaker they design. Maybe it’s a slightly
demented Cajun outlook on life that
filters into the CAD drawings at the
earliest stages. My secret belief is that,
just before they seal each box, somebody
is tasked with the special job of sprin­kling a drop or two of New Orleans
voodoo water on each speaker. (That’s a
better image than the alternate idea I
had, which involved chicken’s blood and
eyes of newt.)

Even from my first look at the
StudioMonitor 350, I could feel the
subtle power of that voodoo spell. The
SM350 is pretty typical in size for a
bookshelf speaker (7 inches wide, 9.69
deep, and 10.69 tall), but it derives a

lot of elegance and visual class from
Def Tech’s standard design: a black sock
with gloss-black end caps. In fact, the
SM350’s dimensions must approach some
golden mean because this iteration seems
exceptionally attractive. Maybe I’m just
too used to looking at standard grille­cloth-on-the-front bookshelf speakers.

Underneath each sock are a 5.25-inch
cast-basket bass-midrange driver and a
1-inch pure-aluminum dome tweeter.
This is a standard configuration for a
bookshelf speaker, but there’s a surprise
on the opposing sides of the left and right
SM350s: an 8-inch passive radiator with a
radiating surface that’s actually made from
the same high-density medite material as
the speaker cabinet itself.

Def Tech’s Sandy Gross (who, by the

way, was present that night in New
Orleans but sensibly bailed out
before the real debauchery began)
says that the passive-radiator design
eliminates the midrange-frequency
bleed-through that often plagues
passives that use conventional
materials while simultaneously

I used to wonder why I felt such
an affinity for so many of Definitive
Technology’s speakers. What is it, I
asked, that gives these slender, sock­smothered sirens their perennial
appeal? Is it magnetism? (Well, surely,
they use magnets, but that couldn’t be
it.) Is it the sexy allure of not being able
to yank off a speaker’s grille cloth to
reveal what’s hidden underneath?
(Instead, you have to gently coax the soft
sock covering down, slowly undressing
the speaker. It’s an act best done in the
privacy of your own home after the chil­dren have gone to bed.) Maybe it’s some
secret, arcane knowledge inherited from
the Knights Templar (promising riches,
wealth, and speakers with popularity
beyond reason)—or possibly it’s from an
earlier era, gleaned from chiseled hiero­glyphics on the ancient stone walls of
the pyramids at Giza (regaling in an
afterlife filled with music and movies).

The answer dawned on me as I
listened to Beau Jocque (

Beau Jocque

Live

) crank out Cajun music through
Def Tech’s newest bookshelf speakers,
the StudioMonitor 350s, and their
brand-new stout but substantial Super­Cube II subwoofer. Listening to Beau
Jocque’s raw energy and infectious
enthusiasm, I was taken back to a rainy
New Orleans evening that ended (as
many a New Orleans evening does) in
the very, very early morning on Bourbon
Street. Although we’d begun as a group,
4:00 a.m. found only myself and a mys­terious member of Def
Tech’s inner circle still
searching for more Cajun
music (along with any
strange-looking liquid we
could drink).

I’m convinced that the

folks at Def Tech put a

Definitive Technology
StudioCinema 350 Speaker System

By Darryl Wilkinson

That Voodoo that Def Tech Do

“How does the StudioCinema 350 speaker system find that

mystical balance between high performance and low price?”

A. The bipolar

BP1.2X is timbre­matched with the
StudioMonitor 350.

B. The StudioMonitor

350 has Def Tech’s
signature aesthetic:
a black sock with
gloss-black end caps.

C. The C/L/R 2002

is magnetically
shielded and sports
a D’Appolito array.

D. The compact but

hefty SuperCube II
is powered by a
1,250-watt digital
switching amp.

“Foundation-

cleaving bass
response …
you might just
find yourself
wishing you’d
installed seat
belts on the
couch in your
home theater”

A

D

B

C

“the StudioMonitor

350’s

vibrant
dynamism in no way
interferes with its
careful subtlety …
[it] maintains the
often-difficult­to-achieve balance
of energy and
accuracy.”

“I was doubly

impressed by this
sub/sat package’s
ability to pound
me with the heavy
fall of a horse
hoof … then
immediately tickle
me with the deli­cate feather of
pure music.”

enlarging the speaker cabinet’s virtual size.
In other words, it’s supposed to provide better
bass and better midrange. Not long ago, Def Tech
approached the problem of getting big bass from
a small bookshelf by adding powered woofers
in their PowerMonitor Series. That solution
definitely works, but the StudioMonitor is
designed to be less expensive and smaller
than the PowerMonitor.

So, does the passive radiator work? Well, Beau
Jocque sounded pretty darn good through just a
pair of StudioMonitor 350s running full-range, but
I’ve never heard Beau Jocque in person (nor will I,
now that he’s playing the Cajun circuit where the
saints come marching in). However, I have heard
(both on-stage and off) Hadden Sayers’ distinc­tive, back-of-the-throat voice, along with the
Hadden Sayers Band’s energetic sound. I can tell
you that the StudioMonitor 350s absolutely nailed
his voice on

Supersonic, the band’s latest CD.

The StudioMonitor 350’s vibrant dynamism in
no way interferes with its careful subtlety, whether
you’re listening to a beautiful choral layering of
voices (as on the Gadeamus

Sacred Feast disc) or
on a simpler but no less engaging arrangement of
voice, accordion, and guitar on Sara K.’s “Whiter
Shade of Pale” (

What Matters). Individual ele­ments remain clear and distinct without being
clinical. In other words, this speaker maintains
the often-difficult-to-achieve balance of energy
and accuracy.

While it’s not as prodigious as its powered
PowerMonitor brethren, the StudioMonitor 350
nevertheless manages to pack a punch of its own,
thanks to its unusually constructed side-firing
passive radiator. It makes a fine attempt at re­creating the pounding rhythm that’s set up inside
the railroad boxcar where Cassandra Wilson
recorded “You Gotta Move” (

Belly of the Sun).
The bass response is smooth and natural—about
as good as you’re going to find in a passive
speaker this size.

Def Tech has a problem. Once you hear a pair
of StudioMonitor 350s with the new SuperCube II
subwoofer, it’s damn near impossible to separate
the combo. What you thought sounded like a good
pair of bookshelf speakers suddenly becomes an
incredible three-piece dynamo.

The SuperCube II is the company’s latest entry
into the mondo-powerful, subcompact subwoofer

category. It features the same
cosmetics as the StudioMonitor
350 (black sock, gloss-black
end caps). Inside is an ultra­long-excursion 8-inch woofer
driven by a Def Tech–designed
1,250-watt digital switching
amplifier. There are two 8-inch
pressure-driven infrasonic radia­tors on the sides adjoining the
front-firing woofer.

On the back are high- and low­level inputs, plus continuously
variable phase, cross-over, and
volume controls. The sub itself is
rock-solid and heavy—which is good
because, with the amount of bass this baby pro­duces, anything lighter would go bouncing around
your room like a genetically modified Mexican
jumping bean.

Too many so-called subwoofers on the market
today forget the “sub” part and give you just a
loud “woofer.” They’re good at producing plenty of
bass but not much low bass. Here’s one way to tell
the difference. If your ears say, “Wow, that’s a lot
of bass,” you’re not there yet. On the other hand,
if your kidneys yell, “Holy crap, what just hit
me?” you’re on the right track.

Potential SuperCube II owners, beware. Get
yourselves on the kidney-transplant waiting
list now because the SuperCube II mounts a
full-frontal assault on all of the soft, sensitive
areas of the human body. It’s deeply powerful
and strong, and your internal organs will let you
know it’s there before your ears will. But it’s also
fast and light. To paraphrase Muhammad Ali,
this sub floats like a butterfly and stings like …
a freight train.

There’s certainly some of that Def Tech voodoo
in the SuperCube II. Watch the early street-race
scene in

The Fast and the Furious, and you’ll
think you’re riding shotgun with Vin Diesel.
(You might just find yourself wishing you’d
installed seat belts on the couch in your home
theater.) From the opening credits on,

The

Haunting

takes on a dimension of foreboding
that’s simply not there when you listen to the
movie using a lesser subwoofer. Likewise, hearing

the Japanese attack sequence in Pearl Harbor
with the SuperCube II might give you a case of
post-traumatic stress disorder.

It’s great for action movies to have this kind of
power, but the SuperCube II’s speed and lightness
make it an ideal partner for the StudioMonitor
350s for music and, especially, movies with
music. Quite often during

The Lord of the Rings,
I was doubly impressed by this sub/sat package’s
ability to pound me with the heavy fall of a horse
hoof or a battle-ax and then immediately tickle me
with the delicate feather of pure music. In this
case, the StudioMonitor 350s and SuperCube II
achieved this overall effect with the addition of
Def Tech’s C/L/R 2002 center channel and a pair
of BP1.2X bipolar surround speakers, which
match incredibly well in tone and attitude (and,
of course, appearance) with the front sats and sub.
Def Tech sells this complete system under the
name StudioCinema 350.

If it’s true that Def Tech resorts to using
voodoo water on their speakers, it’s my guess
that they shook an extra couple of drops on the
StudioMonitor 350s and the SuperCube II.
Finding another speaker combination that’s as
sweet, powerful, and conveniently sized in this
price range is about as difficult as finding an
Amish couple in the audience of the “Boys
Will Be Girls” show on Bourbon Street. But
don’t worry: Even if you’re not into late-night
carousing, you’ll drink in everything this new
Definitive Technology combo can pour out.

“an incredible three-

piece dynamo …

you’ll drink in

everything this new

Definitive Technology

combo can pour out.”

“the SuperCube II

mounts a full-frontal
assault on all of the
soft, sensitive areas of
the human body … It’s
deeply powerful and
strong … But it’s also
fast and light.”

E. On the back are high- and low-level inputs, plus continuously

variable phase, cross-over, and volume controls.

“Finding another speaker

combination that’s as
sweet, powerful, and
conveniently sized in
this price range is about
as difficult as finding
an Amish couple in
the audience of
‘Boys Will Be Girls’”

11433 Cronridge Dr. • Owings Mills, MD 21117 • [phone]

www.definitivetech.com

Excerpted from the December 2002 issue of HOME THEATER.

E

HIGHLIGHTS

• The StudioMonitor 350’s side-firing
woofer extends low-bass response

• Clean, precise imaging

• The SuperCube II has foundation­cleaving bass response