Definitive Demo

I happened to go to my local Best Buy the other day and to my surprise, found that a Magnolia Audio store had moved in the home theater section of the store. So naturally I had to go over and see what kind of goodies they had.

I was able to do a demo of the Definitive BP7002 (the top of the line for the non-ST series) and also their supercube II subwoofer. The receiver was a 140 WPC Yamaha (msrp around $1600). I happened to have a Lloyd cd (hip-hop/R&B) that I gave to the salesman to demo. He happened to be a fan of hip-hop, so he encouraged me to turn up the volume.

First up were the BP7002's. Yuck! The bass, despite being only decent in between both towers, had this strange reverberating sound on the low notes (probably 25-30 HZ). I think this has something to do with the passive radiator setup on the built-in subwoofers. The bass itself sounded very muddy. In fact, my car and also my older multimedia speakers had tighter bass that went just as deep as these towers. The mids and highs sounded alright...nothing special. Overall, I was kind of disappointed. For that kind of money, these did not impress. Mostly, the bass was just really sloppy. Despite being a hip-hop CD, I've listened to this CD on other systems, and the bass was tight and well defined.

Moving on to the supercube subwoofer, this thing put out some mean bass. However, the bass was only present standing right next to the sub (which was placed in the corner of the room). Granted, the room was probably 15 x 25. The sub actually went into some kind of shutdown (probably thermal protection) almost every time a deep bass note came on, which was annoying. We were playing the system pretty loud, but not quite loud enough that the subwoofer should have shut down. The EQ was set to flat as well. Again, I was disappointed.

Finally, he decided to put on some Klipsch towers and a 10" mid-range Klipsch subwoofer. Same receiver. What a difference. The towers sounded about the same as the definitives, but the Klipsch sub sounded like the real deal. It had the best sounding bass in the room. And it was half the price of the definitive supercube.

I think for someone on a tight budget, this Klipsch setup would be the way to go. I'd probably get the bookshelf speakers because I felt they sounded better than the towers. I'd also get the 12" Klipsch sub, which wasn't working at the time, but judging from the performance of the 10, it must be pretty good.

Personally, I've still got my eye set on one of the higher-end SVS subwoofers, either the PB12-Plus/2 or the PC-Ultra. I'm still undecided about the fronts, what brand to go with and whether or not I get bookshelves or towers. But for what it's worth, the Klipsch sub definitely sounded better than the bass from any Definitive speaker in that room.

[yourgrandma]

I have never done ant serious listening with the big bipolars, but i will agree that the DefTech towers almost always have sort of muddy bass. The PT400s ive had since I was twelve have dual 6.5" subwoofers that, in my old room, sounded great. They alone were more than enugh to blur your vision, but were never superbly tight. The drivers are very loosely suspended and the ported design of the cabinet keeps them from being very quick.

I have a Klipsch RSW10 and really like it. Although it's even slower than the towers. It plays very loud with little effort, and as long as it doesnt hit multiple ultra low notes in short succession, it does a good job. I don't really like how it seems to trip over itself when it encounters a rapidly changing low frequency. I guess thats a function of the fact that its designed for movies, not music.

[thxgoon]

I would agree that Klpsch subs are awesome! Their middle level subs have a great combination of output, extension and transient response. The Supercube though is a nice sub. If you're interested in buying one of these have the salesman put the supercube in the same location as the Klipsch and turn off all eq's and compare. They don't go very deep (25hz or so) but can play very loud. SVS is a great option and for the money would get my money.