Price Paid:  $500.00 from newspaper

Summary:
I was so afraid to get these speakers at $500 a pair in mint form from a nice 72 year old man with All the trash spoked about these speakers.The way i looked at it is there is no way the can sound that bad.I am so Glad i bought them. I have been fighting a bass problem in my theater area,,,no bass in the sweet spot. If you wan bass,go in the kitchen.I tried,,Klipsch Chourus II, Lascala,Polk Monitor 10,Vintage JBL l220's, all sound nice in a different room,,THESE Speakers DId it for me,, i am done with this room.BAss is excellent and tight,Bids are smooth the tweets could be a little brighter "for me" but the nices Theater sound i can find for the cash.ALL you Fools Buying these speakers and talking trash about them,,Did you listed to them before you bought them???who buys a car without a test drive!!!!!! GO buy your speakers from the Guys in the white van!!!!!!!

Strengths:
Looks,bass,piano black i love
Bi polar

Weaknesses:
hard to move with the sock around the speaker, cant grip

Summary:
First of all, I'm a neutral reviewer for this product as I'm currently not using the BP2000. I have used the BP3000tl for several years and now using the B&W Nautilus 802.

Let me just say that I regret my decision to switch to the B&W 802 for the reasons described below. My other gears are:

Preamp: McIntosh C42 Control Centre
Power amp: Bryston 14B ST
Wires and interconnects: MIT S330 and Kimber Cable 8TC.
Denon AVR 5800 (for HT)
Still using my other def tech surround speakers.

The 802 has a nice soundstage but the def tech had similar soundstage using my gears and also had a MUCH tighter bass (They were wired full range out of the Mac preamp). What made the bass on the def tech sounded impressive was the Mac's 10V rms voltage output continously plumbing out of the preamp. The highs and mids were crisp clear and smooth as well: they were bi-wired using the Kimber 8tc to the Bryston stereo power amp (500 watts x 2).

Yes, the 802 is nice too. But they can't do home threatre as well, and the def tech smoked the 802 every time I switched to movie mode (via the Denon AVR 5800 into the Mac). Secondly, if I had my music on in one room and doing some office works in another room, the 802 lost a lot of imaging but the def tech smoked the 802 once again in this area. Lastly, in comparing the 802 to the def tech, I find that the def tech is much more emotional and dynamic. It gave me a sense of sound envolopment. The 802 has slighly better details in the highs because of the B&W tweeter.

If I had to do it all over again, I would stay away from this board and not reading the kind of craps coming out of it from various amatures and audiophiles want to be and make my own dicisions instead.

Strengths:
Tight bass; excellent soundstage if matched with the right gear

Weaknesses:
Placement essential; need to have good front end

Similar Products Used:
B&W Nautilus 802

Price Paid:  $3000.00 from Shelley's

Summary:
Purchased new September, 2001

I have been under-whelmed by the BP2000’s for 2-channel stereo. They do not image well and are very sensitive to room placement. They are not shielded. They throw a very strong magnetic field, which distorts the color on your TV screen if the subs are faced outwards and they are less than 4 foot from the monitor (even if there is a loaded stereo rack in between the monitor and speakers). If the subs are facing inwards, it does not distort the monitor (within reasonable distance from monitor). If you have surround furniture, facing the subs inward can be problematic because the subs will be buried into the wall of the cabinet.

I have tried the BP2000’s with a $4,500 Denon AVR5800 7.1 DTE-ES Home Theater receiver (170 watts x 7, with 4 DefTech surrounds and C/L/R 3000 center) and a $20,000 Class-A 2-channel stereo system. Neither system was able to get the BP2000’s to throw a convincing soundstage. Magnepan 1.6’s throw a much wider, higher, deeper, forward soundstage for 3/5’s the cost of the BP2000’s (but no sub). I currently have the 3.6’s, but with either the 1.6’s or the 3.6’s, your ears keep telling your brain the sound is coming from everywhere but the speakers. The soundstage from the Maggies is fantastic. With the BP2000’s, your ears and brain are definitely in harmony, the sound is coming from the speakers and no place else. Being such, this probably makes them a good home theater speaker leaving any imaging up to the center and surround channels.

I called DefTech and their technical representative was very courteous and helpful. I tried his various recommendations and was able to get a better soundstage by pulling the speakers out about 4 foot from the back wall. Unfortunately this arrangement does not work well in my home theater room. Turning up the volume yields better detail, but is too loud for sustained listening and grates on the ears. Again, this might be better for Home Theater, but not for 2-channel stereo.

The BP2000’s can become very boomy, thus moderation is necessary when dialing in subwoofer levels. The subs are a bit loose. My M&K MX100 powered sub is notably tighter in comparison. I was hoping to get rid of my stand-alone sub by purchasing speakers with integrated subs. I found this not to be the case because I do not like the loose sounding bass.

In summary, 3 – C/L/R 3000 center channels would probably make for a more evenly balanced home theater front sound stage. The BP2000’s in the mix is overkill unless they could run double duty for 2-channel stereo, but I have not found this to be the case.

They do not sound like $3,000 and are definitely going bye, bye. My wife’s comment pretty well sums it up, “They probably sound good, if you don’t know any better”.

Related Equipment:

Home Theater:

Denon AVR5800 DTS-ES 7.1 receiver
Sony DVP-S7700 DVD
Rotel RCD-955AX CD
Sony SLV-696HF VCR
DefTech BP2000 front left and right
DefTech C/L/R 3000 center with powered subs
DefTech BP2X side left and right surrounds
DefTech BPVX/P back left and right surrounds with power subs
M&K MX100 powered sub
Adcom and Panamax power conditioners
Various cables and interconnects

Class-A 2-Channel Stereo:

Plinius SA100 power amp
Mark Levinson #39 CD Player
Magnepan 3.6 speakers
Equi=Tech ET2Q Balanced Power
Harmonic Tech Pro-9 Plus bi-wire cables and Magic One XLR interconnects

Strengths:
Solid heavy speakers, small footprint, many wiring options

Weaknesses:
Placement sensitive, easily boomy, lacks soundstage and detail, not shielded

Similar Products Used:
Speakers: Klipsch Chorus II, Magnapan 1.6 & 3.6, B&W, DefTech's surrounds, M&K; Surround: Fosgate, Lexicon, B&K, Denon

Price Paid:  $2250.00 from Ultimate Electronics

Summary:
First of all, I want to address all of the negative reviews on this speaker. The last one, if he even had them, where prabably the TL's. It's always interesting that most of the negative reviewers almost never list their electronics. Either they don't have any, or are using a 50 watt used Pioneer, and zip cord for cable.

My theater one consists of,
17x25x8 dedicated room, closes completely
Mitsubishi 70 inch rear projection
Acurus Act3 5.1 A/V preamp
custom built center in the Mitsu with 6.5 Kevlar mids, titanium tweeters, and a Sony ESD1000P preamp used to eq and crossover to a Energy ESXL12 sub for the center alone.
DefTech BP2000 fronts (1 300 watt powered 15 each)
2 NAD THX2400, running mono center speakers, 300 watts each
2 Adcom 300 watt 565 monoblocks for top of BP2000's
Paradigm P90 Monitors for the surrounds (2 powered 8's each)
2 Marantz MM700 200 watt mono's for the top of the P90's
2 DefTech 325 watt 15tl's for the .1
All MIT Terminator II bi-wires and interconnects
Meridian 563 24 bit upgrade D/A
Rega Jupiter Transport
Marantz LV520 Laserdisc
Toshiba 2109 DVD (Mitsu 70 only has S-video, great picture)
Panasonic Hifi VHS
4DTV Digital/Analog 10 ft (not the little directtv 18")
This system was put together over the last 5 years.
It rocks, shacks the house (slab), and plays music better than most of the negative reviewers have ever or will hear.
3300 watts total, 4-15's, 1-12, and 4-8's, all powered

Any serious audiophile spends countless hours reviewing prospective products, and would not write such trash. They would either not comment or say they didn't care for it, giving their objective views, not slams. Please go back to your video games, or your boombox.

Most of these wanabe reviewers miss the point of this speaker. It does a great job as a front A/V speaker. Set up properly with good equipment they play music effortlessly with a lot of air, and a very large soundstage. The bass can be dialed in properly if you can read the manual.
You can not get more bang for the buck, period. I travel extensively for business and stop in mid-fi, and high end stores all over the west, listening to high priced, over rated equipment and speakers. I've been to CES in Las Vegas several times. Most speakers are set up improperly with back acoustics, as are most stores. Was in a store recently that had Martin Logan Prodigy with Krell, and a Sony SACD player. The room was bad, the salesman had no SACD discs, and was playing them way to loud with homemade CD's. The only proper audition is in your home with good equipment. Don't think that a $100.00 CD player, with a Receiver that has a 10 ounce power supply is going to make these speakers take you to audio nirvana. The speaker is the last thing you hear, but speakers are like computers, garbage in, garbage out. Sorry for the rant, been an audiophile for many years, and this kind of crap needs to be addressed. If AudioReview won't, I guess I will.
I have 2 other theaters, one with a Denon 4800, and the Ifinity Overture 1, 2, and 3's. all with powered subs built in, with a Velodyne HGS12 sub, over 3000 watts also. a New Sony DVP-S9000ES DVD/SACD player. A Toshiba 55X81 HDTV Ready, Mit Terminator 2 cables, etc. I won't even get into my bedroom B&W, tube 2 channel system.

Strengths:
Big,open,effortless,tons of bass

Weaknesses:
None for the money

Similar Products Used:
Paradigm P90, Vandersteen 2ci, B&W CDM7SE, Infinity Overture 3,2, and 1. Own them all not just auditoned.

Summary:
These blow. They take a few off-the-shelf drivers and stick them in a box - that's all these are. For this price range, go for a real speaker like Linn or Revel. The tonal quality of these are sooo much better for the same price, it's not even funny.