unclehowie

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
3.33 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $800.00 from Bjorns

Summary:
i enjoy not only listening to music but also listening to movies. the bp2004 fill my room with earth shaking bass, yet provide an extremely smooth mid-range. i have owned dahlquist and polk audio both of which are superior products, but do not come close to what def tech has been able to produce.

Strengths:
fantastic bass, and cost

Weaknesses:
probably placement. placing the speaker just right to achieve the best quality sound was a challenge, but soooo worth it.

Similar Products Used:
dahlquist and polk audio

Price Paid:  $1600.00 from Marvins Electronics

Summary:
Since I didn’t want a freestanding subwoofer, I sound shopped for “powered towers” only. That restricted my search to DefTech, Klipsch, AR, NHT, Polk and Infinity, plus a few others. The 04s won easily against all but the NHTs. The NHTs, however, cost three times more than the 04s. Set-up was easy with the simple hook-up although stabilizing the heavy towers was a hassle: It took myself and a neighbor to safely affix the spikes and stabilizer feet. Speaker placement is far more critical than DefTech indicates. I placed the 04s in several different configurations, settling on ten inches from back wall, slight toe-in, tilted back with supplied spikes in front and supplied stabilizing feet in back and the built-in subs facing outward. Break-in took a long time, but worth it! The sound is simply awesome. Highs are light and accurate. I hear Tool’s drum cymbals more distinctly and Miles Davis’ trumpet is clearer, cleaner, and more intimate than on my soft dome ADS 1090s. Mids are right on the money with exceptional vocals. Sting, Norah, Maynard, Sade…whoever; they all sound great. Bass is great (music) to exceptional (HT), but please keep in mind that I’m not a bass freak. HT bass (I use the LFE hook-up) is fantastic: Full but not overwhelming. I have a few friends (total-destruction-of-home-interior bass fiends) that suggest my HT setup would benefit from an additional, dedicated subwoofer. I disagree. The 04s provide plenty of deep, accurate HT bass. Music bass, on the other hand, is merely great. It goes low, but how low does an electric or stand-up bass go? 40 Hz? It seemed to me the 04s pump out bass frequencies that shouldn’t be there. And music bass didn’t seem as “tight” as the dual seven-inch woofers in my ADS 1090s. The same friends that suggested a sub for HT can’t get enough of the 04s in music. I solved the problem by dialing back the bass level on the ’04s to eight o’clock for music, with HT at ten to eleven o’clock. The “lighter” bass setting on music tightened up bass considerably, making me happy and the bass fiends still gobble it up. I cannot imagine why a listener would want more bass than the 04s can deliver in music listening, with the possible exception of rap and/or electronic dance fans. The only negative is the frequent resetting of bass from music to HT and back. Imaging is as good or better than non-bipolar speakers I’ve listened to in the same price range. Vocals are dead center front and drums seem behind the wall. Soundstage is very, very wide considering the excellent imaging. However, the ‘04s that I listened to at Marvin’s sounded more open and airy. The soundstage seemed to extend from sidewall to sidewall to the ceiling. Although I think placing them with no toe-in would open them up more without sacrificing imaging too much, I’m pleased enough with the sound not adjust placement further. In the end, the 04s in HT simply ROCK in their current set-up playing 70% HT to 30% stereo, although music listening will probably increase as my kids age. Finally, I really love the 04’s “look”. Tall, slender cabinets with easy to clean “sock” and caps. The all-black look fits with our décor perfectly so even my wife is pleased. The small footprint allows for a normal arrangement of furniture, TV, etc… Again, my wife is happy. For the curious, my HT speaker set-up is all DefTech: 2004s at L/R main, ProCenter C2, ProMonitor 100s in L/R rear driven by a Yamaha A-V1105 receiver. I will soon upgrade my receiver and later on I plan to upgrade to a C/L/R 2000 at center and upgrade to ProMonitor 200s in the rear. Thus I can set my center and rears to “large” and feed them full range sound.

Strengths:
Superb sound Great value Great looking Plenty of bass without separate subwoofer Delivers wide soundstage with excellent imaging Accurate vocals! Will play very, very loud with quality amplification

Weaknesses:
Placement challenges in some rooms Difficult to stabilize properly Needs high-end electronics to really shine

Similar Products Used:
ADS 1090 Listened to AR, NHT, Polk, Klipsch, Infinity and others

Price Paid:  $1400.00 from barrets home theater

Summary:
These speakers really rock my world. It produces great mids and more than you expect bass frequency. They sound just smooth and blends whatever mode you are listening.

Strengths:
low bass frequency slim design

Weaknesses:
none so far

Similar Products Used:
bose 701 polk rt1000 infinity klipsch rf7

Price Paid:  $1500.00 from Audio Video

Summary:
Let me begin by saying I dont own these speakers, but I auditioned them at "Audio Video" a local dealer in my town. $1500. I listened for an hour or so, to a variety of CD''s. I now have Cerwin Vega RE 20 bookshelf speakers that cost about $400, so I figured these would simply blow me away. Reading reviews on here first, I expected to be simply blown away into a crystaline immersion into musical heaven. (perhaps exagerated) But I really wasnt that impressed. They were "Good" no doubt, but as much as I wanted to convince myself these were the speakers the salesman said they were, I just couldnt convince myself! Im not really a knowledgable audiophile, who''s auditioned many great speakers... but something in these seemed lacking. They didnt immerse me into a lifelike audio experience, closing my eyes I couldnt be fooled into thinking it was a real concert or a real person singing. At times they were fairly "boomy", like some off brand you might find at a Best Buy. They subwoofer seemed to lack some refinement overall. The only real positive thing I could say about these speakers is that they would be good only for home theater maybe. I watched Saving Private Ryan on DVD, and was fairly impressed. These speakers truly surround you with sound, which is good. Unfortunately, not good sound. And this was on a $1800 Yamaha THX receiver.

Strengths:
Soundstage, Immersion into music. Good looking speakers, maybe consider for a HT. probably not

Weaknesses:
-Too much $$ for what you get. -Lack of pristine clarity. -Sub sounds too "boomy"

Price Paid:  $1400.00 from stereoland

Summary:
First of all,This is a review for the 2004TL. I first heard def tech at my friends house and I was amazed at the sound quality of the 2006TL''s which he had at the time(since traded them for the 2002TL''s..WOW!!!!). anyway, I don''t understand why anyone that has some knowledge of good speakers doesn''t realize that these spaekers have a "break in " period. I know this and I was still a bit Freaked out when I fired these speakers up out of the box, but after only about 20 hours they sound 100% better.the bass opened up nicely:). It can be boomy if you crank it all the way up but so can the best subwoofer(that''s why it has an adjustment).Overall the bass is deep and tight and in my opinion sounds great. As far as the depth of these speakers, I find myself listening to music in stereo only! it sounds awesome!I had some older Infinity''s with a Boston Acoustics sub which sounded pretty good but usually sounded fuller in certain DSP modes. I know some people hate DSP but there is really no need for them with the Def Tech''s.However, when wathching movies, eapecially in DTS, the scene storming the beach from Saving Private Ryan makes you feel as if you were on the beach with them!The couch vibrates like you are in the boat!(the room is about 12x30). In my opinion, for the price, these speakers are fantastic,maybe you can do better but it will take alot of time and patience and then, you can''t do much better for the price.It may be the best $1400 I have ever spent.

Strengths:
Bass, overall sound quality, price!

Weaknesses:
Laquered top(sometimes doesn''t fit right)

Similar Products Used:
none similar overall