althair

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $200.00 from tag sale

Summary:
I picked up a pair of these in pristine condition for a song recently at a tag sale, and tragically dropped one of the high gloss top caps while putting them in the car (awkward to move and awkward to wire up due to fabric sleeve covering all sides of speaker and connections on speaker bottom) - result was a small chipped corner and no longer pristine speakers. Anyway, all the trouble was worth it, although I am very limited as to placement and imagine they may sound better yet when I have more room to experiment with. I love great music, classical to rock, opera, and the HT experience. However, I don't claim an audiophile's ear and in fact have very limited hearing in the high end. But I've always loved having an impressive performance system, if not an elite one, and the speakers definitely sound magnificent. I don't sense the solid base that so many speak of, but don't find it deficient either. Still, a sub seems called for (the company may agree since thier new line contains built in subs and is otherwise little changed). Anyway, trust other reviewers with better ears, better placement, and better equipment for a sound-er review! These are attractive speakers and work nicely as part of a sort of wall of equipment that's all about the same height and color--wide screen HD rear projection mitsubishi, dark glass front audio rack to left of that, then one def tech tower to left and right of those, and just enough space left along a rather narrow wall for my jbl dps-12 sub (with which I've not had the problems others have experienced. So a literal wall of sight and sound. Unfortunately, this crowds the left front def tech, leaving it only about six inches from the wall--which could limit the ability of the rear drivers to reflect out properly (to the right the stero cabinet and rear projection tv lock it in). I replaced my front speakers (jbl sva 1500's) with the def tech's and do feel I made a significant improvement musically. I was torn though, the sva's were rereleased by jbl as ht4's and were solid performers to begin with, but these have twice the drivers and fifty reviews by you folks saying they're five out of five; so considering I spent one fifth the money I'm more than happy. I'm using bose outdoor 151's as my rears, and rigged up a bose double cube as a sixth channel directly behind me. I'm still using the jbl sva center as my center. These are all run off a yamaha htr 5550 receiver. Guess there's room for improvement there from what I read in the reviews about more power and quality bringing out the best in these speakers, but they're more efficent than the jbl's were and sound fine as is. It's a bit of a shame b/c I bought a vintage sansui au-g99x amplifier at another tag sale recently and have it set up as a "stereo" upstairs. It's a lot more powerful and it would be fun to hear it with the def techs, but as I said earlier, they're hard to move and hard to wire, so I'm not bringing them up or it down, since I need surround sound in my home theater. The sansui is currently hooked up to a pair of rogers ls2 speakers and an audiosource sw50 subwoofer, which is a very sweet set up. I also have a turntable on that system, a denon dp60L, which makes the upstairs stereo probably fairly audiophile level stuff. I can't plug tag sales and garage sales enough for those of you on a budget: audiophile turntable--$50. Def tech's $200. rogers spks--$50. Bose 151's--$7. Double bose cube--$20. Sansui vintage amp--$50. Not that I find these deals every weekend, but over the last few years I've gotten a lot of fairly high end equipment for really low prices. Anyway, just wanted to thank all of you for writing the 50 or so aforementioned reviews. You can imagine how excited I felt, buying these speakers blind (well, deaf--I bought them without auditoning them) when I got home and read reviews by people saying they had paid closer to a grand and thought they were comperable to speakers costing many times that much.

Strengths:
sound great, look great, tall but narrow shape and black fabric exterior make them blend well with my fairly typical wide screen/stereo rack "wall".

Weaknesses:
Fabric cover is slippy-slidy to handle, and wiring on the bottom of the speaker is a true hassle, especially in a difficult to reach space. Oh, and tops come off easily, a defect if you don't know it and drop one. I've hidden the flaw (tiny) in a rear corner where only spiders will see it, but resale was hurt and a replacement costs $109 plus shipping, not that I'm planing to resell my steal.

Similar Products Used:
JBL SVA 1500 JBL HLS 8 Allison 4

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Price Paid:  $1354.00 from david rutledge audio

Summary:
Wells it's been 7 months now and they are sounding better than ever i originaly bought these i bought then blind without even listening to them when i first got them home hooked them up they sounded wierd but david said they will break in and you notice a big diff i took his word for it,that was a understatment and a half the sound now is unbelievable and pure crystal clear highs butter smooth mids and in HT they can not be beat at any price point my listening consists of 65% HT and 35% music and they are equally awesome in music especially sacd and two channel you can't go wrong with these speaker's i can compare them to 3000 and 4000 dollar speaker's and these blow them away with ease i have tried them once with a bass cd just to see if they would bottom out nope at -28 on my v555es they did not even budge i even turned of my sub during this test the pf15tl they pushed the same amount of air as my sub did they are unbelievable sounding when you push them a little bit and no loss of sound what so ever at reference levels but all in all i would not trade these speaker's for anything out there no matter the price, and placement is very crucial with these babie's and if your thinking that bi-polar is not the way to go that's what i thought now i am a firm believer of what that means now would not go back to direct radiating ever.......

Strengths:
very beautiful looking awesome sound for this price point,crystal clear highs, unreal mids,bass that comes out of this speaker should be outlawed and the price.

Weaknesses:
have not found any or heard any

Similar Products Used:
b&w, paradigm, boston, jbl and then some.80% of these speaker's cant even compete

Price Paid:  $950.00 from used

Summary:
These BP30 speakers replaced the BP10 front speakers in my hometheater system. MY BP10 speakers are the original model with the fabric tweeter. The BP30 has more extended highs, better soundstage and superior low frequency response. The BP30 blends seamlessly with my CLR2000 center. In addition, Definive Technology at no charge provided spikes, side extensions and an owner's manual, even though these were used speakers.

Strengths:
Excellent performance in home theater and very good in stereo. Small footprint, but very stable with the side extensions added. Even better value when purchased used. Excellent customer service from Definitive Technology.

Weaknesses:
The gloss black caps are attractive, but are susceptible to scratches. Fortunately, these can be replaced if necessary.

Similar Products Used:
Definitive Technology BP 10, BP 8B, Polk Audio Monitor 10 and Boston Acoustic T830.

Price Paid:  $1400.00

Summary:
i purchased the bp30's after experimenting with vandersteen 2Ce's, paradigm monitor 7's, bose 701's, jbl, and polk. since purchasing the bp-30's, i have mixed feeling about them. as far as home theater, they perform very well. however, listening to music, with a Bryston 4B ST amp, and the bp-25 Bryston preamp, my old yamaha receiver (used as a control amp), and a Marsh P2000 preamp, i THINK that i may have made a mistake in buying the bp30's. Listening to various types of music, from, Pink Floyd, Santana, Frank Sinatra, Patsy Cline, Rush, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, Beatles,Dave Brubeck Quartet (Time Out, Take Five), and even some Classical, I am hearing some muddy bass, at loud levels, and some shrillness at the high end. i am not operating at clipping, and the speakers appear to thrive with high powered amps. i think, perhaps, that the speakers would do better in a large, open room, in excess of 20' x 40' or so. vaulted ceilings would probably help. so, if you are going to use these speakers in the average living room or rec room (mine is 17' x 28'), they might be too big.

Strengths:
Good for home theater, high-powered amplifiers, and large rooms. good customer service.

Weaknesses:
bi-polar design may not be suitable for music lovers, especially if the room is too small. difficult to place in some areas, as they need to be, in my opinion, about 24"-30" away from the back wall.

Price Paid:  $1050.00 from Audio Connection

Summary:
I've had DefTech for several years now and upgraded to these from the BP8 when I bought an Aragon 7 channel amp and Proceed AVP2 Pre/Pro. For Home Theater I don't think they can be beat at any price in most rooms. For music I had a boomy bass problem initially that after some experimentation was tamed with various crossover adjustments and moving the sub by a few inches. I must say that this problem was not evident with the Yamaha DSP-A1 I used prior to the electronics upgrade (Nor was alot of the music I was missing present either). I was obviously told by my "Audiophile" friends that I needed "much" better speakers to go with my electronics and the doubt did creep in, so I auditioned in my home M&K 850's, B&W CDM9's and Joseph Audio something or others. I also listened with my own music at the dealers to Revel performa M20 and Martin Logan Aeon. All of these speakers had certain favorable aspects, but I focused on the details. All of the details were present(given my setup) in most of these speakers. The only differnce was in the presentation and I decided the presentation of the DefTechs was what "I" liked best. Do not hesitate to buy these speakers for serious music listening and as I said before, I don't think they can be beat for home Theater.

Strengths:
Enveloping soundstage, Unmatched highs (for my taste), separation of details, price/performance ratio

Weaknesses:
Can't be placed too close to the front wall.

Similar Products Used:
Above mentioned as well as High End JBL and the old but "GREAT" DBX soundfiels series.