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in a storm and ditches somewhere in the Pacific. Hanks,
the lone survivor, washes up on an idyllic deserted atoll,
where he spends several years in increasing despair until
he lashes together a raft and sets out to sea.
Randy Thom's sound design is one of the most com-
plex and varied in recent memory. Even before the plane
crash, the various noises on the aircraft sounded authen-
tic. (I should know—I've flown about a million miles.)
The way the PowerMonitor system reproduced the mon-
tage of sound during the crash might be a little too real-
istic for those with a weak heart. Layer upon layer of
wind noise, engine roar, cockpit alarms, shouting crew
members, and rolling carts and loose cargo careening
around filled my home theater, yet each strand of sound
was clear enough to seem real.
As the plane dove toward the sea, the sounds became
PowerMonitor
700
(front L/R)
TWEETER
1-inch dome
MIDRANGE
5
1
/
-inch cone
4
SUBWOOFER
8-inch cone
ENCLOSURE
vented
POWER
250 watts
(woofer only)
INPUTS AND
gold-plated multiway
OUTPUTS
binding posts, LFE input
DIMENSIONS
6
7
/
x 16
3
/
x 14
8
4
(WxHxD)
inches
WEIGHT
32 pounds
FINISH
black laquer and caps,
black knit grille
PRICE
$599 each
Total: $3,196
MANUFACTURER
Definitive Technology, Dept. S&V, 11433 Cronridge Dr., Owings Mills, MD
21117; phone, 410-363-7148; Web, www.definitivetech.com
louder yet remained distinct rather
than a blur of noise. Every distress
call spoken into the microphone by
the co-pilot amid the cacophony was
clearly audible, as was the ticking of
Hanks's pocket watch. The sub-
woofer more than justified its exis-
tence when the plane hit the water.
At the other end of the spectrum, the
high-pitched whine of the engine
turbines drilled into my ears as if GE
had dropped one in the backyard.
All in all, this system did an impres-
sive job of conveying every audible
bit of this catastrophe.
If white noise provides a good
test of frequency-response smooth-
ness, then the nearly constant surf
through the middle portion of Cast
Away proved that the Definitive sys-
tem's response is even and its speakers are tonally well
matched. Whenever the surf subsided, subtleties
revealed themselves—the creaking of palm trees sway-
ing in the breeze, the thunk of a falling coconut.
But the human voice is the ultimate test of speaker
accuracy because we're all intimately familiar with it.
While I've never personally spoken with Tom Hanks,
the Def Tech system seemed to reproduce his voice in a
natural, neutral way. In general, voices spilled from these
speakers with clarity.
I replayed the crash scene repeatedly with and
without the PF15
700 system on its own acquitted itself with authority.
But adding the subwoofer delivered the floor vibration
and visceral kick that made me feel I was in the middle
of the disaster.
The Definitive Technology system did equal justice to
music. However, I found that turning the woofer control
on the PM 700s down a couple of notches from the
movie setting provided a more accurate and appealing
sound. I confronted the system with a warhorse record-
fast facts
C/L/R 2000
(center)
1-inch dome
two 1-inch domes
two 5
1
/
-inch cones
4
8-inch cone
two 5
vented
150 watts
(woofer only)
gold-plated multiway binding
gold-plated multiway
posts, optional full-range
line-level woofer input
1
/
6
3
/
x 23
1
/
x 14
1
/
14
8
4
2
8
inches
42 pounds
black laquer or cherry
woodgrain black or white
end caps, black knit grille
vinyl, black knit grille
$799 each ($899 cherry)
Tom Hanks never gave up in Cast Away, and neither did the
Definitive Technology speakers.
+ subwoofer. The PowerMonitor
TL
+
BP2X
PF15
TL
(surround)
(subwoofer)
—
—
—
1
/
-inch cones
15-inch cone
4
vented
vented
—
500 watts
speaker-level inputs
binding posts
and outputs, LFE Input,
line-level inputs and
high-pass outputs
1
/
x 19
1
/
x 6
17
1
/
x 17 x 17
5
/
2
4
4
8
inches
inches
11 pounds
54 pounds
black ash vinyl,
black knit grille
$250 each
$699 each
ed in Dolby Digital 5.1, Richard Strauss's Thus Spoke
Zarathustra performed by the Dallas Symphony con-
ducted by Andrew Litton on the Delos DVD Space
+ helped make those
Spectacular. While the PF15
TL
rumbling pipe-organ notes at the opening palpable, even
without the sub the system produced enough low bass to
impressively recreate the ambience of Meyerson Center
in Dallas, transforming my theater into a concert hall.
With the volume set to my maximum tolerance, the
sound seemed effortless, without the expected rise in dis-
tortion or speaker breakup. I heard imposing monoliths,
but all I saw were bookshelf speakers.
To round things out, I spun the new CD, Under
American Skies (Appleseed), by Tom Paxton and Anne
Hills, a folk duet. I've heard Tom and Anne perform live
and recorded them innumerable times. Playing this
recording on the pair of PowerMonitor 700s brought
them into the room, with highly accurate vocal repro-
duction.
Next I played Suzanne Buirgy's The View from Here
(Atune). This full-throated pop vocalist also entered my
room with flawless imaging. I tired of jumping up to
confirm that the center speaker was off and eventually
turned it on its face. Finally, acoustic guitarist Badi
Assad's CD Rhythms (Chesky) tested the transient
response and damping of these speakers, which articu-
lated her artistry with definition and body.
You'll be hard pressed to find another $3,200 home
theater speaker system that delivers better sound than
this Definitive Technology setup, and you could reduce
that ticket to $2,500 by forgoing the subwoofer — bass
performance without the sub was that good. The com-
pact PowerMonitor 700s and their well-chosen compan-
ion speakers provide big sound while fitting in small
spaces where larger systems would be obtrusive or
impractical. No matter where you listen, they can trans-
port you to your own tropical island.
Excerpted from the PowerMonitor 700 Speaker System Review, Sound & Vision
Magazine, October 2001.
11433 Cronridge Dr. • Owings Mills, MD 21117 • (410)363-7148
Visit us at www.definitivetech.com
S&V
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