Definitive Technology BPVX Brochure

G E A R G U I D E
Definitive Technology
BPVX/P Surround Speaker
A speaker that Tony Montana would definitely love.
By Jeff Cherun
"
I loved these speakers so much that I'm definitely
going to replace my existing surround speakers
"the rear
Power is considered to be very
important in our society. Tony
of the room
Montana's immortal words in
really came
Scarface said it all: "First you get
the money, then you get the power,
alive, as you
then you get the woman."
could instantly Of course, Tony was talking about
a different kind of power than what
hear the bass
you or I would be interested in
(drug-kingpin power is very differ-
... it's pretty
ent from a nine-to-fiver's kind of
amazing
power), but possessing even a
minute amount of power can elec-
what's back
trify one's self-esteem. Granted,
there"
Tony's zeal for power led to his
coked-out paranoia and ultimate
demise, but other types of power
can, in fact, be quite healthy.
A
Definitive Technology is a com-
A. The BPVX/P
pany that understands the notion
is an on-wall
of power very well. Having offered
surround speaker
loudspeakers with built-in powered
with a bipolar
subwoofers not long after the dawn
design and a built-in
of home theater, the folks at
powered subwoofer.
Definitive understand what pow-
ered speakers can do for perfor-
mance. Good engineering plus
power equals plenty of fun. While
this deviates from conventional
loudspeaker design, most of the
stalwart hi-fi speaker manufactur-
ers have switched over to this way
of "powered" thinking.
First in Definitive Technology's
history were the BP 2000 tower
speakers; later came their mam-
moth siblings, the BP 3000TLs—
with built-in 1,000-watt sub-
woofers. These immense speakers
were a statement of form and func-
tion melding into one practical
"we both were
amazed with
the clarity and
tremendous
force with which
these speakers
moved the home
theater's air ..."
result, offering a ton of bang for the
buck. They also allowed the Dolby
Digital/DTS requirement that there
be full-bandwidth loudspeakers at
every channel to be practically
instituted. Since the 5.1 spec
asserts that a full-bandwidth signal
go to all five channels and a limited
"bass" channel go to the LFE "0.1"
track, you could theoretically have
six subwoofers in a system.
Although this sounds like it could
perhaps be too much bass for one
room, it isn't, since all the subs
wouldn't necessarily be playing at
once. At the same time that they
released the BP 3000TL's to critical
acclaim, Definitive came out with
their C/L/R 3000 center speaker,
also with a powered subwoofer. Since
HIGHLIGHTS
• Tons of brute force on
movies and music
• Coherent, matched sound
between speakers
then, we've been waiting for their
solution to the problem of a surround
speaker to use when a typical tower
speaker just won't do. Well, I'm here
to tell you that the wait is officially
over—it's here.
The BPVX/P is an on-wall sur-
round loudspeaker, with a bipolar
design, featuring four cast-basket
6.5-inch bass/midrange drivers (two
on each side), as well as two 1-inch
pure-aluminum-dome tweeters. The
built-in 125-watt amplifier drives
two of the 6.5-inch drivers, and this
combination results in performance
similar to what you'd expect from a
regular subwoofer. Of course, a con-
ventional amplifier is still needed to
power the passive portion of the
loudspeaker. Like the rest of
Definitive's products, these are
not powered loudspeakers in their
entirety—just the bass portion
is powered.
"a ton of bang
for the buck"
Aesthetically, the BPVX/P is quite
good-looking. To me, the appeal of
Definitive's products has always
been that they're quite diminutive.
They tend to visually disappear into
"