Test report, P l u s, Fast facts – Atlantic Technology System 4200 User Manual

Page 2

54 MAY 2004 SOUND & VISION

www.soundandvisionmag.com

the left and slightly behind the front left
speaker.

The 4200 LR front speakers are true sat-

ellites, not intended for use without a sub-
woofer, so I began with plain stereo, but
with the subwoofer hooked up, too. What I
initially heard was a “close,” dry sound
with a hint of male-voice chestiness — that
gave me a chance to start trying out those
C.O.R.E. controls.

A bit of experimentation told me that the

4200 LRs are sensitive to vertical place-
ment. I adjusted the stands so that their
tweeters were about even with my seated
ear height and switched on the Boundary
Compensation switches, since they stood
only 18 inches to either side of my TV. The
midrange became more open and relaxed,

while the treble added significant air and
life to the mix. And that touch of “hoo”
caused by reflections from the screen dis-
appeared almost entirely.

The Atlantic Tech system punched out

multichannel music with finesse and im-
pressive impact. The DVD-Audio mix of
Donald Fagen’s Kamakiriad solo album is
an amazingly pristine production in both
its recording and performance (almost an-
tiseptic), and the System 4200 showed its
virtues to a tee: preternatural clarity — es-
pecially noticeable on drums and guitars
— and huge dynamic range.

The System 4200 also proved to be one

of those speaker systems that sounds better
the louder you play it. I found myself lis-
tening to Fagen’s “Snowbound” repeatedly
at ever-increasing volumes, reaching a lev-
el that audibly sweated the front-speaker
trio some 10 dB above THX reference lev-
el — and that’s loud.

One advantage of a system that’s prop-

erly designed as a sub/sat layout from the
ground up is that you don’t have to fuss

with crossover and level settings. I set the
642 SB subwoofer’s Lowpass switch to
Bypass, skipping its onboard crossover in
favor of my preamp/processor’s, which I
set to 80 Hz. After I balanced levels, the
system sounded perfectly integrated. The
languid, but incredibly solid bass on “Snow-
bound” was deliciously rich and punchy,
yet with the superb definition and “quick-
ness” that only an excellent sub and an ex-
pertly matched sub/sat system can achieve.

The Fagen DVD also provided perfect

test material for comparing the 4200 SR’s
bipole and dipole modes. The verdict: bi-
pole wins. I still prefer dipole surrounds for
movie sound and naturalistically recorded
music, but with mixes that put discrete ma-
terial in the surround channels — like a
hand-percussion shaker in the right rear —
bipole clearly sounded better.

With this musical introduction, I expect-

ed nothing short of great movie sound
from the System 4200, and I wasn’t disap-
pointed. Playback was about as seamlessly
integrated, solidly spatial, and colorful and
dynamic as I could want.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Se-

crets is a first-rate 5.1-channel production
with just about every surround sound vir-
tue. Through the sequence of the flying car
catching up to the train, I was struck by
how little the timbre of the engine’s pop-
pop-popping changed as it swooped from
channel to channel and position to posi-
tion. The quidditch match a bit later might
as well have been designed as a home the-
ater demo: the whizzing balls and brooms,
crashes and impacts were all spectacularly
present and three-dimensional. And in the

P L U S

Outstanding multichannel performance.

Impressive bass, full-range dynamics.

Bipole/dipole-selectable surrounds.

Changeable side panels.

M I N U S

Big subwoofer.

Center-speaker base a little too high.

TEST REPORT

Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets could have been designed as
a home theater demo disc, and the
Atlantic Technology System 4200 met
every wizardly challenge.

4200 LR

4200 C

4200 SR

642 SB

(front L/R)

(center)

(surround)

(subwoofer)

TWEETER

1-inch dome

two 1-inch domes

—

MIDRANGE

two 5

⁄

-inch cones

two 5

⁄

-inch cones two 4

⁄

-inch cones

—

WOOFER

—

12-inch cone

ENCLOSURE

sealed

POWER

—

300 watts

INPUTS/

gold-plated

RCA line-level I/O;

OUTPUTS

multiway binding

level, low-pass

AND

posts; Boundary

posts; Bipole/

controls; normal/

CONTROLS

Compensation

Dipole switch

bypass, phase-

and treble

invert, and auto-

switches

power switches

DIMENSIONS

8 x 15 x 9

⁄

x 8

⁄

x 8

11 x 12

⁄

x 7

⁄

19 x 21 x 18

⁄

(WxHxD)

inches

WEIGHT

14 pounds

16 pounds

11 pounds

65 pounds

FINISH

maple, gloss

black or white;

maple, gloss

black, or matte

metal-screen grille

black, or matte

silver side panels;

metal-screen grille

black cloth grille

PRICE

$930 a pair (plus

$550 (plus side

$900 a pair

$920 (plus side

Total: $3,500 in

side panels; $70

panels; $50 in

panels; $80 in

maple, $3,600 in

in maple, $105 in

maple, $75 in

maple, $120 in

black or silver

black or silver)

MANUFACTURER

Atlantic Technology, www.atlantictechnology.com; 617-762-6300

fast facts