Definitive Technology ProCinema 800 SV1106 - Manual (Page 2)

vocals and a pleasant, easy-to-listen-to treble that was
open and fairly airy without excess bit or sizzle.
Clean, well-recorded CDs like Ani DiFranco’s
Reprieve were very pleasing and surprisingly high-
end-sounding, with modest depth, some genuine
transparency, and considerable more weight and
impact from the below-50-Hz region than I’d expect-
ed. The solo acoustic bass was tight and realistically
woody, but still had plenty of heft for its occasional
ventures below 60 Hz or so. The Definitive system
also displayed arresting clarity on stuff like the explo-
sively compressed, crystalline Dobro (or whatever
that is) that enters, startlingly, a bit later.
The ProMonitors (and ProCenter, for that matter)
could play cleanly far louder than expected — about
as loud as plenty of much larger small-bookshelf
speakers I’ve heard. In fact, their tweeters ran out of
headroom (resulting in hardness and “shriekiness”) at
about the same time as their woofers (flatulating, and
“tup-tuping” on transients), which is quite rare
among mini-sats of this size. And since Definitive’s
tweeter is no slouch, this was rather loud indeed.
MOVIE PERFORMANCE
The little Definitives’ performance on even demand-
ing soundtracks was, if anything, even more pleasing.
Collateral may be no Citizen Kane, but it’s an
expertly made movie in technical terms, and the
ProMonitors handled it with relative ease. From
moderate to fairly loud volume — say, about 6 dB
below commercial-cinema reference level — I
never once came out of the story because of a
sonic shortcoming.
The ProCenter did a great job on dialogue, and as
the system’s music-and-effects keystone player (the
center is always the most important speaker in any
movie-surround system). It made an excellent tonal
match to the ProMonitors, producing a tight, well-
integrated “screenstage.” On the other hand, it
demonstrated moderately audible tonal changes
when heard from more than about 30° off-axis,
becoming slightly muffled and hollow-sounding on
many male voices (a common effect of “lobing”
response from closely spaced dual woofer/
midranges). And like the ProMonitors, the center
proved quite sensitive to vertical aiming: As I’ve
mentioned, to keep sounds evenly bright, I had to tilt
it up a good bit on my low stand.
I was also very happy with the ProMonitors at the
rear corners. When angled well back to reflect sound
from the rear wall as I’ve described, the little 800s
worked particularly well for plain, non-dipole 2-way
surrounds. (Truly small 2-ways like these always
seem to work well in this configuration, probably
because their small-diameter mid/woofers are suffi-
ciently wide-dispersion to avoid the “beaming” that
might otherwise help the ear localize them.)
Despite its diminutive, roughly 6-gallon form
(smaller than a Texan’s lid!), the ProSub 800 proved
a worthy support. This little sub produced ample, rea-
sonably even output considerably lower than many
inexpensive 8-inchers (about 35 Hz or so), rolling off
fairly quickly below that point. And it played unex-
pectedly loudly and cleanly: The Definitive would
become a bit “grumbly” at very high levels, but
thanks no doubt to intelligently engineered limiting
circuits, I had to push it to ludicrous settings well
beyond THX-reference from the overall system to
elicit gross rattles or thumps. It had plenty of bottom
for thumping of Collateral’s climactic club scene,
which indeed the full system delivered in fine, loud-
ly enveloping, smoothly claustrophobic fashion. That
said, the ProSub 800 doesn’t have the bottom-octave
grunt for fully cinematic deep-bass — the near-infra-
sonic content of a T.rex footfall or the underpinnings
of the ram’s-horn calls of those War of the World’s
thingies — but it does impressively just the same.
(Reality check: This is a $399 subwoofer. And there’s
a 10-inch ProSub 1000 [$499] that might well do bet-
ter still.)
Bottom Line
This is a marvelously high-value system for smaller
rooms — and even some not-all-that-small ones. If
you’ve simply go to have really small and (by serious
home theater standards) really cheap speakers, I
don’t think you can do much better.
test reports
Definitive Technology speaker system
Key Features
11433 Cronridge Dr. • Owings Mills, MD 21117
(410) 363-7148
Visit us at www.definitivetech.com
Test Bench
Full lab results at soundandvisionmag.com/deftech800.
This system has smooth
response blemished primarly
by a depression centered just
below 1 kHz. The subwoofer’s
high-frequency response to
150 Hz mates well with the
limited bass of the upper-
channel speakers. It has good
low-end extension for a small
sub, delivering true 25-Hz
output, but only at 76 dB,
revealing its dynamic
limitations. It averaged 95
dB from 25 to 62 Hz, and put
out 103.7 dB max SPL at 62
Hz, all at less than 10%
distor tion.
— Tom Nousaine
“pleasant, easy-to-listen-
to ... open and airy ...
plenty of heft”
“a tight, well-integrated
‘screenstage’”
“played unexpectedly
loudly and cleanly”
“I don’t think you can
do very much better.”
S & V
S SO OU UN ND D & & V VIIS SIIO ON N NOVEMBER 2006
soundandvisionmag.com
ProMonitors 800
:: ($250/pair) 1-in. dome tweeter; 4 1 /
2
-in.
mid/woofer; 4 1 /
2
-in. passive radiator;
8 3 /
8
-in. high; 4 lb.
ProCenter 1000
:: ($200/pair) 1-in. dome tweeter; (2) 4 1 /
2
-in.
mid/woofers; (2) 4 1 /
2
-in. passive
radiators; 5-in. high; 8 lb.
ProSub 800
:: ($399) 8-in. driver; 8-in. passive radiator;
300-watt RMS amplifier; 12 1 /
2
x 14 1 /
4
x
13 1 /
2
-in.; 41 lb.
:: Finish: Gloss-black, matte-white, silver.
Subwoofer: black ash or white vinyl.
DEFINITIVETECH.COM :: 410-363-7148