BP7000
SC
s’ soundstage is second to none. If given space, and
they do need space, the BP7000
SC
s’ soundstage can and will
best my longstanding reference, the Magnepan 3.6s. Not only
did the BP7000
SC
s’ soundstage extend further and wider than
the 3.6s had, they had a firmer grip on the music even in the
furthest reaches of their capabilities than the 3.6s could ever
hope to achieve.
Moving onto the track “Deceptively Yours,” which is a bit more
up-tempo than the previous track, the BP7000
SC
s continued to
grace me with magic. The opening drum riff that heralds Norah’s
vocals was impressive. It’s not a bombastic fill, but it does burst
onto the scene about 10 seconds into the track and sets the tempo
for what’s to come. Once again, the subs proved most impressive,
giving the entire track a fullness you’d never know you were
missing until you incorporated subwoofers properly into your
system. The entire song had an extra injection of funk because
of the staggering bass performance of the BP7000
SC
s. I cranked
the volume to the edge of my listening envelope for the guitar
solo and found I could actually take it a little further, for the
BP7000
SC
s never became harsh or fatiguing. The bluesy guitar
riff was richly and rightly detailed with the appropriate amount of
warmth and subtle sonic twang that the BP7000
SC
s just had a ball
swanking out. It really was kind of cool and a bit refreshing, for
here I was basking in the glory of a speaker system that seemingly
gets it for the cost you’d expect to pay in tax alone for the
competition. And they do bass. Go figure.
I switched gears a bit and
opted for a recent Pearl Jam
release,
Riot Act
(Epic). The
opening to the track “I Am
Mine” was rife with detail.
The cymbals don’t sparkle
the way some recordings do,
but they were dead on for what
they were. You could tell the
cymbals were being beaten,
for the shimmer was replaced
with a hint of flat slap that
the tweeter of the BP7000
SC
s
reproduced beautifully. The
drums once again reigned supreme, lending a truer sense of
weight and scale to the somewhat tamer sound of today’s mature
Pearl Jam. Eddie Vedder’s vocals were dead center in the
soundstage and retained all the grit and rawness a decade of
screaming would hope to produce, yet there was a slightly greater
palpability to it all through the BP7000
SC
s’ warmer midrange.
The midrange characteristic never detracted from the tonality or,
I should say, tone and message of the song itself.
Moving onto the track “You Are,” the opening guitars were raw
and loaded with energy. Through the BP7000
SC
s, the guitars were
sure-footed and full-bodied, never becoming overtly harsh or
troublesome to the rest of the musical spectrum. Dynamically,
the BP7000
SC
s proved to be a tour de force. “You Are” features
several abrupt changes in tempo, usually followed by abrupt stops
altogether. Well, for such a large and seemingly menacing speaker
with its powered woofers, the BP7000
SC
s are as quick on their
feet as Ali. They can float like a butterfly and sting like a
sledgehammer to the skull. As unpleasant as that may sound to
some, trust me, you’ll get in line to experience it again and again.
All and all, be it rock and roll or ensemble jazz, the BP7000
SC
s
seemingly have no prejudices, they’re in the business of making
music ... and business is good. Real good.
For their next trick, I fed the
BP7000
SC
s some traditional DVD fare
by way of the Pixar juggernaut
Finding
Nemo
(Disney). Skipping ahead to the
sea turtle scenes, the BP7000
SC
s, with
some help from the matching center
and surrounds, proved as fun as they
were articulate. For starters, the sound
designers who recreated the ocean for
an all-virtual environment, which is
no easy task, were not robbed of their
efforts one iota by the BP7000
SC
s’
output. The sonic landscape was
immense, packing my room with all the subtlety that the ocean
had to offer and more, no doubt helped by the BP7000
SC
’s bipolar
design. Even the most subtle sonic cues, such as the characters
swimming against an oceanic current, were easily heard and
discerned from the film’s other elements. The off-screen dialogue
“Dynamically, the BP7000
SC
s seemingly
have no rivals, as they are able to turn on a
dime and go from zero to everything in the
blink of an eye”
Definitive Technology’s Complete BP7000
SC
Bipolar
SuperTower Home Theater System with the
C/L/R 3000 and a pair of BPVX/Ps.
“Definitive Technology has built one of the
single most impressive brands in the highly
competitive world of loudspeakers”
