slightly angled toward the listening posi-
tion (for optimum stereo imaging), they
are surprisingly inconspicuous.
Lifting off the top plate and pulling down
the grille sock reveals the driver comple-
ment. On the upper half of the front panel
is a pair of 6 3/4-inch cone woofers (their
effective cone diameter is about 5 1/2
inches each) vertically flanking a 1-inch
aluminum-dome tweeter in the popular
D’Appolito configuration. The tweeter is
offset slightly to one side of the panel’s
vertical midline, which may have been
done as much to minimize the spacing
between the woofers as for any imaging
benefit. The woofers have cast-magne-
sium baskets and compliant rubber sur-
rounds.
The rear panel holds an identical trio of
drivers, located directly behind the front
array. Definitive Technology says the
cabinet interior is divided into separate
enclosure volumes that give the front and
rear sections slightly different low-fre-
quency cutoff frequencies, apparently to
compensate for the closer proximity of
the rear drivers to the wall. The rear
tweeter is also offset, in the opposite
direction from the front tweeter.
The lower half of the cabinet is devot-
ed to the subwoofer and its 300-watt
amplifier. The subwoofer itself is a mas-
sive 15-inch driver with an actual cone
diameter of 13 3/4 inches, mounted on
the side of the cabinet. Designed as mir-
ror-image pairs, the BP 2000 can be used
with the subwoofers facing either out-
ward or inward (the latter is recommend-
ed because of the slightly increased cou-
pling between the two subwoofers).
Incidentally, when the speaker’s top is
removed and the cabinet edges exposed,
you can see that the side holding the sub-
woofer is 1 1/4 inches thick, compared to
1 inch for the front and rear panels and
3/4 inch for the other side. A knuckle-rap
test suggested that the structure is about
as rigid as a brick or a cinder block.
Although we could not see inside the
enclosure, it is evidently strongly braced.
The bottom of the cabinet contains the
subwoofer amplifier and its associated
crossover components. Covering the bot-
tom 15 inches of the rear of the enclosure
is a metal panel with input connectors,
amplifier heat sinks, a power switch,
a line fuse, a sensitivity switch, and
knobs for adjusting the bass equalization
and level.
The BP 2000 offers a variety of con-
nection options. It has three pairs of five-
way binding posts (labeled HIGH, MID,
and LOW), which accept single or dual
banana plugs, wires, or lugs and are nor-
mally connected in parallel by gold-plat-
ed metal jumpers. The simplest connec-
tion uses only the wires that would nor-
mally connect your amplifier or receiver
to conventional speakers. You can also
biwire or triwire the speakers, with sepa-
rate cables to each section, by removing
the appropriate jumpers. Yet another pos-
sibility is to drive the subwoofer portion
of the system from the line-level outputs
of a preamplifier equipped with two sets
of full-range line outputs (or Y adaptors
could be used to turn each of a single set
of outputs into two). Each speaker has a
RCA phone-jack input to its subwoofer
amplifier that can accept a full-range sig-
nal and pass it through the speaker’s
internal low-pass filter.
A twelve-page instruction manual
describes the procedure for setting the
subwoofer controls. The criteria for final
adjustment are purely subjective, based
on when it sounds “right” to you. In addi-
tion to the usual level control, there is a
low-frequency equalization control for
fine-tuning the balance between the low
bass (under 50 Hz) and the upper bass
(50 to 100 Hz). The procedure is not
complicated, and the instructions point
out that (as with separate subwoofers)
there is no absolutely “correct” setting.
You are encouraged to experiment with
the settings to discover the one that best
suits your own taste. Normally the sub-
woofers of the two speakers will be set
identically, but the manual points out that
you can compensate for asymmetrical
positioning of the left and right speakers
(which could affect their low-bass perfor-
mance) by using different subwoofer
level and equalization settings for them.
Although the speakers have subwoofer
power switches, there is no problem in
leaving them energized continuously,
since they use very little power at idle
(we never shut them off during several
weeks of use). The heat sinks never
became more than faintly warm, even
after extended operation at high volume
levels.
For the most part, we were able to test
the BP 2000’s as we do all speakers. The
averaged room response of the left and
right speakers, based on a swept warble-
tone signal, was exceptionally uniform,
with several minor ripples of less than 3
dB. That smoothness was verified by an
MLS quasi-anechoic measurement. Our
measurements closely resembled the
response curves supplied to us by
Definitive Technology, which were made
using a totally different procedure and in
a very different environment.
All the response curves exhibited a
series of small ripples, with a peak-to-
peak amplitude of 3 to 4 dB, across the
range from 300 Hz to 20 kHz. Our close-
miked measurement of the subwoofer’s
response agreed exactly with the manu-
facturer’s data, including the effect of its
equalizer control. In its middle position,
which we used for listening and measure-
ments, the subwoofer response was ±3
dB from 23 to 100 Hz.
In the range between 100 and 300 Hz,
measurements become somewhat
SPECIAL TEST REPORT
“truly prodigious bass extension
and output capability.”
“The Definitive Technology BP
2000 is the first speaker I have
been able to audition in my own
familiar surroundings that has
given me that special thrill that
usually costs ten or more times
its price to obtain.”
“And I hate to pass up a bargain
like this one!”
