Definitive Technology ProTower 400 Floorstanding Speakers
Definitive Technology ProTower 400 Floorstanding Speakers
USER REVIEWS
[Dec 02, 2006]
straley
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Bass, soundstage, highs, umm everthing we expect or want a speaker to exhibit. My walls are reverberating with the bass these things are kicking out in the other room at low volume levels(sweet).
Weakness:
Weakness's, NONE! WOW All I can say is WOW! I have been a poor stereo buff for years. Now I have the money but I research, and shop for the "BEST BANG FOR THE BUCK" I have never been satisfied with any main set of speakers I have owned. All of them(Bose, Bic, Klipsch etc.) have sounded good but under heavy thumping sounded overworked, and thrashy on the high end. I never understood really what a soundstage was until I fired up the DEF TECH'S. Now I know what a soundstage is. I demo'd The entire Klipsch line, Boston Acoustics, Paradigm's, and I'm sorry but dollar for dollar these DF 400's are hands down better sounding. None of the other speakers I listened to could be used without a good powered sub NONE! I was worried about purchasing these, I didn't know if the DF400's would have the presence of the Boston Acoustics, which were in my listening opinion clean and pure. My worries were unwarranted, the Def's have a beautiful clean sound with a greater presence than any of the forementioned speakers. Knowing what I know now I would buy these in a heartbeat for the 1000 dollars they retail for!
Similar Products Used: Bose 901's, 501's, 301's, Klipsch's several, Pioneer, Yamaha, Way too many crappy speakers. |
[Dec 24, 2002]
jw
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
overall design / tight bass
Weakness:
none here Needed a speaker which had a foward facing woofer(s) to compliment the bass responce of the bp2006tl s in my front channel, these were just the speakers to do the job. Unbelieable lows Similar Products Used: BP2006TL Front driven by MC2270 MAC PROTOWER 400 Front driven by MC2270 MAC CLR 2300 Front driven by MC2205 MAC CLR 2300 Rear Surr driven by MC2205 MAC CLR 2300 Center driven by MC2100 MAC MX132 |
[Jan 21, 2000]
Greg
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Produces a wonderful sound for the HT setup.
Weakness:
On many music CD's this speakers bass sounds very muddy and not capable of producing the lows that they claims. I recently went down to a local shop who sells this particular model to listen to them. We started off listening to some music CD's that he chose (the basic demostration CD's that all these people use). I listened to it and after about 2 minutes I knew I was not happy with this speaker. We then proceded on to listening to it on HT mode. He popped in The Matrix. It did sound better but the bass still sounded muddy to me. Not much but it was there. I was also skeptical about the matching center to these speakers. I did not feel it was your beefy center like some of the other brands that I have been looking at it the same price range. |
[Jan 26, 2000]
Kevin
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Excellent for both HT and Music, Good Looks, Quality Components and Construction
Weakness:
Speaker Grills I've been listening to these speakers with nothing but delight for the past 7 months. I don't claim to have "golden" ears or anything but I am very critical of my equipment and they sound great! -- I have never regretted this purchase. Bass is strong and even though these are direct-radiating speakers they have a spacious and airy sound to them. I listened to a lot of speakers with my favorite CDs and DVDs and I was most impressed by the Pro Towers. Luckily I wasn't disappointed when I got them home! They matched well with my Yamaha 995. Similar Products Used: Old speakers were JBL. Listened to Paradigm Monitor 9, 70P, 90P, B&W 601S2, Boston Acoustics VR965, and various Definitive Tech Bi-Polars |
[Mar 04, 2000]
Gary Bitters
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Huge sound stage, looks, awsome bass for music!
Weakness:
Port noise, chuffing sound! Let me start out by saying this is a follow up report on these speakers. I have had these Pro Tower 400s for about eight months now and I have just fallen in love with them! They sound so smooth. They are very revealing. If a CD is poorly recorded you will know it right away. Also they will reveal how good or bad your receiver is as well. They put out a huge sound stage with wonderful highs and warm midrange as well as great bass! However my room is 12x24 and opens to the kitchen in the rear of the room and opens to a hall in front. My walls are brick and I have wooden floors. All this means is I have a BASS HUNGRY ROOM! Now these speakers have a wonderful low end to them. The bass is tight and deep down to around 35hrz. More then enough Bass for music listening. How ever my problem with these speakers only comes into play when in Home Theater use. If these are your only bass source and you have to send all bass including LFE to the 400s you will run into some port noise problems with only Bass heavy DVD movies (Dances with wolves CH 12, Fith Element CH 1&2, Lost in Space, Soldier CH 8&9). I have a large room and have to turn up the bass nobs on the back sides to 10 or 11 o'clock to fill my room with satisfying bass for my ears. I called my dealer to tell him I thought that one of them was rattling, he gave me a new one. Well the problem was still there. I call another dealer and they said that they know about this problem and that it was do to an air leak from the LFE input on the inside of the speaker. They told me how to fix it. I took the speaker apart and used a hot glue gun on the back side of the LFE input. Well it helped the problem alot! Now that that was fixed I listend to the above listed DVD movie chapters and the sound didn't sound like a rattle any more but sounded like port chuffing sounds from the Trans slot bass port on the front bottom of the speaker. Well I turned the nobs down a bit, bought a Power Field 15TL which now handles all LFE bass and the port chuffing sounds went away. This is not a bad mark agains the speaker but just an warning that these speakers do not perform well with LFE info being sent to them! With all of this being said if you are having the same problem do not do the hot glue gun fix your self, make your dealer handle the repair. And buy a stand alone sub for LFE and you will be more then happy! Believe me if these speakers didn't sound so good I would have traded them for some thing eles along time ago! I love them, I have just found there limits thats all. Oh and if you want to take the grills off with out braking the tabs use a plastic spatula from the kitchen prying all around carefully. My system includes: Similar Products Used: Def Tech 2004s,Monitor 100s & 200s, Energy exl 15s, Bose AM-7s & AM-5s |
[Dec 28, 1999]
Dave
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Supprising bass, very crisp highs and solid midrange. Very good speaker for both for music and HT.
Weakness:
As mentioned before the grill / mounting tabs. I originally bought the ProTowers for the front and the ProMonitor 200s for the rears. One of the ProTowers (SUB AMP) went bad after about 3 weeks. It was replaced with no questions. I was looking for some speakers for my shop and decided to replaced the rears (ProMonitor 200s) with the ProTowers and move the 200s to my shop. The ProMonitor 200s are great speakers but with the ProTowers as rears you can really hear the difference on some of the "more explosive" soundtracks. I also currently have a PF15TL sub and with the 400s powered subs it really isn't required - BUT I wouldn't get rid of it. I am also using a Definitive CLR 2000 center channel. |
[Jan 17, 2000]
Alvin
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Very well balanced sound, good bass output from 6.5" drivers Great speakers - sound is natural and full, strong bass (adjustable output) from small package. Looks good, sounds great. Purchased a pair from Stereo Exchange in Manhattan for $1025. Would recommend these speakers over anything else at this price point. Similar Products Used: B&W2003 |
[Feb 28, 2000]
John Deidrich
Audio Enthusiast
These are excellent speakers for the money. Of course, you could spend more and get better speakers, but for the price, I can't think of a single thing wrong with these. |
[Dec 16, 1999]
Steven Mullen
Casual Listener
Strength:
Crisp and clear highs, booming lows I bought a DVD player (Sony 530D), so I figured I might as well go all the way and get a Dolby Digital reciever (Denon 1600) and surround speakers. (If you are thinking of doing this, stop thinking and go do it right now - the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound of a DVD is even more impressive than the picture.) My new speakers are Pro Tower 400 in the front, Pro Center C2 in the middle, and BPX2 in the back. (This is the package that the local store had assembled.) I was originally going to get the Pro Cinema 80 set, but they seemed a bit tinny. My wife remembered the Pro Tower 400 set that we had heard the week before and suggested we consider them. They sounded so much better - they are truly impressive! The bass is deep and rumbling and the high is crystal clear. They sounded so good that my wife insisted I buy them, even though they cost about twice as much ($1737) as the Pro Cinema 80s. How many times in the history of the Universe has that happened? I rest my case. |
[Jan 25, 2001]
Gary
Audio Enthusiast
Strength:
Sound. Looks. Tight bass response. Great mid-ranges. Great for music and good for home theatre.
Weakness:
Grills. (they get messed up easy.) Great sounding speaker. Very tight bass response. Good mid-range response and good highs. They are great for small and medium sized rooms. (I have mine in a 16' by 17' living room.) They fill the room up fine. In very large living rooms they may not fill the room up with music. These replaced a set of Bose' 10.2's and these "BLOW THEM AWAY." At a $1,000 (for a pair) these speakers deserve to me considered for your home. I use them mostly for music, but they work for H/T just fine. I play a great deal of vinyl on them and they sound great. Don't need a sub-woofer for music, but for H/T I would suggest one. Similar Products Used: Bose, B&W, Klipsh. |