Definitive Technology BP 30 Floorstanding Speakers

Definitive Technology BP 30 Floorstanding Speakers 

DESCRIPTION

Bipolar w/ (4)6-5/8" Soofers and (2)1" Tweeters

USER REVIEWS

Showing 1-10 of 50  
[Nov 21, 2020]
kkeller57


Strength:

Fantastic speakers!! I had a pr of these! They were my 1st def tech tower speakers I ever bought. I had a def tech 12 inch powered sub also. But when the BP 2000's came out, I just HAD to have em! I sold my BP 30's and sub to a buddy and used that $$ and got my 2000's. They have the exact same tweets and mids as the 30's but each have a 15 inch 500 watt powered sub! I have the TL's. I worked at Ultimate Electronics in Idaho so I was able to buy them for 1/3 the retail price. Instead of paying $4,500, I paid $1,500!! I also bought a sweet pr of BP 2002 towers and they serve as my surround back speakers (each has a 12 inch 250 watt sub). My surround side speakers are the BP2X surrounds. So all in all I have a 7.4 system powered by my awesome Yamaha Aventage 9.2 receiver, model RX-A 3020, 150 watts x 9. TV is a Sony 75 inch Bravia x900f and a Sony UBP-X700 4K dvd player. Very very happy with my home theater!! Only took me 56 yrs to get it!! Lol

Weakness:

Only weakness in my opinion in that it doesn't have built in subs. Retail was spendy at the time but I got them as factory to dealer incentive for 2/3's off.

Price Paid:
1,000
Purchased:
New  
Model Year:
1999
OVERALL
RATING
5
[Mar 22, 2017]
Bipolar For Life
Audio Enthusiast

Purchased my pair of BP30 speakers, from seller on Ebay about 4 years ago , using them in a 5.1 system(i know, outdated), but I have incredible room filling sound that I am finally content with! No speaker purchases for over 3 years now. 2 BP 30's, 1 CLR2000, 2 BPVX, and 2 PowerSound Audio XS30 subs. All DefTech speakers were bought used from Ebay at very low prices within the last 5 years. I am very satisfied with the performance of theBP30's with both movies and music. I had BP10's previously, before I found a deal to good to pass up on the BP30's a while back. I really was blown away by how much better these BP30's sound in all aspects, as compared to the BP10's, which I had paid double the price for at the time of purchase. Before I had 5.1 setup of Klipsch Icon W espresso finish Speakers that were just beautiful to look at, but very hard to listen to for an extended period of time, because of the harsh fatiguing highs, and very lacking mid range. I thank God someone elected to come pick those up and take them off my hands, and with those funds I have a sound system anchored by BP30's! I really can't see myself needing or wanting to spend any more hard earned money to replace these Bp30's for a very long time, if ever. If anyone is able to locate these in good shape from a seller, I highly recommend them.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jan 27, 2006]
althair
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

sound great, look great, tall but narrow shape and black fabric exterior make them blend well with my fairly typical wide screen/stereo rack "wall".

Weakness:

Fabric cover is slippy-slidy to handle, and wiring on the bottom of the speaker is a true hassle, especially in a difficult to reach space. Oh, and tops come off easily, a defect if you don't know it and drop one. I've hidden the flaw (tiny) in a rear corner where only spiders will see it, but resale was hurt and a replacement costs $109 plus shipping, not that I'm planing to resell my steal.

I picked up a pair of these in pristine condition for a song recently at a tag sale, and tragically dropped one of the high gloss top caps while putting them in the car (awkward to move and awkward to wire up due to fabric sleeve covering all sides of speaker and connections on speaker bottom) - result was a small chipped corner and no longer pristine speakers. Anyway, all the trouble was worth it, although I am very limited as to placement and imagine they may sound better yet when I have more room to experiment with. I love great music, classical to rock, opera, and the HT experience. However, I don't claim an audiophile's ear and in fact have very limited hearing in the high end. But I've always loved having an impressive performance system, if not an elite one, and the speakers definitely sound magnificent. I don't sense the solid base that so many speak of, but don't find it deficient either. Still, a sub seems called for (the company may agree since thier new line contains built in subs and is otherwise little changed). Anyway, trust other reviewers with better ears, better placement, and better equipment for a sound-er review! These are attractive speakers and work nicely as part of a sort of wall of equipment that's all about the same height and color--wide screen HD rear projection mitsubishi, dark glass front audio rack to left of that, then one def tech tower to left and right of those, and just enough space left along a rather narrow wall for my jbl dps-12 sub (with which I've not had the problems others have experienced. So a literal wall of sight and sound. Unfortunately, this crowds the left front def tech, leaving it only about six inches from the wall--which could limit the ability of the rear drivers to reflect out properly (to the right the stero cabinet and rear projection tv lock it in). I replaced my front speakers (jbl sva 1500's) with the def tech's and do feel I made a significant improvement musically. I was torn though, the sva's were rereleased by jbl as ht4's and were solid performers to begin with, but these have twice the drivers and fifty reviews by you folks saying they're five out of five; so considering I spent one fifth the money I'm more than happy. I'm using bose outdoor 151's as my rears, and rigged up a bose double cube as a sixth channel directly behind me. I'm still using the jbl sva center as my center. These are all run off a yamaha htr 5550 receiver. Guess there's room for improvement there from what I read in the reviews about more power and quality bringing out the best in these speakers, but they're more efficent than the jbl's were and sound fine as is. It's a bit of a shame b/c I bought a vintage sansui au-g99x amplifier at another tag sale recently and have it set up as a "stereo" upstairs. It's a lot more powerful and it would be fun to hear it with the def techs, but as I said earlier, they're hard to move and hard to wire, so I'm not bringing them up or it down, since I need surround sound in my home theater. The sansui is currently hooked up to a pair of rogers ls2 speakers and an audiosource sw50 subwoofer, which is a very sweet set up. I also have a turntable on that system, a denon dp60L, which makes the upstairs stereo probably fairly audiophile level stuff. I can't plug tag sales and garage sales enough for those of you on a budget: audiophile turntable--$50. Def tech's $200. rogers spks--$50. Bose 151's--$7. Double bose cube--$20. Sansui vintage amp--$50. Not that I find these deals every weekend, but over the last few years I've gotten a lot of fairly high end equipment for really low prices. Anyway, just wanted to thank all of you for writing the 50 or so aforementioned reviews. You can imagine how excited I felt, buying these speakers blind (well, deaf--I bought them without auditoning them) when I got home and read reviews by people saying they had paid closer to a grand and thought they were comperable to speakers costing many times that much.

Similar Products Used:

JBL SVA 1500 JBL HLS 8 Allison 4

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Feb 10, 2004]
pcbup
AudioPhile

Strength:

very beautiful looking awesome sound for this price point,crystal clear highs, unreal mids,bass that comes out of this speaker should be outlawed and the price.

Weakness:

have not found any or heard any

Wells it's been 7 months now and they are sounding better than ever i originaly bought these i bought then blind without even listening to them when i first got them home hooked them up they sounded wierd but david said they will break in and you notice a big diff i took his word for it,that was a understatment and a half the sound now is unbelievable and pure crystal clear highs butter smooth mids and in HT they can not be beat at any price point my listening consists of 65% HT and 35% music and they are equally awesome in music especially sacd and two channel you can't go wrong with these speaker's i can compare them to 3000 and 4000 dollar speaker's and these blow them away with ease i have tried them once with a bass cd just to see if they would bottom out nope at -28 on my v555es they did not even budge i even turned of my sub during this test the pf15tl they pushed the same amount of air as my sub did they are unbelievable sounding when you push them a little bit and no loss of sound what so ever at reference levels but all in all i would not trade these speaker's for anything out there no matter the price, and placement is very crucial with these babie's and if your thinking that bi-polar is not the way to go that's what i thought now i am a firm believer of what that means now would not go back to direct radiating ever.......

Similar Products Used:

b&w, paradigm, boston, jbl and then some.80% of these speaker's cant even compete

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jan 17, 2004]
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Excellent performance in home theater and very good in stereo. Small footprint, but very stable with the side extensions added. Even better value when purchased used. Excellent customer service from Definitive Technology.

Weakness:

The gloss black caps are attractive, but are susceptible to scratches. Fortunately, these can be replaced if necessary.

These BP30 speakers replaced the BP10 front speakers in my hometheater system. MY BP10 speakers are the original model with the fabric tweeter. The BP30 has more extended highs, better soundstage and superior low frequency response. The BP30 blends seamlessly with my CLR2000 center. In addition, Definive Technology at no charge provided spikes, side extensions and an owner's manual, even though these were used speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Definitive Technology BP 10, BP 8B, Polk Audio Monitor 10 and Boston Acoustic T830.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Mar 08, 2003]
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Good for home theater, high-powered amplifiers, and large rooms. good customer service.

Weakness:

bi-polar design may not be suitable for music lovers, especially if the room is too small. difficult to place in some areas, as they need to be, in my opinion, about 24"-30" away from the back wall.

i purchased the bp30's after experimenting with vandersteen 2Ce's, paradigm monitor 7's, bose 701's, jbl, and polk. since purchasing the bp-30's, i have mixed feeling about them. as far as home theater, they perform very well. however, listening to music, with a Bryston 4B ST amp, and the bp-25 Bryston preamp, my old yamaha receiver (used as a control amp), and a Marsh P2000 preamp, i THINK that i may have made a mistake in buying the bp30's. Listening to various types of music, from, Pink Floyd, Santana, Frank Sinatra, Patsy Cline, Rush, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, Beatles,Dave Brubeck Quartet (Time Out, Take Five), and even some Classical, I am hearing some muddy bass, at loud levels, and some shrillness at the high end. i am not operating at clipping, and the speakers appear to thrive with high powered amps. i think, perhaps, that the speakers would do better in a large, open room, in excess of 20' x 40' or so. vaulted ceilings would probably help. so, if you are going to use these speakers in the average living room or rec room (mine is 17' x 28'), they might be too big.

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
3
[Feb 28, 2003]
jgiddyup
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Enveloping soundstage, Unmatched highs (for my taste), separation of details, price/performance ratio

Weakness:

Can't be placed too close to the front wall.

I've had DefTech for several years now and upgraded to these from the BP8 when I bought an Aragon 7 channel amp and Proceed AVP2 Pre/Pro. For Home Theater I don't think they can be beat at any price in most rooms. For music I had a boomy bass problem initially that after some experimentation was tamed with various crossover adjustments and moving the sub by a few inches. I must say that this problem was not evident with the Yamaha DSP-A1 I used prior to the electronics upgrade (Nor was alot of the music I was missing present either). I was obviously told by my "Audiophile" friends that I needed "much" better speakers to go with my electronics and the doubt did creep in, so I auditioned in my home M&K 850's, B&W CDM9's and Joseph Audio something or others. I also listened with my own music at the dealers to Revel performa M20 and Martin Logan Aeon. All of these speakers had certain favorable aspects, but I focused on the details. All of the details were present(given my setup) in most of these speakers. The only differnce was in the presentation and I decided the presentation of the DefTechs was what "I" liked best. Do not hesitate to buy these speakers for serious music listening and as I said before, I don't think they can be beat for home Theater.

Similar Products Used:

Above mentioned as well as High End JBL and the old but "GREAT" DBX soundfiels series.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Dec 22, 2002]
yamahaLover
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Bass response. Clarity. Sound field. The TWO 6.5" woofers on BOTH sides compared to only ONE woofer on each side of the BP10s...This added more umph and downright sounds smoother. Decor friendly, and great for both HT and music.

Weakness:

You'll become a couch patato.

Absolutely astounding speakers. When I first hooked these up, I wasn't sure if I had made the right move by replacing my old Paradigm 9se pair. However, after I fiddled with the placement a little, and got them calibrated with my Yamaha RX-V3000, I truly was amazed. The BP30s take everything that is thrown at them, all the while they laugh in your face saying "is that all you got?" The soundstage is awesome...2 channel stereo sounds more like 5 channel. Bass response is one of the strongest points. I don't see how these 6.5" woofers can do so much on the low end. When I was first setting them up, I turned off my sub (deftech pf15tl) to test out the bp30s' low end. My roommate walked in while I was doing this and said "that subwoofer really adds a lot of kick." Nevertheless, a subwoofer will definately add even more definition to these speakers, but standing alone they can beat out many other floor standing speakers. Do yourself a favor and listen to these when auditioning speakers. They are an absolute steal if you can find a good used pair. The $1400 msrp might be a little pricey, but if you can find them for anywhere for below $1000, DON'T PASS THEM UP!

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm, Acoustic Research, Klipsch

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Nov 03, 2002]
DanTanna
AudioPhile

Strength:

Look, price and dynamic range.

Weakness:

Remote control

Very solid. No complaints after 2 years.

Similar Products Used:

Altec,Klipsch and many more.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Aug 14, 2002]
ffuller
AudioPhile

Strength:

Every thing, including appearance. Though they are large they have a small frontal area so they sleak and stylish. From a whisper to a roar they sound incredible: very good bass extension, smooth midrange and detailed, smooth high end. Diana Krall sounds as if she's in the living room with her combo. Little Feat, The Who, etc. sound as if you're 10th row centerstage.

Weakness:

They're merciless in revealing flaws anywhere in the music reprodution chain. I don't really think this is a weakness though.

So much has been written about these speakers, most of which I agree with: Out of this world "you are there" soundstage, great tonal balance, wonderful, tight realistic bass, and a smooth, refined high end that just begs for high quality electronics, speaker cables and IC's. They are absolutely revealing of recordings and one's other audio equipment: and as they say, garbage in-garbage out. Initially, I was using Monster Speaker cable, 12 ga., but the graininess and harshness, especially with vocals was irritating. Thinking the BP 30's should sound better I got onto the TNT-audio.com website and built their version of speaker cables using CAT 5E wire. I immediately noticed a huge improvement: much smoother top end and bigger soundstage with more clarity and separation of instruments. My next project is to build a pair of solid silver IC's as There is still just a hint of harshness on some vocal tracks, and from my previous experience I believe this is not from the speakers themselves. When I first hooked them up I inadvertantly turned off the subwoofer. The bass was so deep and realistic that it took me an hour of listening to realize this. Room placement is very important in getting all the performance of which they are capable. My listening room has vaulted ceilings, but an open floor plan in which no wall is longer than 8 feet, and it contains a wood stove. Because of these restrictions I only had them about 4 feet apart initially. Big mistake! After listening for a week or two I was able to shift things and get them 6 feet apart and this improved the sound dramatically. These speakers have a soundstage that is the most like a live performance that I've ever heard (I'm a musician as well). Not fake, razor sharp stereo imaging, but big and natural. The instruments seem to have more separation, to "breathe". The level of detail, depending on the recording, can be astonishing. I'm an audiophile on a budget, so my set up is as follows: I am biamping them with a Carver TFM-24 on the tweeters (225 wpc) and a TFM-42 (375 wpc) on the woofers, through NAD C160 pre-amp. In addition, I'm running a Velodyne CT 15 powered subwoofer to handle the extreme low end. I'm using a Panasonic RP56 dvd player for my CD's.

Similar Products Used:

ADS, Polk, Energy

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
Showing 1-10 of 50  

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