Not a bad speaker if you don't mind pissing three thousand dollars away. They have a decent midrange, decent bass, bright highs, and a sense of spaciousness that is inherent with bipolar speakers. My problem is the price and the cabinet design. There may be an active 15" in each one, but I still won't believe it until I see it. A properly designed fifteen should knock your hat off. When these first came out, I told the salesman that they really needed a sub, then he told me I was listening to two active fifteens. HUH?!? They're very attractive, but they simply don't suit the full purpose. You can sink the same money into good shelf speakers and a decent 12 and blow them away!

I had the opportunity to listen to a pair of these speakers when I was delivering a Carver TFM-35 amp that I had for sale. I can say with reasonable certainty that after about 45 minutes of auditioning that these speakers do not sound natural. Treble was over-bright, even at low volumes; I could imagine getting "ear burn" quite easily with a pair of these listening for extended periods. The vocals seemed to come from everywhere, with no real sense of spatial relation. I could defend these characteristics for home theater, where a wide soundfield canvas is needed, but for serious music listening, you'd do better with the Paradigm Reference Eclipse/Esprit or Energy APS 5+2 bipolars.

Well the Definitive BP2000 are a Great deal!It seems as if people are not understanding what these speakers where made for,
"Home Theater".
In my years of being in the same room with best speakers ever made, I have found that the BP2002 where right in the ball park for Home Theater, as a matter of fact after we did some tweeking of the sub, and the right placement, they did the job of reproducing Home Theater to the BEST that I have ever been able to enjoy. when matched with the DC-1 Lexicon, then their was the true stereo hiding.
I could name many others that do sound better than the BP2000 in stereo, but only with a good sub will the others even come close to the BP2000.

But that is getting from what the BP2000 where made for in the start.
Remember Home Theater?
Definitive Technology, . . . Thank you

OH boy do these speakers rule, They sound superb, How can you go wrong with a built in side firing 15" sub, These speakers go great with any kind of music. If you have the money go out and get these NOW!!!!! Its worth every dime.

This is by far one of the best speakers ever manufactured. It is superior to all speakers under $25000.00. For those of you that do not believe it, but a pair! I personally do not own these but I wish I did. I listened to them at a friends house; the clarity, presence, imaging, etc.. is superb. The only reason people "slam' these speakers is because they bought something else and realize what a mistake they made.

I would disagree with the BP 2000's being considered primarily either "Home Theater" or "Audio-snob" speakers. What catagory should they be placed in then....."REAL WORLD".
I listened to a large number of speakers with prices ranging from over twice as much to 1/6th the cost and found items that liked in them all. (Vandersteen's, Magnepans, Klipsch, Energy, Mirage, Paradigm, NHT, and on and on.)

While each of these other models had their respective strengths...hell it's just easier to give examples. The Vandersteens and Magnepans sounded clean and transparent; as long as you had them placed sufficiently out from the walls and were seated in the sweet spot. Do too much moving around and there went much of the enjoyment.

I have:
1) A wife who doesn't want speakers sitting out 6 feet in the middle of the living room and doesn't want to rearrange the furniture according to my SPL meter and didn't buy the idea of a subwoofer being a great coffee or end table.
2) A 2yr old who likes to hide and crawl around things and while being well-behaved and won't touch Daddy's speakers, can't comprehend the idea of sitting and listening to music for 45 minutes at a stretch. Therefore if she doesn't rarely do I. and
3) I like pumping everything through my stereo system. If I'm not listening to music seriously (a true luxury these days) it's on for background. Football games, baseball games, movies, the x-files, THEY ALL GO THROUGH THE STEREO. [I'm currently using my old 200 watt carver amp and PS audio pre-amp for my computer's sound system.]

This is my life and all I can say is you can't beat the BP2000's as an excellent all around speaker. The fat soundstage, while a turn-off to others, has been a god send for me. I was concerned that locating sound sources within a musical piece would be difficult because of the bi-polar arrangement but this has not been a problem. They have a full sound that the other speakers just didn't have. This was especially true at the lower volume levels I normally listen at. Female vocals are clear and clean, and have a nice image depth.

Is it a lot of money? Yes. Are there cheaper alternatives? Kind of, but to meet the wide range of listening demands I had I would have had to have purchased at least 2 separate sets of speakers, amps, etc. I have no hesitation in standing behind these speakers as the best speaker out there that addresses the way people really live and do most of their listening if they were honest with themselves.

My rating 4 stars for each individual component but 5 stars for the real-world.

what's wrong with some of you people? i cannot believe that you'd say thissystem sounds like "shat"!! first of all, i believe these speakers excel
in both ht and audio. for those of you that actually DO like plain old
stereo, with the lights out and special wall hangings to make things sound
"perfect"... you need to get out more! music and HT is all about impact,
not "imaging". come on, how much separation do you WANT from stereo? maybe you
types should simply place the other speaker in another room... then you'd
have clear separation!
what is OUTSTANDING about these is that you can sit on your couch.. anywhere
on the couch... and feel like you're in the middle of a live performance.
honestly, this is the truth. goto the store, take something like pink floyd
live with you... something with an amazing dyn range and outstanding recording
. if they're properly set up, you'll swear you're in the middle of the concert
so much so that you'll swear you smelled some bad pot somewhere in the store.
THIS does take some work... proper arrangement is a MUST, even just a few inches
can really muddy up the bass... i know, i've experienced this many times
before. alas, after tinkering, i convinced my self that the problem was the
positioning, and not the spkrs (i almost had to take them back). as far
as "whipmy" active subs go... well, that too requires some work to get right.
personally, i outgrew "wall shaking" sloppy bass a while ago, i much perfer
a tight, accrate controlled bass. folks... these spkrs are acoustic suspesion,
NOT VENTED AND NOT PORTED. go into any decent hi-fi store and ask a salesman
about the differences b/t ported and suspension systems. if you're the
kind of person that has taken your trunk up with subs and likes to see
how many people will turn and look at you while you're driving down the road,
well, then, these speakers probably aren't for you
PLUS, you can NEVER get a separate sub to sing so
balanced like you can with the 2000s.

I had the opportunity to audition the BP2000's using a Sunfire Cinema Grand and the new Carver A/V preamp/processor in 2-channel music mode. The speakers were at one end of a gargantuan showroom, with the listening chair at the other end (perhaps 20-25' away). I am clearly on the "audiophile" side of the spectrum, so that precise holographic imaging spread out on a well-defined soundstage is a vitally important aspect of the music presentation. Of course, realism is the ultimate goal.
That said, to say the BP's have a big sound is the understatement of the year! These speakers threw such a huge, enveloping sound that I had to remind myself that the surround speakers were NOT operating. "Big", "full", "rich", and "spacious" are adjectives that would fairly describe these speakers...and the bass slam was kickin'.

So, as an audiophile, let me say that I would definitely consider buying these speakers...for home theatre/casual listening only. But since I don't have the big bucks to have separate music and home theater rooms, these speakers are not for me. I can, however, see the attraction if realistic imaging, soundstaging, and timbre are not high on your list of needs. Music on these speakers IS clearly enjoyable, and it's clear that movies on this setup would be absolutely killer. But I cannot suggest that anyone who's looking for hi-end "audiophile" sound bother with these. Again, these are GREAT speakers for what they are designed to do. But while I am in the market for a single system for both music and movies, I will look elsewhere (Meadowlark, Joseph Audio, PSB, Thiel, Magnepan) for speakers. That's because I'm looking for serious hi-end music transducers that also play good movies from time to time.

I hope my fellow hobbyists can accept, ponder and/or criticize my review without resorting to the personal attacks that have characterized earlier threads on these speakers. I use the term "audiophile" to distinguish people who look for specific qualities in the type of sound reproduced from audio equipment. If those qualities differ in kind or relative importance to those you hold dear, then you will naturally gravitate toward different sets of products. The $64,000 question is: Who cares? Get some hints on what speakers might give you the most satisfaction and then go try them for yourself.

My rating is 5 stars for home theatre/casual listening, 2 for (serious) music. Overall rating = 3 stars.

Best speakers made for audio or home theatre for under $20K!

Check out the new BP 2000 TL's! The new subs are great. These speakers have greater depth and crisper bass than the 2002's.