Sound, Looks

None so far

I shopped around alot...I mean alot. Since this was to be my first home theater system I wanted to get something decent, yet small so my wife would not get all over my ass about cluttering her family room. I actually bought (and then returned) the bose acoustomass 10...small, decent sound, but lacked a strong bass...the sub is not a sub...you have to go the 12 series to get a powered subwoffer at a cost of $1,199. So, I set up my Bose listened to the Matrix and was quite impressed...but again for the sub. Looked at Boston Acoustics (very good) with Energy Take 5 Sub...but then stumbled on Definitive.

I went to the audio place near me and was overwhelmed by the sound (clear, crisp, the sub is powerfull). A little bigger than Bose, but not too big. Without a doubt a great purchase. I got the 4 satellites 80's the center 100, and the sub 80...for less than $850.00. There was a 15% promotional sale..ask for this price anyway..you'll probably get it. I think this is a great product for the price. My family room is 13X18 and unfortunately I have to have the TV on a corner wall. My furniture is placed as an "L" (2) couches, so my rears I had to place on the ceiling (they can come with a nice little mounting bracket for ceiling or wall) behind both pieces of furniture, but angled down and facing each other...still works fine as you hear the rear sound. I hooked it up to my Kenwood VR309...I got this baby for $269.00 at Circuit City (Dolby Digital/DTS/decoder), for the money more than adequate in a family room setting, and my Pionner 525 DVD.

Oh one thing...the instructions for the sub tell you to plug in the cable to the LFE line, but you can't do that or your sub will not power on and off. You need a "Y" and put the cable to LFE and one of the other connections - either right or left in. This was driving me crazy until I called definitive and they said the manual was written incorrect.

Similar Products Used:

Bose Acoustomass 10, Boston Acoustics

Great value for the dollar. Crisp, clear sound for the size.

None so far

As a casual listener, I was still using my 20 year old Onkyo receiver and oversized bookshelf speakers, so I may not be the best judge of perfect sound, but I don't make rash purchases and I do my homework when I do decide to buy something. As a 30 something with 3 kids I had to be a realist when I decided it was time for a new system.(Blown speaker, dead CD player) Like most men I would turn my garage into a subwoofer and my house into a sportsbar if not held in check. I knew I wanted a home theater system but having no idea what was good, bad or indifferent I started by looking at Best Buy and Circuit City to get an idea of price(overpriced vanilla) I then went web searching and read every tidbit I could get my hands on. I tease my wife that I spent more time researching this purchase than I spent choosing her.

My guidelines were, it has to be unobtrusive, reasonably priced and sound good for music and home theater. I narrowed it down to Energy Take 5's and Def Tech. Pro Cin 100's. After hearing them all including Bose(joke) I had the winner. I must have shown some reservation on price and the salesman asked if I had seen the 80's. He handed me the latest review and assured me they were for real. I bought them and the rest is history. (I got a Yamaha HTR-5150(70 watts) and a Sony 200 discplayer to round out the system). The first time I heard the 80's I was very disappointed because the base seamed to overpower the sats. I remembered all the comments I read about break-in so I let them play for hours on end when I was at work and now they are unbelievable. I have a 1500 sq. ft. downstairs with 9 foot ceilings and very few interior walls and this system will play as loud as you can stand it without breaking up. Highs are crisp and the bass just shakes the walls. The Yamaha receiver has a nice setting that lets you use all 4 sats for music so you can double up on the high end to match the powerfull sub. Watched Saving Private Ryan and the beach landing sounded like it was in the room. Yeah, I am sure there is better out there for a lot more money but invest the difference and go on a trip to St. Thomas, I am.

Great Sound! Pretty good price!

Buttons on remote are too small and too close together.
Difficult to tell right direction on remote in the dark (during movie).

I started out looking into the Bose Lifestyle 12 Series II Home Theater System. After three long weeks of research, I know I made the right decision by eliminating Bose from the list and purchaseing the Def Tech Pro Cinema 80 system. I have had the system up and running for about three weeks now, and have tried to play vcr tapes, cd's, dvd's, and the radio, just as loud as I could stand it, and there is still no audible distortion from the speakers. THEY ARE AWESOME! I mounted the four small speakers to my ceiling, have the center channel on top of my TV, and have the sub on the floor next to my entertainment center (My living room is 15'x21'). This is the best home theater experience any novice could ever want. I have a Denon AVR-681 Dolby Digital/DTS Receiver, which probably makes a big difference, too. I would highly recommend this system for anyone wanting to stay under the $1000 price cap.

Very impressive detail, great imaging, and excellent dynamics at a very reasonable price.

Long break in time, but very much worth the wait.

I purchased these a month ago and am incredibly pleased with these little monitors. I upgraded from inexpensive three-way speakers and am awed by the difference in sound quality. Every positive thing you've heard about them is true. They have astonishing detail, dynamics, and very impressive imaging at an incredible price. I have listened to and enjoyed much larger and more expensive speakers at numerous places but honestly found these to be just as good, if not better in some cases.

After breaking them in with several days of constant stereo music, I began viewing my DVDs with the new Pro 80s. I was quite literally blown away by the sound that I heard. I heard many, many sound effects and musical nuances that I had never heard before. Every DVD I watched was like watching it again for the first time. Most notable in my opinion was True Lies and The Thomas Crown Affair. There was such an incredible seperation of sound effects, dialogue and music that I could not believe that I only paid $200 for the LR mains. Truly Hi-Fi sound at a moderate price. The bathroom shootout scene in True Lies sounds so cool now that I watch it over and over again. With my other speakers I was always bored with this scene because I always thought that it should sound cooler. Well, now it does. I only have two small gripes with these speakers, and they are awfully obvious. One, It took about 48 hours to loosen up and sound right ( I'm very impatient ). And secondly, you do need a sub as the 4.5 inch woofers are obviously not going to go real deep. But this is moot as anyone with half a brain knows you need a sub with 5.1 soundtracks regardless. Honestly, these are a no brainer purchase for those with bigger eyes than wallets.

Thanks and happy listening!

Great sound, looks and build quality for reasonable price.

none

Simply stated, you can't beat this system if you're looking for a good compromise of price, performance, aesthetics and quality of construction. I love them!

The Boston Acoustics home theater system sounded very similar, but the subwoofer made the difference. You'll never find a better-sounding small subwoofer for the price. I did head-to-head comparisons of the two in the same store and the difference was striking!

The Paradigm was good too, but not as compact or aesthetically pleasing.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm, Boston Acoustics

High quality sound at an affordable price

None yet

Recently took back my energy take 5 system after hearing this at my local dealer. Wow! This system offers a near flawless listening experience for both music and HT. There are absolutely no gaps in the sound. I got the 4 satellites, Pro center 100, and Pro Sub 100 for $850 US. Do not pay retail for this system. It is possible to get this discounted. I auditioned a number of sat/sub systems and this is by far the best sounding set up under 1000$ bucks. It easily rivals systems in the 1500-2000$ range and provides near audiophile quality on a budget. Less importantly, the speakers look great, are reasonably sized, and come in white if you want it. Please do not buy the energy take 5 system until you hear the Def Techs. These are truly high quality speakers !

Very loud. They get clearer the louder you play them. Wonderful bass and mids.

Thier high's are weak but tolerable. They don't come with mounts of any kind. Bummer.

Well to start off the speakers are wonderful. They are small but very huge in sound. I had to go out and buy wall mounts for the speakers and beilive me they weren't cheep. The speakers sound best played at a high volume. So If you have testy neighbors watch out. I was amazed at the low level of distortion they put out. They really suck the power right out of your amp. They are wonderful with all kinds of music, and they really make movies come to life.
So if you are looking for a surround sound system/stereo you will not be dissapointed with these speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Sony bookshelf speakers.

Great for both music and movies. Good imaging. Deep tight bass.

None

Thanks to audioreview.com that i save a lot of time in finding and researching speaker system. Bought Movieworks 408 but returned it after 2 weeks due to the weak center and not so great music. Read the review on ProCinema 80 and went to local home theater store, amazed by the deep tight bass and great music produced. Bought it and set it up in living room. It is a very good sub/sat system for both music and movie. Good imaging and i can really feel like Mary Black is right in front of me. Bullet sound in movies are real and full of punch. Live in an apartment, afraid of frightening my neighbor, i have to turn down both the volume and bass and gain control on my ProSub 80. Amazing speaker, it's definitely worth the $1000. I thought the Movieworks 408 system is not bad, but ProCinema 80 is much better especially for music. But, off course they are in a very different price range. Highly recommended for people who want to have great sound for music and movie, want to save space, and stay at $1000 price range.

Similar Products Used:

Cambridge Soundworks Movieworks 408

Great imaging, sound seperation, crisp, clean, distortion-less even at high volumes

None whatsoever

Wanted to upgrade from my old Base Lifestyle system to usher in HT sound in the home. I thought the Bose sounded great until I started auditioning some of the other speakers on the market (Paradigm, Energy, DT) - only then did I realize what I had been missing the past 6 years. Bose is an over-branded piece of consumer mass-market crap compared to these speakers.

I shortlisted the Energy Take 5 and ProCinema 80 - wanted small sat/sub systems if possible to accomodate a tight family room. Went with the ProCinema finally as I felt that the sound was more realistic, richer and the bass was more well-produced. Matched it up with a Integra DTR 5.1 receiver (fantastic one btw) and now my system is just awesome. Music or HT, anything plays fantastic. My Integra can deliver clean power at high volumes and these babies can handle it all without a hiccup - no loss of clarity. Setup was a breeze, the remote is large but very functional, the bass is tight and powerful, the mids and the highs come through cleanly. No drop-offs at any point on the curve.

My 2 cents - match these speakers with a good receiver and you will not be disappointed.

Similar Products Used:

Bose Acoustimass

Small speakers, very clean sound, big bass from an 8" subwoofer,great for music and movies

maybe harder rock music

I bought these speakers back in November of 2000. A salesman at Ovation pointed me in this direction, so I auditioned them. Then I read every review I could find on the Definitive Technology Pro 80 speakers including all the reviews on this site. I have been a happy listener ever since. Movies and music are both great. The only weakness I think I perceived was when I played music from one of Creed's cds. The sound was a bit on the bright side, but I have a Yamaha receiver. The tweeter on the Pro 80's is aluminum.
When friends come over they are absolutely amazed at the sound coming from the Pro 80's. The DVD, When Hell Freezes Over, by the Eagles, recorded in the DTS format will blow you away. I bought speakers primarily for movie use, but I have listened to much more music since I purchased these. They bring out all the nuances in the music. Every instrument is so rich and separated.