Let's get this out of the way: at 38mm (1.5 inches) thick, these Mythos XTR-50 speakers are not the "world's thinnest," no matter what manufacturer Definitive Technology might have you believe -- JVC dropped
31mm satellites onto our secret wishlists just last fall. But unless you live in Japan, the Mythos XTR-50 may be the thinnest speakers you can actually buy. Made completely from aircraft grade
aluminum, the enclosure houses six domed drivers and a tweeter, themselves shaped from aluminum, and connected with copper-covered aluminum wire. Why all the aluminum, you ask? The obvious reason is that -- in
moderation -- it's lighter and stronger than alternative materials, which contributes to these satellites' luscious curves, but it also means that the entire assembly acts as a
giant heatsink. Logical design -- who would have believed it. Too bad the units cost $700 each, and you'll need at least two -- if not five -- to get the full effect.
posted March 24th 2010 4:41AM
Pretty sexy stuff.
still love wood cabinet tbh!!! ^^
I want.. -Drools-
I'll take 5!
CCA wire is also cheaper than copper, but unfortunately has a higher resistance.
They might not be the "world's thinnest" but they surely look good!
I'll take 7!
I've said it before, I'll say it again. When looking for speakers, "Worlds thinnest" is the exact opposite of what you should be looking for. They may look pretty, but you need cabinet space to create truly great sound. Bah!
@clarinetJWD They've got a video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6lp3pxFhgY
that explains a bit of the tech involved. They do recommend pairing with a subwoofer to get proper lows, but I imagine they sound great. I've got a pair of Definitive BP6B speakers that I've had for years and love. I compared with a number of other brands in the same price range and Definitive was the clear winner to my ear.
@SubFuze With all due respect, I do know a bit about what I'm talking about (I don't like playing this card, because it makes me look arrogant, but both my degree and work experience are in audio engineering). The only way to take a small speaker and give it full range production is through aggressive equalization. While this may sound good on a trade show floor (Notice this is where they said most of their acclaim came from), each frequency you equalize will develop phase problems.
What they are doing is trying to engineer their way around the physics of speaker design with technology. While they may have very good success with this, it adds unnecessary cost and complication relative to the designs which work with, rather than against, physical reality. Now, a small enclosure can be made to have a proper frequency response without EQ, but to do this, has to be woefully inefficient. Given that they make the entire speaker a heatsink, this is certainly a possibility, but I doubt it. It's just taking the normal heatsink on active speakers and spreading it out.
I'm not going to totally dismiss these speakers without listening to them, but I don't agree with how they're trying to achieve great sound. Look at it this way: Apple created the Mighty Mouse to finally allow the Apple made Mac mouses to right click natively. They did this by putting a pressure sensor under the 1 piece body, to detect which side was clicked. Great, it got the job done, but it's still not as good as 2 physical buttons. It's engineering around a problem that didn't need to exist in the first place for the sake of design.
My first recording teacher always said "EQ is never a replacement for proper mic placement." Meaning that if you got the physical location of the mic right, it would sound better than any amount of EQ. This can be expanded to mean "Processing is never a replacement for proper design."
As for the BP6B speakers, they don't really offer relevant information here, because I was complaining about cabinet size, not the brand. Though, I did have a listening class where we compared those exact Definitives to similarly (or lower) priced Polk Audio, Tannoy, and Genelec speakers, and my impressions were that the Defs at first sounded very open and clean, but that they sacrificed an accurate stereo field to achieve this. I ranked the Tannoy and Polk speakers above the Defs because both speakers were able to reproduce full range accurate sound with a good sound stage. The Genelecs were smaller powered speakers, and weren't properly paired with a subwoofer, so they didn't stand a chance against the other full range speakers.
Like I said, I don't like coming across as arrogant, but when a topic comes along that I am very qualified to offer real advice on, I feel obligated to do that.
@clarinetJWD
I have had BP-8B (slightly larger version) def-tech speakers for the last 10 years. You're right, because of the rear-firing drivers they do present a different sound stage and are very picky about speaker placement. They need to be placed away from walls.
The specs in the manual are a bit strange. It looks like the speakers depend on the wall to help be part of the cabinet weight.
Quoted Frequency response: (overall on wall) 92Hz – 30kHz; (+/- 3dB on wall) 120Hz – 20kHz
So it seems like you would have to drive the subwoofer at 120Hz to properly fill in +/- 3dB. The 92Hz - 30kHz spec is probably for +/- 6dB.
@clarinetJWD Thanks for the follow-up and I don't take it as arrogance at all. The two points I was getting at were 1) There are some technological advances that mitigate some of the problems and 2) I have great experience with the brand.
These speakers aren't for everyone, but if you feel like you need your speakers completely off the floor, these seem like they're worth serious consideration. Again, I haven't heard them first-hand, but I'd imagine they sound quite a bit better than almost any in-wall solution (which is really the market they're competing with).
As for the compromise on sound stage with bi-polar speakers, it's a know issue and frankly one I'm willing to live with, especially since I don't have a dedicated listening room and my speakers pull double-duty (music and video).
Need. Them. Now.
I would love to listen to a pair. I bet they need to be paired with a good sub to fill out the low end, but they look oh so good!
There is so much choice when it comes down to speakers, it's quite bewildering.