Definitive Technology SuperCube II User manual

test report BY DANIEL KUMIN
Definitive Technology
StudioCinema 350 Home Theater System
SOUND & VISION
off the top cap and undo the grille, like a drawstring-
pajama bottom, to reveal the drivers.) The C/L/R 2002
center speaker is substantially larger than its flankers. In
fact, it’s about twice the size of two StudioMonitor 350s
laid end to end and has two of the same woofers on either
side of its tweeter.
For the surround speakers, Definitive reverted to form
with the wedge-shaped BP1.2X, a bipolar design with a
woofer and a tweeter on each of its angled faces. When
mounted on (or near) the sidewalls, the speaker radiates
sound toward the front, middle, and back of the room,
creating a somewhat more diffuse sound field. Rounding
out the bottom octaves is Def Tech’s newest subwoofer, the
ridiculously tiny SuperCube II. This new-generation sub
cheats the laws of physics and gets big bass from a “too-
small” enclosure by using very-long-throw drivers,
advanced cabinet-venting techniques (dual passive radia-
tors in this case), and an ultra-high-power amplifier with
built-in equalization. The SuperCube II’s sophistication is
evident on its control panel, too (photo below). There are
no heat sinks thanks to its super-efficient, cool-running
Class D amplifier. And there’s a complete set of connectors,
including stereo input/output for both line- and speaker-
level signals plus a single LFE (low-frequency effects)
input for a receiver or processor’s sub output. Controls are
unusually complete, too, with continuously variable knobs
for level, both low- and high-pass crossover, and phase.
This rather rare high-pass control lets you fine-tune the bass
that’s sent on to the satellites via the line-level outputs.
There’s high-pass filtering on the speaker-level outputs,
too, but it’s fixed at 80 Hz.
I set up the StudioCinema system with the Monitor 350s
on the 28-inch-tall stands and the C/L/R 2002 on top of my
30-inch Princeton Graphics HDTV monitor. The BP1.2X
surround speakers went on sidewall shelves just behind the
listening position and about 6 feet off the floor.
ounded in 1990 when Sandy Gross left Polk
Audio to start a speaker company with a
different design philosophy, Definitive
Technology quickly established a reputation
for building tower speakers that deliver
spacious, full-range sound at reasonable
prices. The big sound that defines Def Tech
speakers is achieved using a bipolar configuration, with
rear-firing, in-phase drivers added to the usual front-
mounted drivers. When I first set eyes on Def Tech’s
compact StudioCinema 350 system, the question that came
to mind was whether the company could pull off the same
trick with much smaller monopole speakers.
In a departure from Def Tech’s tower tradition, the
StudioCinema 350 is a subwoofer/satellite system built
around a very small front left/right bookshelf speaker, the
StudioMonitor 350. It’s a shade smaller all around than
a 12-pack of longnecks and has only a 5
1
/
4
-inch woofer,
but the side-firing “port”is a passive radiator measuring
a full 8 inches across. Like Def Tech’s tower speakers,
the StudioMonitor 350 has wood end caps, in this case
finished with an elegant piano-black lacquer, and a black
knit grille that wraps around the four sides. (You can pop
“The results were little short of stunning ... a genuine
cinematic experience ... I was impressed”
“very high quality sound for music
and movies”
“Played behind a curtain, the
StudioMonitor 350s would convince
even seasoned audiophiles they were
listening to larger speakers”
“they sounded warm and full even on
bass-rich pop music ... tonal balance
through the critical midrange was
nearly perfect”
F

on nearly all Def Tech speakers in
my experience —but without any of
the midbass hype or treble dullness
such adjectives may suggest. Tonal
balance through the critical midrange
was nearly perfect on my standard rota-
tion of male and female vocals, falling
just about midway between my two
long-term reference speakers. I sensed
a very slight rise in the upper-midrange
“presence region,”but this was so mild,
and so smooth and free from “honk”or
“hoot,”as to be inconsequential. In fact,
with movies it might well add to definition and clarity.
I thought I was past being wowed by small speakers that
deliver big sound, but I must admit I was impressed by
the StudioMonitor 350/SuperCube II combo. It played
remarkably loud without obvious dynamic limits, and the
pint-size sub performed amazingly well. Stereo imaging
was tight, with an unusually solid center soloist projecting
out in front of the soundstage.
Before firing up the complete StudioCinema system,
I did my usual center-channel test to see how closely
the C/L/R 2002 matched the pair of StudioMonitor 350s
flanking it. With mono voices as the source, the match was
very close —and better than with many center speakers
I’ve auditioned. Heard off-axis, the C/L/R 2002’s sound
was a bit less clear and defined but, again, the tonal shift
was a lot less pronounced than I’ve heard from many
other horizontally oriented center speakers. Of course, if
you want a perfect match, you could use a single
StudioMonitor 350 as a center speaker, provided your setup
can accommodate it (the 350 is only about 4 inches taller
that the C/L/R 2002 —and costs $250 less).
Turning to movies, I popped The Affair of the Necklace
DVD into my player. I’m a sucker for a good costume epic,
Definitive Technology advised me that the StudioMonitor
350 system as a whole was engineered to have the best sub-
sat blend configured the way most consumers are likely to
set things up when they first tear off the packaging —that
is, with an A/V receiver’s subwoofer output connected to
the SuperCube II’s LFE input jack and with its bass man-
agement set for “small”speakers all around, yielding the
standard 80-Hz crossover. And I’m happy to report that,
monkey as I might with connection layouts and crossover
settings, I could not improve on this arrangement.
Even though this is clearly a sub/sat system that’s meant
to be used with a powered sub, I began by listening to stereo
music with the StudioMonitor 350s alone —after all,
Def Tech refers to the diminutive speaker’s 8-inch passive
radiator as a “pressure-driven subwoofer”.
The results were little short of stunning. Played behind
a curtain, the StudioMonitor 350s would convince even
seasoned audiophiles that they were listening to larger
speakers. They sounded warm and full even on bass-rich
pop music like James Taylor’s Hourglass. A pair of 350s
would be perfect for a den or other small listening spaces,
but for serious home theater you’ll want a subwoofer.
Fortunately, the SuperCube II is a corker. It blended
seamlessly with the StudioMonitor 350s, extending the
bottom end dramatically and delivering all the heft you
could ask for on pop and classical music alike. Stereo music
sounded powerful, warm, and seductively rich —as it does
and they don’t come much more sumptuous than this. (Or
than Hillary Swank’s lips, for that matter.) The soundtrack
to this pre-Revolutionary (the French one) historical romp
depends on a wide variety of music, period and otherwise,
and includes a huge palette of interior acoustics, with subtle
and dramatic changes in ambience, echoing door slams,
passing coach-and-fours, and lots more. The Def Tech
system unfailingly followed these demands, projecting a
focused, seamless sound field that never once diverted my
attention from the screen. Dialogue was crisp and clear,
remaining effortlessly intelligible even at the barest
whisper. The bipolar surrounds excelled in conveying all
of the ambience, discrete effects, and surround-channel
music this soundtrack had to deliver.
One thing The Affair of the Necklace soundtrack does
not offer a great deal of is big bass, so for that I pulled out
a few serious torture tracks, including the 1998 remake of
Godzilla. Forget about size: the tiny subwoofer held its own
down to below 30Hz, and played loud to boot. In a direct
comparison with my much larger and far more expensive
15-inch reference sub, the cube couldn’t play as loud,
but it put out enough bass for a genuine cinematic
experience in my 3,000-cubic-foot studio. (And when asked
to play excessively loud, the SuperCube II simply muted
momentarily, instead of obviously distorting.)
In final analysis, Definitive Technology’s StudioCinema
350 is a very fine compact system —among the best in this
size class that I’ve heard. If you’re looking for “small
speakers that deliver big sound”in real life as well as in
advertising copy, you’ve found some.
11433 Cronridge Dr. • Owings Mills, MD 21117 • [phone]
Visit us at www.definitivetech.com
The DVD of the costume epic The Affair of the Necklace
offered a huge palette of sounds to challenge the
Definitive Technology speakers.
“A pair of 350s [by themselves] would
be perfect for a den or other small
listening spaces”
“the SuperCube II is a corker ... extend-
ing the bottom end dramatically and
delivering all the heft you could ask for”
“a focused, seamless
sound field ... dialogue was
crisp and clear, remaining
effortlessly intelligible even
at the barest whisper”
“forget about size: the tiny subwoofer
held its own down to below 30Hz, and
played loud to boot”
“stunning ... a very fine compact system
—among the best in this size class”
StudioMonitor C/L/R 2002 BP1.2X SuperCube II
350 (front L/R) (center) (surround) (subwoofer)
“the biploar surrounds excelled in con-
veying all the ambience, discrete effects
and surround-channel music”
HIGH POINTS
Very high-quality sound for music
and movies.
Superbly compact.
Nicely finished.
LOW POINTS
Not inexpensive.
Plain styling.
TWEETER 1-inch dome 1-inch dome two 1-inch domes —
Excerpted from the StudioCinema 350 Test Report,
Sound & Vision Magazine, November 2002.
WOOFER 5
1/4
-inch cone two 5
1/4
-inch cones two 4-inch cones 8-inch cone
ENCLOSURE ported (8-inch ported sealed ported (two 8-inch
passive radiator) passive radiators)
POWER ———1,250 watts
INPUTS AND multiway biwirable multiway multiway RCA line-level inputs
OUTPUTS binding posts binding posts binding posts and outputs and LFE
input; multiway binding-
post speaker-level
inputs and outputs
DIMENSIONS 7 x 10
5/8
x 9
3/8
21 x 6
3/4
x 12 9
1/4
x 10
1/2
x 6 12 x 12
1/4
x 12
(WxHxD) inches inches inches inches
WEIGHT 12 pounds 29 pounds 8 pounds 38 pounds
FINISH piano-black lacquer or piano-black lacquer or black woodgrain with piano-black lacquer or
golden cherry end caps, golden cherry end caps, black knit grille; or matte golden cherry end caps,
black knit wrap-around grille; black knit wrap- white with white grille black knit wrap-
or gloss white with white grille around grille around grille
PRICE $498 a pair $499 $350 a pair $899
Total $2,246 (or $249 a piece)
S&V
fast facts
MANUFACTURER Definitive Technology, Dept. S&V, 11433 Cronridge Dr., Owings Mills, MD 21117; www.definitivetech.com; 410-363-7148
Definitive Technology’s StudioCinema 350
System received the prestigious Sound &
Vision Reviewer’s Choice Award honoring
the year’s very best products.