Definitive Technology PowerMonitor 500 speaker system

November 2001

The PowerMonitors found an acoustic flaw in my room, too. Having never placed speakers capable of sound below 50 Hz on my side surround shelves, I never knew there was a resonance buzz at about

40 Hz. I ended up having to remount a lighting bracket, which had previously been quiet, but was brought to life by the nearby bass source.

While my lighting bracket was less than delighted, the room otherwise seemed to come alive. All of the PowerMonitor 500s extended deeply into the sub-30 Hz area, matching the bass performance of the better high-end towers.

Better yet, the center channel speaker matched that bass performance of the other four speakers, going more than 20 Hz deeper than what I've found with most center channel speakers. Aside from smoothing out the bass response, the built-in subs also cut down on room mode, the phenomena that causes bass sound to be lower in some parts of the room. Moving around my theater, I heard a pretty consistent bass response.

The sound was nothing short of impressive. I began my testing with stereo music, as usual. Rapidly, I was blown away by the detail and imaging. Mark Knopfler's vocals on Sailing to Philadelphia were deep and rich, with instrument placement clearly distinct. At the same time, bass response was outstanding. If there's a bass hole in this system, I couldn't find it.

Five-channel audio was just as good, again richly detailed. The upper end had more than enough clarity to reveal the difference between Dolby Digital and DVD-Audio. I played Natalie Merchant's Tigerlily both ways and found the crispness and spaciousness drastically improved by playing it in DVD-Audio mode.

Movie soundtracks were just as much a revelation. Dialogue was very sharp and clear. As an example, the sometimes murky banter in Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me during the party scene came across sharp and clear.

Interestingly, another side effect of the built-in powered woofers was the seeming movement of bass sound, adding realism. I noted this particularly while watching the plane explosion scene in Cast Away. I really couldn't hear a flaw in these speakers. The tweeters are clear, sharp and well defined like the best of British speakers, but the powered woofer gives them a deep, strong lower mid-range I've rarely heard before from such extremely accurate speakers, and certainly not in this price range.

Considering that Def Tech sent me more subwoofer than this system needs, one could put together an exceptionally good performing system for less than $3,000. Not to mention that you can get tower-like sound if you don't have space for towers (or live with someone who will begin tossing your possessions out the window if you try to put them in their living room), the PowerMonitor 500 is hard to beat from a number of standpoints. This may be the best value on the speaker market today, a great blend of affordable pricing and world class performance.