Luxury Home theater Speakers

If price is no object, high-end speakers deliver the best sound

Some experts suggest spending nearly as much on your home theater speakers as you do on your TV. While that might be overkill in many cases -- even with today's lower TV prices -- if your home theater will double as a primary spot for serious music listening, that might not seem so unreasonable. Music demands much more from speakers, since they need to be able to handle anything from delicate string instruments to driving percussion to deep bass equally well without adding coloration or distortion.

Many of the best options in this category are assembled from speakers that are sold separately but are sonically matched to create a seamless home theater system. The Definitive Technology ProCinema 800 (*Est. $1,200) -- big brother to the ProCinema 600 system profiled elsewhere -- is one example. The system comprises components that are traditionally sold separately: a quartet of Definitive Technology ProMonitor 800 bookshelf speakers (*Est. $145 each) , the Definitive Technology ProCenter 1000 center-channel speaker (*Est. $220) and the Definitive Technology ProSub 800 subwoofer (*Est. $400) . This configuration has proven so popular that the company now also offers it as a pre-assembled system.

The ProCinema 800 home theater speaker system has captured a Certified and Recommended tag from Sound + Vision magazine. It also earns a strong rating at CNET, with reviewer Steven Guttenberg saying it "redefined our expectations of what a small surround speaker system can do." Chris Martens at The Perfect Vision says, "If you heard the system blindfolded, my guess is that you'd instinctively tack an extra grand (or more) on its imagined asking price."

One reason is that ProCinema 800 speakers can play surprisingly loudly, with bass response that extends lower than most systems in this class -- though, of course, not as low as higher-priced, more massively sized options. Martens and others say that's thanks to design enhancements that help the satellites' midrange bass drivers sound "astonishingly clear and refined." However, Martens adds that the sound can get "a bit thin" if things are pushed to the extreme.

Performance is great with a variety of material. Movies sound wonderful, and the system handles everything from booming special effects to soft, low-level dialogue with great aplomb. "Male and female voices sounded natural, without a hint of the 'boxiness' we sometimes hear from small center speakers," Guttenberg writes. If anything, music is even better; Martens says the ProCinema 800 sounds more like a high-end audiophile system than he thought a system in its price range could.

Surround-sound imaging is also accurate, with Martens saying, "In terms of 3D imaging, the ProCinema system has few if any peers in this price class." However, Sound + Vision magazine says it takes a little work to get the speakers precisely located for the best surround-sound performance.

Aperion has built a solid reputation for high-end speaker systems by providing great performance and superior value via its direct-sale business model. The Aperion Intimus 4B Harmony SA (*Est. $1,000) is the company's least expensive offering, but it carries on in that tradition of performance and value in most -- but not all -- reviewers' eyes.

The Intimus 4B Harmony SA receives a Certified and Recommended award from Sound + Vision magazine. Reviewer Ken C. Pohlmann says listeners will likely think the Intimus costs more than it does, and then up that guess when they get a look at the build quality of the cabinets.

Still, the system isn't without limitations. It performs best in a modestly sized room, and finding the right crossover frequency between satellites and the 100-watt powered sub takes a bit of work. Those who don't want to trust their receiver's automatic speaker setup programs will be delighted to find that a sound pressure meter is included with the system. It's part of a free customer care kit that also includes a polishing cloth and handling gloves to make sure the speaker cabinets remain dust- and fingerprint-free.

Not everyone's a fan, however. CNET's Steve Guttenberg echoes Pohlmann's admiration for the Intimus cabinetry, but says the sound from the center speaker and satellites is mismatched and the big subwoofer is too bassy. Guttenberg rates sound quality as acceptable but not at the top rank for the system's price.