What is your take on Def Tech XTR60's?

I have not heard your particular model, and its been a while since I heard ANY Definitive Technology speaker, but, the speakers I did hear sounded very good for the money.

It is also not correct that all audiophiles shun the brand. The high end magazine The Absolute Sound gave one of their tall floorstanding models a rave review and it is regularly listed among their recommended components.

I wouldn't worry too much about what others think.

Thanks Larryi. Im not too worried about others irrational opinions. Its the honest, non biased opinions from audiophiles with properly tuned ears that Im looking for. Now I know that may mean the XTR's are garbage and Im good with hearing that but at least I was looking for some constructive criticism and maybe being pointed in a better direction. Isnt that what a forum is all about?

Thanks for the info on the magazine. Ill look it up and see what their recomendations are.

I've heard them and I own the older floor standing BP7004's with the built in powered subs. There is a lot of ignorance about speakers of this type and here's why:

1) Most people only hear them at a "Best Buy" type store with a receiver in a poor setup.
2) Many people expect mass produced speakers of this type to be automatically undeserving of serious auditions.

My "high end" audio system is Merlin TSM-MXr speakers powered by a Manley Stingray II tube amp along with a Rega DAC and Cardas cables. The Def Tech system is part of my large dedicated theater room.

As an experiment I connected my Manley Stingray II amp to the Def Tech speakers and guess what? They sounded pretty darn good. No, they could not match the Merlins, but the Def Techs were lively, engaging and presented a full range sound that was very pleasing. The expensive tube amp reined in the metal tweeters and the sound was quite "high end."
I've heard other Def Tech speakers pull this off and I generally think they're underrated. You do give up a certain degree of resolution, continuousness and tonality, but the gain is major impact and scale.

As for your speakers, they don't have the power of the big floorstanders, but they do well with scale. Mated with good amps and sources they can sound much better than many golden eared audiophiles would care to admit! They play loud and are capable of great dynamics. Todays speaker technology is pretty good with good sound found in systems and price points previously experienced only among the more elite designers. A lot of good speaker technology has trickled down to your Def Techs to be sure.

With a good Denon or Marantz HT reciever you can get "good" sound from your Def Techs, but a serious two channel amp will easily elevate them to a higher level. Don't worry too much about it an enjoy the music and movies!

Cheers,

Robert

Well thank you Robert. That is the kind of reply I was hoping to get. I have a Denon AVR 590 powering it with no pre-amp. Im not well versed in the hooking up of these other components but Im planning on picking up a Marantz AV 7005. The Denon is rated at 75 watts per while the Marantz is 125 watts per. It sounds as if the Denon cant drive the speakers fully. Volume gets cut at about -12 and the speakers sound like they can take a whole lot more, especially considering they are rated to 200 watts.

So the Merlins would be a great upgrade to these speakers per your post. Ill have to put them on the list when Im ready to spend that kind of money..Thanks again Robert for taking the time to educate an up and coming audiophile....

Snakebitten,

I agree that Robert gave you some good advice. There are so many unavoidable cost cutting compromises made with home theater receivers that make it hard for such products to deliver topnotch stereo sound. For example, really good attenuators (volume control) cost a lot of money. A 7.1 receiver has to have a minimum of eight attenuators to the two needed for a stereo device.

How much can attenuators cost? A friend of mine tried to get an Alps RK50 attenuator for a DIY project. The US distributor was willing to drop his price to $800 each if he bought a minimum of 50.