Definitive Technology Tower Speakers
BP6
(The original version with soft dome tweeter.)
I haven't owned BP6 myself.
From research I've done, BP6 have a different tweeter than BP8. BP6 also have smaller cabinets than BP8.
I've seen a comment that BP8 have better drivers than BP6, I imagine this should apply to tweeters - the woofers look identical.
BP6B
Like with BP8/BP8B, BP6B uses the aluminum tweeter. From what I understand BP6B and BP8B should now have identical drivers since both moved to the standard Definitive aluminum tweeter and both use 5.25" woofers, with the difference remaining the cabinet size - BP6B are shorter than BP8B.
BP8
(The original version with soft dome tweeter.)
Tons of bass. Totally unexpected bass output given the drivers (2x 5.25" woofers). With complex program material the woofer does sound like it is struggling, producing some distortion in the midrange. Despite this, the speaker is very engaging. Overall I think it is very balanced, better in this regard than the towers with subwoofers.
BP8B
I haven't owned a pair of BP8B but just to clarify the difference between BP8 and BP8B:
- BP8 have the soft dome tweeter.
- BP8B (and, I imagine, BP8C, though I haven't seen any of these for sale) have the aluminum tweeter.
BP10
(The original version with soft dome tweeter.)
I wanted to get a pair of BP10 to compare to the BP8, because the BP8 sounded slightly distorted - like they were overloaded - at moderately high volumes. I did get a pair of BP10 eventually, but at that point I already had owned several pairs of powered supertowers.
My impression of BP10 is that they sound pretty much exactly like the BP8. The tonal balance is the same as far as I can tell, despite BP10 having larger woofers (6.5" in BP10 vs 5.25" in BP8) and a different tweeter.
Unfortunately I do not remember whether I tested BP10 at higher volume levels to figure out if they handle those better than BP8, because I already had powered towers which I used as my primary speakers. But I do not recall ever hearing BP10 distort, thus if you are considering non-powered towers I would certainly recommend BP10 if you have space for them.
Speaking of space, BP10 are larger. They are over an inch wider than the BP8. I still have my pair of BP8 in the bedroom, and in that room the BP10 do not fit. As a result I sold the BP10 pair and kept the BP8 pair - in the bedroom I do not need to listen at high volumes and the BP8 fit that room better (also my BP8 are in better cosmetic condition than the BP10 I found).
BP10B
Same as with BP8 and BP8B, BP10B have the aluminum dome tweeter and thte BP10 have a soft dome tweeter.
BP2002
Same driver configuration as BP-8 plus a 12" subwoofer. No passive radiators. Rear vented via a slot.
This is a massive speaker. It is tall and quite deep. By having the 12" subwoofer on the side the cabinet is necessarily over 12" deep.
Biggest flaw of this speaker is that the subwoofer doesn't turn on at relatively low volumes. By "relatively low" I don't mean whisper quiet, I mean even morning/evening volumes like 9 am/11 pm, not just between midnight and 6 am. The problem is that the subwoofer in the powered towers doesn't just play very low frequency content (say, sub-80 hz) but it also plays the entire bass and perhaps even some midrange on the smaller towers like the BP2006TL. So with the subwoofer turned off the speaker doesn't even sound as good as a bookshelf, it sounds like a $20 computer speaker. Quite terrible.
In contrast, the AR P428 PS also don't turn the subwoofer on at low listening volumes but the rest of the speaker is essentially complete by itself (together with a 8" woofer) and produces very reasonable response at night time.
Subwoofer seems to turn on based on absolute volume sent to the subwoofer, not e.g. volume seen by the speaker terminals. Meaning, reducing subwoofer volume makes it turn on at higher receiver volume setting.
When placed in front of the bass alcoves BP2002 produce so much bass it's unbearable, and I barely have the level knob turned up.
The previous owner had these BP2002 in what is surely one of the optimal configurations - in corners of a large empty room, spaced out from walls. He ran them with no toe in and in that configuration they produced, he said, very room-filling sound. Unfortunately I do not have the space to have a setup like this.
Because the tweeter/woofer and the subwoofer (which plays all bass) are pointed in different direction, cohesion of the sound overall improves with volume level. At lower volumes there is an audible lack of lower midrange, for example, which I think has more to do with the drivers firing in two directions and probably not due to the drivers not actually producing the midrange.
BP2002TL
This particular model received a major upgrade between the non-TL and the TL versions - the number of woofers doubled: BP2002 had one woofer per side and BP2002TL has two woofers per side, in a configuration similar to BP7002.
I owned a BP2002TL and my pair does not say it's a TL model on the amplifier plate, although the terminals are gold-plated instead of painted red & black as they were for the BP2002. The other TL models I believe do say they are such on the amplifier plate. The fact that BP2002TL doesn't leads me to think that perhaps the BP2002 and BP2002TL amplifier plates are dimensionally identical, and are interchangeable. Unfortunately I haven't owned BP2002 and BP2002TL at the same time to measure them.
BP2002TL have, I would say, a bit more bass punch but do it at the expense of precision and control when the bass interacts with the room. For my living room which is fairly "live" and has massive low frequency gain due to room geometry I prefer BP7002, as I hear what I think is too much reflected bass. My idea for BP2002TL is to place them in the kitchen where the room is less live and a more "punchy" speaker would actually sound balanced.
BP2006TL
Compared to BP2002, BP2006TL:
- are smaller. The cabinet is slimmer (due to having 4.5" woofers instead of 5.25" ones) and shallower.
- seem to turn the subwoofer on at lower listening volumes. Perhaps this is a result of customer feedback over time.
- have noticeable midrange deficiency. I think this is because the woofer is so small, the subwoofer ends up playing some of the midrange and it's pointed sideways out of the speaker, compromising cohesion.
BP7002
My current reference and most favorite speaker.
Compared to the previous generation (BP2002 and BP2002TL), which were ported, BP7002 has sealed cabinets and uses two passive radiators in each speaker. I would say BP7002's bass is more refined, controlled, tight and precise. I hear less driver flop and I believe the sound is more coherent.
Compared to BP2002, BP7002's amplifier is more sensitive for turning on, making BP7002 a much better choice for low volume playback (on BP2002 the amplifiers can turn off when the program material is very much audible).
BP7004
BP7002's smaller brother with one woofer per side and a 10" subwoofer + radiators instead of 12".
I found BP7004 to be a bit thin in the midrange - the dual mid/woofers do appear to make a difference in this case. But not terribly so like the BP2006TL.
The 10" subwoofers are decent but lack the low end capability of the 12" units in the BP7002.
Overall I would only use BP7004 where I absolutely cannot fit BP7002. Given that the two models are not very far apart price-wise in the used market I find BP7002 to be a better value and better choice overall.
BP7004 use the same amplifier plate & assembly as BP7002 and BP7006. If you need a new amplifier all of these are interchangeable.
Aluminum Tweeters
While all Definitive towers, CLRs and some bookshelves have switched to aluminum tweeters sometime around 2000-2005(?) the tweeter assemblies are in fact not all identical.
Pre-7000 series towers use a full circle tweeter mounting plate. 7000 series towers cut the top and bottom to make the tweeter assembly shorter, thus bringing the mid/woofers closer together. If you have a blown tweeter, the diaphragm and voice coil are glued to this mounting plate, thus you need to get the correct mounting plate shape for your speaker.
Tweeters in CLR speakers are shielded, tweeters in towers are not shielded.
The magnet sizes are also different. I own CLR2300, which have shielded tweeters, and the shield is smaller in outer diameter than the magnet on the BP2002TL tweeter which is not shielded, leading me to think that the CLR2300, which have 4.5" mid/woofers, have smaller magnets on the tweeters than BP2002TL which have 5.25" mid/woofers. Photos of CLR2500 (5.25" mid/woofers) appear to have a larger shield that might possibly enclose the same size magnet as would be found in BP2002TL.