Assessments - 2, GPA: 4
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Boston’s Atlantic Technology can probably take as much credit as any manufacturer for furthering this trend. From its inception 15 years ago, all of its speaker systems have been sub/sat arrays. As home theater sound has evolved, Atlantic Tech’s offerings have grown ever more sophisticated. Case in point is its new System 4200, a THX Select-certified suite of compact satellites and a not-so-compact sub- woofer. THX certification is a sort of Good Housekeeping seal that guarantees the system has dispersion characteristics considered by Lucasfilm to be optimum for home theater playback. The 4200 array is clearly descended from previous Atlantic Technology speakers, but its manufacturer claims several important distinctions for it beyond the new slanted-back cabinets. First, the drivers are said to be the same ones used in Atlantic Tech’s $17,000 flagship System 8200. Second, the System 4200 features C.O.R.E. (Custom Optimized Room Enhanced) technology to make it unusually adaptable to system conditions and room acoustics. The three front speakers have both a Boundary Compensation switch (to smooth out the sound if they’re installed close to a wall or a big TV screen) and a three-position treble adjustment. The surround speakers can be switched between dipole and bipole operation via toggles under the metal-screen grilles, which attach to curiously strong magnets in the four corners. Niftoid! The metal grilles on all the satellites are also a dramatic visual improvement over the boring black knit on many previous Atlantic Technology speakers. But the most obvious innovation is the removable decorative side panels, which bring cellphone fashion thinking to home theater. With the front speakers and subwoofer, you can choose between gloss black, maple, or matte silver. Snapping panels in place was a cinch, and they looked great. I set up the system as usual: front L/R speakers on stands, the center speaker on top of my TV, and the surrounds (set in their dipole mode, initially) on high, sidewall shelves. Though the 642 SB subwoofer has a 12-inch driver, it’s barely smaller than my everyday 15-incher. I placed it in the best location in my room, which is to PHOTOS BY TONY CORDOZA 52 MAY 2004 SOUND & VISION TEST REPORT PLUS Outstanding multichannel performance. Impressive bass, full-range dynamics. Bipole/dipole-selectable surrounds. Changeable side panels. MINUS Big subwoofer. Center-speaker base a little too high. the left and slightly behind the front left speaker. The 4200 LR front speakers are true satellites, not intended for use without a sub- woofer, so I began with plain stereo, but with the subwoofer hooked up, too. What I initially heard was a “close,” dry sound with a hint of male-voice chestiness — that gave me a chance to start trying out those C.O.R.E. controls. A bit of experimentation told me that the 4200 LRs are sensitive to vertical placement. I adjusted the stands so that their tweeters were about even with my seated ear height and switched on the Boundary Compensation switches, since they stood only 18 inches to either side of my TV. The midrange became more open and relaxed, while the treble added significant air and life to the mix. And that touch of “hoo” caused by reflections from the screen disappeared almost entirely. The Atlantic Tech system punched out multichannel music with finesse and impressive impact. The DVD-Audio mix of Donald Fagen’s Kamakiriad solo album is an amazingly pristine production in both its recording and performance (almost antiseptic), and the System 4200 showed its virtues to a tee: preternatural clarity — especially noticeable on drums and guitars — and huge dynamic range. The System 4200 also proved to be one of those speaker systems that sounds better the louder you play it. I found myself listening to Fagen’s “Snowbound” repeatedly at ever-increasing volumes, reaching a level that audibly sweated the front-speaker trio some 10 dB above THX reference level — and that’s loud. One advantage of a system that’s properly designed as a sub/sat layout from the ground up is that you don’t have to fuss Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets could have been designed as a home theater demo disc, and the Atlantic Technology System 4200 met every wizardly challenge. 4200 LR 4200 C 4200 SR 642 SB (front L/R) (center) (surround) (subwoofer) TWEETER 1-inch dome 1-inch dome two 1-inch domes — MIDRANGE two 51.4-inch cones two 51.4-inch cones two 41.2-inch cones — WOOFER — — — 12-inch cone ENCLOSURE sealed sealed sealed sealed POWER — — — 300 watts INPUTS/ gold-plated gold-plated gold-plated RCA line-level I/O; OUTPUTS multiway binding multiway binding multiway binding level, low-pass AND posts; Boundary posts; Boundary posts; Bipole/ controls; normal/ CONTROLS Compensation Compensation Dipole switch bypass, phase- and treble and treble invert, and auto- switches switches power switches DIMENSIONS 8 x 15 x 97.8 181.2 x 81.2 x 8 11 x 123.8 x 73.4 19 x 21...