Anyone know anything about these towers? I picked up a pair of them at a thrift store. I did some googling and found they were expensive when they were new. I also can’t find prices on them in white, only the black set(s).
Also, if anyone is familiar with the Sony DB830 receiver(picked up at the same time) and why I can’t get sound from any output including heaphones, help please?
ETA: Oh My god! Yes they do work! And yes I love them!
Pics pls!
Yeah we would need pics, but tower speakers should be good whoever made them. The technology isn’t that complicated, and towers will give you better sound than any smaller speaker, or bookshelf will.
Gimme a few to find the ones I took in the thrift shop before I bought them.
The only thing I couldn’t test was the sub that goes with the Subsat6 setup because it’s apparently passive and as you can see has a left/right channel input, and since the Sony DB830 couldn’t get any sound output I couldn’t test it, but pretty sure it works.
Now that I posted pics, nobody knows anything about them?
For one, Definitives are nice speakers. Made in Baltimore (or at least used to be). My old boss at the AV company I worked for loved them. I got a set of bookshelves from our warehouse for my girlfriend’s turntable setup. Pop the grilles off the towers and just check the condition of the surrounds. They should probably be okay, but coming from a thrift shop, it would be something I’d take a look at.
Boston speakers aren’t bad either, though the most experience I have with them was an old 2.1 computer system way back in the day. But I’d rather use the Definitives over the Bostons, especially since the Defs are towers with powered subs.
As for the receiver issues, I’m assuming it powers on? To start, test the amp/speakers. Start by turning on the stereo, set it to a known FM radio station, and make sure ‘Speakers A+B’ option is on/selected. If there are ‘sound modes’ make sure it is in something like multi-channel stereo (this should convert a standard 2-channel stereo input to output on all of the 5.1 channels). Grab a piece of speaker wire, strip the ends; you’ll probably want about a 6 foot length of wire to make it easier on yourself. Unscrew all the red/black speaker terminals on all the speakers. Twist the bare copper ends as usual on the ends of the speaker wire. Start with one speaker, connect the wire to the speaker terminal as usual, but leave the other side free. Go down the line of all the terminals on the back of the receiver and check all of the outputs. You can just stick the bare copper in the middle hole of the receiver terminal. Make sure they all output sound. Reverse this for all the speakers; connect the wire to a known good channel on the receiver, and leave the bare end disconnected (this you need a bit more careful with; make sure you DO NOT touch the bare wire ends together if the receiver is on!) but go from speaker to speaker to make sure they all work. The last bit you’ll want to test is the built-in subs in the towers. You’ll need two RCA cables (two single RCA cables, not the typical red/white pair). Run the RCA’s from the Sub Woofer Pre-Out to the Optional LFE input on the towers, plug them in, and power them on. Turn the level up on the tower to halfway/12 o’clock. You’ll know if they’re working or not. Once that is done and everything works correctly, there’s a couple options for setting this system up.
Setup 1 - 2 channel, Definitive towers only (it’ll technically be a 2.2 setup, since the towers have built-in subs, but whatever), primarily music focused, or a small/medium TV room
Setup 2 - 5.1 channel, Definitive towers + center speaker + Boston surrounds, larger room for surround sound
Setup 3 - 5.4, Definitive towers + center + Boston surrounds + Boston sub; the maximalist setup
Hopefully this isn’t an overload of information XD, let me know if you have questions
Well, there aren’t any grilles on these towers at all, they are covered in cloth all the way around, and I assume it’s some kind of acoustic cloth to allow for frequency movement.
As for the receiver, I tested any combination I could think of. I’ve had Sony a/v’s for years so i’m familiar with them. What bothers me is that I couldn’t even get output to the headphone jack, so i’m thinking maybe a fuse or something.
All the speakers work and sound great, like I said except for the Boston sub that I couldn’t test since I had no way to connect to anything. It’s the first sub I’ve actually encountered that had a left/right input, seen pictures, never actually had one.
don’t worry about walls of text, I love information when it applies. The biggest thing I really want to know is, how much are these things worth these days. I did some googling and found prices on sets that were in black, but nothing in white. I even emailed Definitive and they had no information on that particular model tower, and couldn’t even tell me if they CAME in white.
For a $25 haul for ALL of that, if I even sell off some of it, I’ve made a decent profit.
The Boston sub you’ll hook up like regular speakers using speaker wire and the bare wire terminals from the receiver. Typically they’ll have sets of in/out terminals so you can loop through the sub and out to the main left/right, but that sub seems like it may have been part of a set or came with a specific amp.
$25 for all of that is a hell of a steal. I got my bookshelves $75 for the pair and I thought that was a deal…lul. Not sure what they’re worth now, I’d guess you could get anywhere from $2-500 for the pair if you find the right buyer. Kind of hard to tell overall condition of the cloth/gloss finish from your pics, but that would be a factor in price as well. Seems like they originally retailed for $800 per tower (Definitive Technology BP 2004 Floorstanding Speakers user reviews : 4.4 out of 5 - 61 reviews - audioreview.com).
White speakers can be a tough sell; it has to be the right room for it to work in (if aesthetics matter…and for someone who would buy white speakers, it usually does). But also, since there aren’t as many white speakers, towers especially, they generally can be sold for a bit higher price.
Yeh, the condition of the cloth is not bad, but the top and bottom covers are some kind of “porcelain” veneer and they are gross AF, I think somebody’s dog pissed on them. The top ones just pop off and i’ve cleaned them the best I can but they are scuffed to hell and back. They are kind of an off-white cream color, so I was just considering painting them. I want to replace the cloth, but it’s tucked in behind the terminal panel on the back of the towers. I was thinking taking them to a local A/V shop here and see if they can clean them up and recloth them.
IIRC, Definitive cloth/grilles are glued in spots. The cream color could just be the lacquer/clear-coat yellowing with time. That terminal panel is very easy to take off; all you do is unscrew the panel. Use care when removing the panel though as there are internal speaker connections. And then when you put it back don’t over tighten the screws.
yeh, the part the internal connections is where I don’t want to screw up myself.
I run the Definitive Tech SM65 monitors for my “home theater”. They sound great even after a decade. Good pickup at that price.
