Atlantic Technology System T70.

Manufacturer: Atlantic Technology, 343 Vanderbilt Avenue, Norwood, MA 02062; 781/762-6300

Price: Full package, $999; Five satellite speakers alone, $675; Subwoofer alone, $375

Source: Manufacturer loan

Reviewer: Howard Ferstler

I am a notoriously cheap person, and I continue to search for components, particularly speaker systems, that can deliver the goods for a minimum of cost. The T70 home-theater speaker package may not deliver all the large-playback-room goods a serious audio buff on a big budget might want, but it certainly can do yeoman service in a moderately sized room with both home theater and musical program material. I suppose I could now end this report right here, but let's just see why the T70 package is so nice, and see whether its strengths and limitations will matter all that much to certain enthusiasts.

As some of you might recall, I reviewed a larger Atlantic Technology home-theater package in Issue 75 (June/July, 1999). That was the company's $2,400 System 270 (which has been replaced by the Syetem 270 THX Select at $2,796), and in that report I concluded that it "would satisfy most music lovers and home-theater enthusiasts who were shopping for something in this price category."

I should remind people here that the current System 270 is THX Select-certified (this rating is less rigorous than the THX Ultra certification, which is the same thing as what the original THX program began with), and it is also a tad different from the version I reviewed. In particular, the center-channel speaker has a smaller tweeter mounting plate that is more closely flanked by the midrange drivers, which should result in somewhat better horizontal dispersion. I will also note that the T70 system I am reviewing here is not so certified.

OK, we can assume that the T70 system is not certified for a number of reasons, but I believe that nearly all of them can be subsumed under one category: output capability. The T70 system is small and it is obviously designed for use in a modestly-sized room and is designed to work at modest output levels in that room. Well, almost modest (a factor we will address later in this review).

The T70 satellites are on the small size, to say the least. The left and right mains and the left and right surrounds are each roughly cubical (about 5" x 7.5" x 6") and weigh in at about 4.5 pounds, with the mains being a tad heavier than the surrounds.

The main speakers sport a one-inch tweeter and 4-inch midrange driver on the front panel. (The owner's manual calls those little items "woofers," but they definitely serve a midrange function in the T70 package.) They are a tad heavier than the surround speakers, because they appear to nave a slightly more robust 4-inch midrange (it is titanium coated, whereas the ones in the surround speakers are not) and although they only have one tweeter apiece, as opposed to the two that the surrounds each have, that tweeter is a sturdy unit that is possibly a bit heavier than both of the surround tweeters put together. In any case, those are my guesses as to why the mains are a tad heavier than the surrounds.

The surrounds each have those two tweeters, and while the 4-inch midrange aims forward the same way as the one on each of the left and right mains does, the tweeters are located on the sides. This allows them to aim back and forth along the wall, rather than out at the listener.

At first glance, the surround looks like a dipole-type system, which would have the left and right drivers wired out of phase. This trick tends to make the sound very delocalized if the systems are placed toward the listener's sides, and dipole surrounds are part of the THX mandate that the bigger Atlantic Technology systems adhere to. The System 270 that I reviewed also had surrounds of this kind.

However, with the little T70 satellites, only the two tweeters in each unit are wired out of phase, while a single low-frequency driver handles the freqeuncies below 3 kHz. As a result, these quasi-dipolar systems behave as monopoles, rather than as full dipoles, with the dipolar effect confined to the treble. This makes placement less critical than with some full dipoles.

Each of these systems (mains and surrounds) is a sealed, two-way design designed to cover a range of from 100 Hz to 20 kHz (+/- 3 dB), each has a nominal impedance of 8 ohms, each has a 3 kHz crossover (24 dB per octave), each has an input sensitivity of 85 dB (2.83 volts, measured at 1 meter), and each has a power rating of from 10 to 100 watts. The mains are also magnetically shielded. The surrounds would not have to be, unless your idea of where to locate your TV monitor is on the extreme side of strange.

Each of these systems also has a screw fitting on the back that allows them to De attached to special wall hooks that come with the package. They can also be attached to the optional 166ST speaker stands. (These stands are smaller versions of the excellent 176ST stands that I evaluated with the System 270 package.) When wall mounted, the near-cubical shape of the systems tends to make them look more conspicuous than speakers with a lower, flatter profile might appear.

The connectors on the back of these satellites, as well as on the back of the center-channel speaker, are five-way binding posts that can handle a variety of connectors, including double-banana plugs. However, if the units are wall-mounted, those plugs will not fit. You would have to hook them up the old-fashioned way with bare or tinned-wire leads, or maybe pins.

The center channel in any home-theater system tends to be a bit busier than the left and right mains (although with musical program material, this might not be the case), and so the T70 center has a bit more capability than the other satellites. It contains the same tweeter as the left and right systems, but that tweeter is flanked by two of the titanium-coated 4-inch woofers. Unlike the other satellites, the center does not incude a fitting for wall mounting.

Other than its size (about 13 x 6 x 7 inches) and weight (a bit more than 9 pounds), its specifications are identical to those of the left and right mains, and like them it is also magnetically shielded. This shielding is particularly important with a center speaker, because it might be on top of or right underneath a TV monitor. I should point out that although the power handling is rated the same as the left and right mains, below the 3-kHz crossover point its power handling should be double theirs.

The subwoofer for this system is called the T70 PBM (powered bass module) and it is a nifty little item that is well matched to the satellites, with one qualification that will be outlined up ahead. The driver is a strong, magnetically shielded 10-incher residing in a sealed cabinet that is a bit more than 11 inches wide, a bit more than 16 inches high, and a bit under 15 inches deep. Amplification is provided by a 125-watt, class A/B job. The box weight is 37 pounds, and the finish is the usual fake-wood black vinyl. The unit has a phase-reversal button, a level control, a crossover control, and the usual speaker-level and line-level inputs. The sub has an on/off switch, plus a remote-on feature that has the input signal turn the unit on, and then allow the unit to turn off 7-12 minutes after a program input ends. The two-pronged power cord cannot be detached.

The sub's crossover has low-pass filtering, only (the one qualification I noted, above), with a variable hinge point of from 60-125 Hz, at 24 dB/octave. (This is what the sub's manual says, although the basic system manual says 12 dB/octave.) In my view, the lack of high-pass filtering is not a good thing, because without a high-pass filter taking care of the satellites, they will run full bandwidth if the sub is hooked up the old-fashioned way between a preamp and power amp or with the speaker-level hookups. This defeats one of the two important things that a subwoofer can do: it does not allow the satellite woofer/mids to operate as midrange-only drivers. The result should be constricted satellite power handling and higher distortion from them at high output levels.

OK, now it has to be remembered that the sub can be hooked up to the subwoofer output of a surround processor, and it is obvious that this system is designed mainly to be used with a home-theater processor of that kind. For sure, hooking it up this way is definitely the way I suggest that the sub and satellites be integrated.

Doing it this way, assuming that the surround processor itself has high-pass filtering and a crossover in the 80-100-Hz range, ensures that the sub does its job correctly and that the satellites are allowed to do their jobs correctly, too. When hooking the sub up this way, the manual suggests setting the low-pass to the maximum 125 Hz, in order to get the sub's own low-pass filter out of the circuit as much as possible, and I agree. I would have preferred to have a full "bypass" feature on the unit, but nothing I heard indicated that the 125-Hz setting could cause problems.

While the sub does not have a high-pass filter, it does have a full-bandwidth, signal-passthrough feature that allows the user to piggyback a second sub with the first. I really do not envision using this sub/ sat system in a room large enough to require a second sub of this kind (I believe that the satellites would be overworked in such a room), but if you want to do that, it can be done.

According to the subwoofer manual, the T70 satellites work best with a crossover of about 100 Hz. This is a bit high for preventing mid-bass localizing at the sub, and I assume that the reasoning involves both the low-end power handling of the satellites and their normal lower-extension limit of 100 Hz (-3 dB point). In any case, I used the unit with processors that had both 90-Hz and 80-Hz crossovers with no integration problems at all that I could detect.

I first set the five satellites and subwoofer up in my main listening room, which at 3400 cubic feet is probably a tad too large for a system of this size. However, I wanted to see what the hardware could do, and I also have standardized that area for my room-response measurements. While my Yamaha DSP-A1 processor normally deals with three main and four surround channels, I was lucky to still have a Parasound AVC-2500 processor/tuner on hand to review. I interfaced it with the six-channel input of the DSP-A1, and this allowed me to do standard 5-channel playback, including "standard" Dolby Surround, Dolby Digital, and DTS processing, with the added benefit of the processor's THX Ultra amendments.

After initial setup, I did some measurements of just the two main channels and subwoofer in operation, in order to see how the system would work in a straight-stereo mode. I have found that this is a good indicator of the musicality of a surround-speaker package like this, no matter how many channels might ultimately be involved. Measurements were done in my usual manner: I used the 20-second integration feature of my AudioControl SA-3051 RTA, while moving the microphone over a 1 x 1 x 5 foot area at roughly ear-height level at the listening couch. This measurement gives me a good idea of the room response in my room, which, because the room is an excellent one, also approximates the power response.

Overall, the performance was quite good. Between 500 Hz and 5 kHz, the response was +/- 3.5 dB, with a mild peak at 1600 Hz and a mild, crossover-related dip at 2.5 kHz. Above 5 kHz, the response fell off smoothly, with the level dropping to about - 6 dB at 12.5 kHz, and then falling off gradually above that frequency. This is a good slope for most home-theater material, and also will work very effectively with a lot of musical program sources. There would be a problem if a THX processor were involved, because it would apply additional attenuation up high. However, with a preamp or processor that did not electrically attenuate the signal, this kind of high-end slope contouring would work quite well, and most of those who purchase a speaker package in this size category will probably not couple it with a typically expensive, or at least moderately expensive, THX processor.

While above 500 Hz it did not seriously matter where the speakers were located, below that frequency the room/boundary effects were influential. For example, with the speakers on their 30-inch stands, out 4 inches from the front wall, and 8 feet apart, I measured a dip several dB deep, centered at 315 Hz. It is certain that this dip was related to the distance to the front wall. The stand height should have generated a second dip at about 135 Hz, but the satellites are apparently frequency contoured to accommodate this artifact, a sign of conscientious design.

When pulled out two feet from the front wall (a not unusual placement for home-theater speakers that have to be properly located in relation to a TV monitor), the dip at 315 Hz disappeared, but the dip at 135 Hz was compounded. However, the FR contouring generated by the satellites still managed to minimize the severity of the suckout notch. This placement delivered the smoothest response of any that I tried.

The transition to the subwoofer at 80 Hz (the crossover point that the AVC-2500 has as its THX default setting), resulted in no problems at all. The small satellites easily accommodated this roll-off point, and there were no sub/ sat crossover artifacts that amounted to anything significant.

In a corner location, the subwoofer delivered a uniform, boundary-reinforced room response down to about 35 Hz, below which the response fell off precipitously. Overall, while the frequency-response performance of this system was not in the same class as the System 270 I reviewed in Issue 75, it was still good, particularly when one takes cost into consideration.

The two-channel, plus-subwoofer response of the T70 left and right main speakers was not quite as flat as what I measured with the Polk RMDS-1 system in Issue 80. However, when you consider that you could combine the T70 with a good DD/DTS receiver and spend a total of about $1,400 for the result, and recall that the RMDS-1 system costs $2,700 (and does not include DTS decoding), you quickly realize that you are getting a lot of bang for the buck with the T70 package.

I also ran some close-microphone measurements of the T70 subwoofer, with the Parasound's 80-Hz crossover in action. The response peaked at 63 Hz, with a steady rolloff below that point. It was 5 dB down at 40 Hz and 10 dB down at 26 Hz. While this seems to not jive with the room-response bass curves, you have to remember that room gain has to be factored in under real-world conditions. When that was done the subwoofer was quite good. Indeed, at 40 Hz it was only 3 dB less potent than the much larger and heavier 272 PBM sub used in the company's larger System 270. The 272 PBM costs more than twice as much as the T70 version.

I also checked the sub out for maximum output. With it positioned in the corner and the measurement microphone at the listening couch 17 feet away, it delivered a clean 100 dB at 31.5 Hz and a clean 90 dB at 20 Hz. I could actually get the sub to generate 110 and 100 dB at those frequencies, but doubling was audible when I did that. Even then, however, the device showed no signs of serious overloading distress and that 110 dB peak ability at 31.5 Hz, even if it was a bit distorted, has to be considered impressive.

As a point of reference, I will note that the company's 272 PBM sub could hit 110 and 107 dB at those two frequencies, with the lower-frequency reading at 107 dB generating a bit of doubling, although not quite so much as the T70 sub at 7 dB below that level. The $1,000 B&W ASW 2000 I reviewed in Issue 73 could hit 108.9 and 100.7 (with doubling audible at the latter level and frequency) and the $800 Velodyne CT-150 reviewed in Issue 79 could hit 108.7 and 97 (again, with a bit of doubling at the lower frequency and level, although not quite so extreme as any of the AT subs or the B&W sub).

Clearly, the T70 sub is no destroyer of large rooms, at least if the user wants to keep the levels low enough for a really clean output. However, there is no doubt at all that it will be quite a shaker in the kind of smaller rooms that the T70 speaker package would be installed in.

I also measured the T70 center channel. Its response was complementary to that of the left and right mains. However, placement variables will have a strong impact here, and so I would not expect the center to accurately mimic the performance of the mains under all listening conditions. There was some signs of interference lobing at angles beyond 30 degrees off, but it seemed to be a bit less than typical for horizontal MTM center units, because the midrange drivers were a bit closer together than what we have with some larger versions.

While we are still on the subject of measurements, I will also note that after I did my musical and movie listening tests with this system in my large room, I moved it into the smaller one in the back (about 2000 cubic feet) and measured again. In this room (with the mains on an enclosed bench and the center on top of that room's 45-inch TV monitor and using my Yamaha DSP-A3090 integrated amp set for five-channel playback, and with a sub/sat crossover point of 90 Hz), the response of the mains was flatter than in the big room (the bench placement helped to smooth out the mid-bass suckout notch) and the center was again complementary to the mains. There was a mild peak at about 500-630 Hz that was no doubt the result of its location on top of the large TV set.

I also listened to a variety of musical program material on the system when it was set up in this room (mainly in the stereo mode, but also a bit with the Yamaha's standard Dolby Pro Logic function engaged), and I was very impressed to say the least. In an intimate environment, where this system obviously will be most at home, it had an uncanny ability to sound extremely upscale.

Getting back to the sound in the main room. Once the measurements were completed, I settled back and fed the system a variety of musical and movie program material. One of the first things that struck me was the smoothness of the transitions from the center to the mains and the mains to the surrounds, with both standard two-channel program material (given Dolby Pro Logic decoding) and with some of the Dolby Digital and DTS software I had on hand.

Indeed, I was so initially impressed that I stopped my musical listening for a short while and tried out both the standard DPL pink-noise channel sweeps on the Delos Surround Spectacular test disc (DE-3179) and the 360-degree, around-the-room, Dolby Digital sweep contained on the Avia DVD video test disc. The transitions were very good, with only a slight amount of diffusion at the half-left and half-right locations up front, and with very impressive compatibility between the main speakers and the surrounds. There is no doubt that the speakers will integrate well with each other quite well in typical listening situations and listening rooms.

I tried out a fair number of musical recordings with this speaker array in both rooms, and I was not disappointed. Even though the little subwoofer is not about to put Velodyne or Hsu at risk, it did very well with a number of killer-bass recordings, including Bass Mekanik (Pandisc 8848) and the Messiaen organ snippet on my Delos Engineer's Choice demo disc (DE-3512). There was some doubling on parts of the Messiaen work, but for the most part the little sub was really impressive, even in my larger room.

The array also sounded good with both stereo-only and Dolby Pro Logic decoding with virtually all the remaining sampler items on the Delos disc, including those which involved a centered vocalist. The balance, integration, and overall smoothness were quite respectable.

For kicks, I brought in a pair of Acoustic Research Phantom 8.3 speakers that I had on hand for reviewing, and did some side-by-side, quick-switchover A/ B comparing with stereo program material. To better compare both pairs in the midrange and treble, I let my Velodyne F1800RII sub handle the low bass. While the Phantoms, a pair of speakers that I gain more respect for every time I hear them and which do indeed measure flatter than the T70 satellites throughout the midrange and treble, did better them in terms of smoothness, spaciousness, and detail, the contest was not a walkover. This is remarkable, when one considers that the two phantom speakers and their dedicated stands cost half again as much as the entire five-piece-plus-subwoofer T70 package.

So, what do I think of the T70 home-theater array? Well, I think that it works well for both music and movies, and although I would not want to stack it up against the best of the best in a big room, I think that it can serve as a fine, smaller-scale, practical audio and audio-video speaker array for somebody just getting started in the hi-fi and/or home-theater game. In that respect, it is very similar in concept to the very comprehensive and excellent Polk RMDS-1 speaker/processor/ amp system. Of course it costs considerably less than that package, even if we add in the price of a good A/V receiver to drive the AT systems.

In addition, I think that it would make a terrific second system (particularly if we are talking about watching movies) for somebody who has a killer-elite system in one part of the house and wants to have a way for the wife and/or kids to have a good time in another part. I have a friend who has recently set up a T70 system, a nifty Onkyo receiver, two VCRs, and a DVD player in his modest living room, and he and his wife are having a better time with the package than many high-end buffs are probably having with their super-duper installations. What's more, they have a lot of cash left over with which to purchase software. --HF