Atlantic Technology

A great switch-hitter

Atlantic Technology’s System 1200 is a small, affordable speaker suite that’s been available since late last year, but only recently has the Boston-area firm added a dedicated center-channel speaker designed to mate with the system’s compact satellites. Given my familiarity with AT’s speakers, the first thing I noticed on cracking open the box is that the 1200L/R satellite used for the front left/right and surround positions has only a single woofer instead of two in the woofer-tweeter-woofer arrangement the company uses in its more costly systems. That means a little less power-handling ability and less tightly controlled vertical dispersion, which is another way of saying that there’s more chance for ceiling and floor reflections to adversely affect the critical midrange frequencies than with a three-driver array. In that regard the System 1200 was no different from the other systems reviewed here, both of which also have two-driver L/R satellites, and it otherwise looks a lot like the $3,500 System 4200 that I rated so highly in the May 2004 issue. As it turns out, the family resemblance was nearly as evident in the sound.

Atlantic was unique among our trio here in supplying four identical satellites for front and rear in contrast with Aperion and Wharfedale’s smaller, wall-friendly surrounds. Build quality was very solid, and the speakers had substantial heft for their size. I thought the 1200LR’s gloss-silver lacquer and metal-mesh grille looked swell, but then I’m a sucker for any metal-grilled, Bauhaus-esque design.

SETUP Atlantic’s 1200LR sats include a keyhole hanger and threaded insert for affixing them to walls or stands. The 1200C center includes Atlantic’s cleverly simple vertical-tilt base to aim the speaker up or down toward the listener. Rear-panel switches for Boundary Effect (upper-bass compensation for wall reflections) and Tweeter Level are both valuable options. The 10-inch 212SB subwoofer was the only boomer in this group with a crossover-bypass switch to optimize performance when using your receiver’s built-in crossover. That’s the preferred arrangement with a line-level sub connection and the one I used.