What We Think

A gorgeous system that delivers great sound — but you'll pay for the pleasure.

When TVs made the transition from bulky, oversize boxes to a slimmer, wall-friendly format a few years back, some speaker companies took the hint and came out with ultra-trim systems that were a better match for the new video displays. Among them was B&W, whose wall-hanging FPM series was not only a perfect visual accompaniment to bigscreen plasma or LCD TVs, but also sounded surprisingly good for speakers less than 4 inches deep. Now, with the new B&W XT series, the company has introduced another variation on the slender speaker theme — one that definitely kicks things up a notch in visual style.

Placed in my humble home theater/workspace, the gleaming, aluminum-sheathed B&W XT series home theater speaker system ($5,800) looked positively radiant — almost too nice. I couldn't help but feel sorry for it that it wasn't destined for some minimalist loft space alongside designer furniture and contemporary art. Each XT speaker is formed from an extruded aluminum enclosure that arches back gracefully toward the rear. Both the tall XT4 tower and XT2 satellite also feature B&W's distinctive, tube-loaded tweeter. The design, adopted from the company's high-end Nautilus line, places the tweeter in a separate module on top of the speaker — an arrangement that's said to improve the dispersion of sound across a wide area and deliver more open-sounding highs. All speakers in the system also sport the company's trademark yellow woven-Kevlar midrange driver — something that you'll need to strip off the black cloth grilles to experience.

In another departure from traditional form, B&W's unique PV1 subwoofer has dual 8-inch mica/aluminum drivers pushing out from opposite sides of its orb-shaped enclosure. The sub's aluminum finish (it also comes in white or black) makes it a perfect match for the rest of the system. A control strip along the rear includes a three-position equalization switch for reducing the sub's output at the lowest frequencies — useful for taming bass boom in certain rooms — and an auto mode that lets it power up automatically upon receiving a signal.

SETUP Each XT4 tower comes with heavy-duty spikes that jut out at a 45° angle to stabilize the tall, slender speaker. After stabbing the armored bases of the XT4s into the reasonably plush carpet surrounding my plasma TV stand, I played a familiar acoustic guitar and vocal track, Richard Thompson's "King of Bohemia," to help me position them. Although the XT4s' imaging proved very sensitive to placement, after 20 minutes of moving and toeing in the towers, Thompson's voice finally locked in between them. Both the XTC center channel and XT2 satellite speakers come with brackets for permanent wall mounting. For my temporary arrangement, I placed the XTC on the center shelf of my TV stand, angling it slightly upward on its curved mounting plate. I put the XT2s on high speaker stands slightly behind and to either side of my couch (B&W offers its own 27.5-inch high FS-XT speaker stands for $300 a pair). The PV1 subwoofer, meanwhile, went into my room's front right corner, pulled out a foot or so to strike the best compromise between actual bass and boom with the EQ setting at 1.

Listened to full-range without aid of a sub, the B&W XT4 tower speaker delivered decent bass extension. More important, there was a cohesive sonic transition between its upper and lower ranges — for straight-out music listening, all but the bass-hungry will be satisfied with the towers alone. B&W includes a set of foam plugs with each speaker that can be pushed into its front ports to tame bass response — useful if you install the XT4 towers relatively close to your room's back wall. For home theater, however, subwoofers are a necessity rather than a luxury. After experimenting, I found that the XT4 blended well with the PV1 when I set my preamp/processor's subwoofer crossover to 60 Hz, while the other speakers sounded good with the standard THX 80-Hz crossover.

The Short Form

$5,800 / bwspeakers.com / 978-664-2870

Plus

•Great looks and build quality. •Excellent overall performance. •Slim design mates well with newer TVs.

Minus

•Pricey. •Sub won't go as low or loud as some others in its price range.

Key Features

•XT4 tower front left/right ($2,500 a pair) 1-in tweeter, 5-in midrange, 5-in woofer; 44.8 in high; 49 lbs •XTC center ($800) 1-in tweeter, two 6-in midrange/woofers; 20.3 in wide; 17.5 lbs •XT2 satellite surround ($1,000 a pair) •1-in tweeter, 5-in midrange/woofer; 12.3 in high; 11 lbs •PV1 subwoofer ($1,500) two 8-inch woofers; 500-watt amplifier; three EQ settings; 13.3 x 11.5 x 13.8 in, 45 lbs •Natural aluminum finish for all speakers; aluminum, black, or white finish for subwoofer

Test Bench

The B&W XT home theater speaker system has reasonably smooth midrange and treble frequency response with nicely extended bass capability for the XT4 left/right channel speakers. However, the XTC center channel exhibits uneven off-axis response that worsens considerably as the listener moves farther from the sweet spot. The PV1 mini-subwoofer lacks extended low-frequency capability. The XT4, XT2, and XTC are relatively inefficient and may require powerful amplification for dynamic program material. —Tom Nousaine Full Lab Results

MUSIC PERFORMANCE Reaching for tunes worthy of the stylish B&W XT Series home theater speaker system, I pulled out The Clientele's latest CD, Strange Geometry. The XTs proved well up to the task of delivering this band's lush, neo-British Invasion sound, rendering the delicate background strings in "I Can't Seem to Make You Mine" with a compelling combination of silkiness and detail. As the dreamy pop song drifted toward its conclusion, I was struck by how distinct all the various instrument layers — strings, piano, tremolo-touched guitar — sounded. And, riding on top of it all, the brush-stroked cymbals and snare drum came off as remarkably crisp, with natural overtones and a strong sense of presence. The B&W XT system's silky rendering of strings also carried over to classical recordings, with Pieter Wispelwey's cello solo in Tchaikovsky's "Variations on a Rococo Theme" coming across in a warm, full manner that clearly revealed the body of the instrument.

The PV1 sub sounded tight and tuneful when playing jazz tracks featuring acoustic bass solos, especially in the crucial lower mid-bass range. It didn't deliver the serious low-end wallop that I've heard on a few other subs costing about the same or less, but was more than sufficient for most music and movies. As I listened to dynamic tracks like "Ripples" from electronica artists The Orb (an apropos choice for testing the PV1), the song's driving electronic drumbeats sounded full and powerful. And the band's dense techno-dub sound went far to show off the system's precision, with the B&Ws casting a huge sonic image that extended well beyond the speakers.

MOVIE PERFORMANCE The B&W XT home theater speaker system also did a respectable job with the crazed soundtrack of the movie Domino when I watched it on DVD. Dialogue sounded crisp and balanced through the XTC center channel, with the deep, bassy voice of Claremont Williams (Delroy Lindo) and the more birdlike chatter of Domino (Keira Knightley) retaining equal levels of clarity when I slid from a center seat to the far side of my couch. The XT2 satellites also turned out to be outstanding surround speakers. In a scene where Domino and Co. detonate a reality-TV crew's mobile studio, the system rendered the 360° directional effects with surgical precision as the bounty hunters' vehicle first swerved out around a building and then tore away from the scene of the crime. And when the van burst into flames immediately after, the explosion sounded shockingly loud and full.

BOTTOM LINE The B&W XT home theater speaker system combines striking, high-end looks with the sonic attributes I've come to expect from the company over the years: exceptionally clean midrange, smooth, refined highs, and precise imaging. And the system's dynamics and low-end reach should please all but the most ardent bass hogs. If you're seeking flat, TV-friendly speakers and don't have a lot of money to spend, there are plenty of excellent packages out there costing less than half as much as these pricey B&Ws (I should know, since I've reviewed several of them in the past year). But if you're looking for a system that offers great sound and also makes a strong design statement — something to fill that art-filled loft, perhaps — I'm sure you'll be as impressed as I was with B&W's sublime, shiny XT speakers.

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