Outlaw Audio markets A/V receivers and amplifiers direct to consumers via the Internet (hence, the inside-joke corporate name) and it remains among a handful of hi-fi manufacturers pursuing this "retail channel" exclusively. Consequently, it has from the outset pitched its products on the technology-value-performance troika. In adding the simply named LCR loudspeaker to a line that also includes the like-named Bookshelf speaker and four powered subwoofers, the Boston area firm is staying on course.

Featuring a typical "LCR" layout (duh!) with dual woofers sandwiching the tweeter, the new speaker is a plain, flat-black, visually unexciting box (though a handsome perforated-aluminum grille takes off a good deal of the curse). This symmetrical layout is widely employed among home theater speakers because, when arrayed vertically, it impedes the vertical spread of midrange sound while leaving horizontal directivity unaffected, reducing floor and ceiling reflections. This promotes clarity and intelligibility but preserves lateral spread, which in most rooms is more effectively dispersed and damped and thus contributes to tonal evenness and a spaciousness.

Laying down such a speaker for center-channel work, however, delivers the opposite results, meaning that listeners sitting well off-center will hear substantially different balance than those sitting head-on — usually, a more cupped or hollow tone color. (This is the off-axis lobing we're always harping on — "lobing" from the bumps and dips that the woofer interactions induce on a frequency-response plot.)

Okay, acoustics lesson concluded. Outlaw's solution to this conundrum is in visible terms a small switch (one of three on the speaker's rear) labeled Ctr-L/R, which selects between two arrangements of its crossover circuitry. Switched to L/R, the Outlaw is a two-woofer two-way meant for vertical setup in left, right, center (as with an acoustically transparent projection screen), and most surround placements. Switched to Ctr, the speaker is a so-called 2½-way, in which one woofer runs bass-midrange while the other functions as a true, bass-only woofer. This maintains full low-frequency ability but eliminates the lobing response, and thus the horizontal off-axis tonal shift, through the mid frequencies. So, then, what is the LCR? It's two, two, two speakers in one!

The LCR's other switches are labeled High Freq and Boundary Comp. The first delivers ±2 dB of tweeter level, for matching tip-top highs to room reflectivity or individual tastes. The second adjusts bass response to the acoustics of locating a speaker close to or against a wall.

Setup
I placed five LCR speakers in my standard locations, on 30-inch stands at front left/right and center and, for the surrounds, on high shelves to either side of my seating. To complete the system here, Outlaw matched up the LCRs with its imposing 12-inch LFM-1 EX subwoofer, which I heaved into my long-proven sub location, to the left of and behind the left-front speaker.

Selecting the LCRs' switch settings took longer than placing and wiring the speakers themselves. There's nothing to prevent you from setting your stereo pair to Ctr if you so choose — and indeed, I found the front Outlaws, vertically placed and playing in stereo, to sound a tad warmer, deeper, and more musically inviting that way on their own, while the L/R setting clearly worked better for movies and multichannel music. Again, nothing stops you from walking around and switching modes for serious listening in one program type or the other; there is a resultant level change, but it's pretty negligible.

In my setup, Boundary Comp 1 and High Freq 0 proved optimal, yielding highly accurate, uncolored response that tilted just perceptibly toward the cooler or more analytical side of the midrange-warmth spectrum, and with impressively unforced treble presence, crispness, and air. (Even setting High Freq to +2 dB couldn't make the speaker sound spitty or hard.) The LCRs deliver enough bass for casual listening on typical pop stuff, with useful response to around 80 Hz, but a subwoofer is certainly intended and necessary. I ended up with a crossover set to 70 Hz for the best blend of LFM-1 EX sub and LCR speakers.

The Short Form

Price $3,894 (as tested) / outlawaudio.com / 866-688-5297

Snapshot

Highly competent, highly adaptable, and an outstanding value.

Plus

•Superb multichannel performance •Highly tunable for real-world rooms •Excellent value

Minus

•Modest stereo image depth in L/R mode

Key Features

LCR ($649 each) •(2) 5.25-inch cone woofers, 1-inch silk dome tweeter; 19 x 7.25 x 8.8 in; 20 lb LFM-1 EX ($649) •12-inch woofer; 350-watt RMS amplifier; 22.5 x 17 x 24.75 in (incl. feet and controls); 80 lb

Test Bench

The LCR's main features include a 6-dB depression between 7 and 11 kHz and a 3-dB peak at 13.2 kHz. When vertically arrayed, the unit has well controlled directivity, and the Left/Right and Surround channel traces are basically identical. Used horizontally, response is similar out to ±45°, but subject to a huge lobing dip (—27 dB centered at 1.3 kHz) beyond this angle. The LFM-1 EX sub, in its Maximum Output mode, delivered a healthy 107 dB average SPL from 25 to 62 Hz, max SPL of 110 dB at 32 Hz, and 93 dB at its bass limit of 20 Hz (<10% distortion). — Tom Nousaine Full Lab Results

Music & Movie Performance
The Outlaw LCRs did everything well, without once calling attention to themselves. Tonal accuracy, dynamic impact, spatial imaging — all were eminently on display over my usual rotation of 2-channel test tracks. In their L/R setting, the Outlaws weren't particularly airy or spacious on stereo material, nor would I expect them to be: The symmetrical dual-woofer array is intentionally fairly stingy with reflection-bound dispersive sound, which tends to favor a drier, more focused, intense stereo presentation. This is great for "hearing into" a mix, and for locating voices and instruments in a left-right soundstage (which the LCRs did admirably), but it's not particularly aggressive in creating an illusion of depth. Switching the LCRs to their Ctr mode, while leaving them standing vertically, changes their character in this regard fairly dramatically, however. Good 2-channel recordings offered substantially more depth, as well as being a bit punchier and a touch warmer.

But what a difference with multichannel material! Listening to Dvorák's highly colored symphonic poem The Water Goblin on a Teldec DVD-Audio disc, I was immersed in marvelously believable timbres and dramatic dynamic contrasts. True-to-life levels were no problem with the Outlaws, which rewarded me with that goosebump-inducing sense of rolling low-frequency space. The LCR surrounds produced an adequate listening area without "collapsing" into one or the other speaker, though switching to my everyday dipole surrounds made it substantially larger.

Pop recordings with hard multichannel mixes sounded equally exciting — especially played good and loud. A big, sweeping ballad like Don Henley's "The Heart of the Matter" from the DTS 5.1 CD of The End of the Innocence had a huge, all-encompassing, well-knit sound. And though this heavily processed recording can easily sound too hard — I've heard it so on several systems — the Outlaws successfully combated the tendency.

My LCR center, with its mode switch set to Ctr, required its Boundary Comp switch in the furthest position, –4 dB (probably due to bounce off the TV screen surface). Thus tweaked, this made a very, very close tonal match to its flanking mates, for a seamless front soundstage and a very wide seating range.

The LFM-1 EX subwoofer proved a worthy partner for the LCRs. This big, boxy, unfancy sub gets the job done, with powerful, well-controlled output as low as reasonable folks could desire — well beyond 25 Hz. Its "Variable Tuning" system comprises a contour (EQ) switch and a foam bung to plug one of its two down-firing cabinet ports; together, these retune the sub from a peakier, max-slam response (suitable for hip-hop or The Towering Inferno) to a "20-Hz Bass Extension" setting intended for purist snobs like myself.

On big-bang movie material like the joyless but sonically loaded Mission: Impossible III, the Outlaw speakers were entirely wowing. The system easily played big-cinema-loud with full definition and dynamic punch, though it wants meaningful wattage to do so to full effect. (My 7 x 150-watt power amp did the job without any strain, but I believe it was within hail of its limits a couple of times.)

Optimally placed and switched, the surround-channel LCRs worked quite well, though they were still a shade more apt to localize discrete effects compared with the best dipole surrounds. But that's about the only film-sound weakness I can mention (if it even qualifies), and on the whole the Outlaw system delivered M:I3's relentlessly busy noisiness with great expertise.

Bottom Line
Outlaw Audio's LCR is an unspectacularly competent loudspeaker. But if you think this is meant as faint praise, think again: Used to describe a speaker, "spectacular" is often a pejorative. Deploy this system in a high-end home theater, behind an acoustically transparent screen and sidewall scrims, and I'll wager that very few experts — this humble one included — would even come close to naming its price.

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