Definitive Technology BP-9060 Tower Speaker Review

It’s been a few years now since I’ve had immersive theatre-style surround sound at home. My daughter is in bed by 7:30 PM, and so I typically have to keep my gaming and TV volumes a bit more muffled. However, when I was offered the chance to review the Definitive Technology BP-9060 3-Way Tower Speaker, I couldn’t resist. After all, how can you resist a company whose catch phrase is “What obsession sounds like?”

The first thing I should mention is that these speakers are heavy. They’re about 50 pounds or so in box. The boxes don’t have any sort of carrying handles, so please be sure to bring a friend to get them home from the store. Unboxing is fairly simple, and once the speaker is out of box you can lift and move it from the base quite easily, so it isn’t hard after that.

Getting Acquainted with the Definitive Technology BP-9060 3-Way Tower Speakers

The Definitive Technology BP-9060 3-Way Tower Speaker is a behemoth. It stands just a shade over 3 ½ feet tall, 6 inches wide and 1 foot deep. It comes with a 2×1 inch tweeter, a 3 x 4.5 inch mid-range speaker and a 10 inch self-powered subwoofer. Around the back, there’s a fairly standard rotary pot for you to adjust the bass on your speaker, which Definitive Technology calls its Intelligent Bass Control. These speakers fire out up to 300 watts of power on a forward focused bipolar array. What that means is that it tries to give you as centered of an audio experience as possible with a multi-directional sound experience.

The instruction manuals give you a couple different hookup options to work with, but I found that I had to play with very little to get it to the levels I wanted to. The manual might help you out a little bit more around finding the right range for your home.

Tools and devices required to connect your new speakers

The speakers follow your typical Home Theatre setup. If you’ve hooked up speakers before and are just replacing an existing set, you probably know what to do. If you don’t and are starting from scratch, you’ll need the following:

• A home theatre receiver with speaker inputs in the back
• Speaker wire
• Wire cutter/stripper
• A surge protector with 2 open outlets (one for each speaker)
• A long RCA Y cable or 2 subwoofer cables that can connect with an RCA Y Cable (Optional)
• Any additional cables to connect your devices to your receiver.

The speakers themselves will draw power directly from your receiver and work out of the box. However, you’ll notice that there is an AC Power plug-in included. This is for the integrated subwoofers, which I would highly recommend taking advantage of. There is also an optional LFE/Low Frequency Input for the subwoofer that you can take advantage of once you’ve plugged it in. The LFE port (if your receiver is older, it might be called a “subwoofer out” on there) transmits low frequency bass drops that are often used in movies to give your home theatre a more authentic experience. This isn’t even a question in my mind. You’ve got to do it to get the most out of these speakers.

Installing the Speaker Base

There are some very simple instructions on the box to get the speaker out safely. First, you flip the box upside down and open it that way. You’ll need to expose the bottom of the speaker from its drawstring bag. Pull out the black box next to the speaker. This has your base and installation kit. Leave the speaker in the box, and flip the base upside down to slide over the speaker. With a Phillips head screwdriver, screw the 4 black screws into place. You’ll have noticed some metal mounting pieces in the box too. The padded ones are for flatter surfaces (ie. hardwood floors) while the spikes are softer, deeper piled carpet. I have thinner pile carpet and in the video, I’ll show how the carpet spikes don’t really work for that.

From there, flip the box rightside up and the slide the box off. You’ll have to remove a couple more pieces of styrofoam and the drawstring bag, but that’s it. The speaker is ready to go!

The video review will give you a better visual of all of this.

Using your Definitive Technology BP-9060 3-Way Tower Speakers

I won’t spend any of this review discussing how to install your speakers. The video review goes into it very briefly, but mainly from the standpoint of ensuring you aren’t crossing your + and – terminals. As I had previously mentioned, the speakers will draw through the receiver, but the subwoofers obviously won’t. After spending a lot of hours watching TV, movies and listening to music with these speakers, I would highly recommend taking full advantage of everything these speakers offer, so please make sure you’ve powered the subwoofers.

Once you’ve installed the base, it’s time to place your speakers. Definitive Technology provides some good insight on how far away to place from your wall and at which angle. Unfortunately, my living room TV is not mounted to a wall or up against a wall (there’s a staircase and railing behind it) so I wasn’t able to test wall distance and went with the recommended placement in the instructions otherwise.

On the back of the speakers, you’ll see a few things (see the picture to the right.) Around the back, you’ll see an on/off toggle button above the bass slider. This simply activates and deactivates the logo light on the front and has no other effect. The intelligent bass control’s slider comes into play if you have the sub plugged in. I would recommend leaving them on the middle setting for the time being and then adjusting as you need it. I like a lot of bass (to the point where it drives my wife and daughter crazy) but I was pretty satisfied on the default setting once I hooked these up to the right receiver.

When you power your receiver on, I’d recommend leaving everything for about 30-60 seconds so that the subs can generate enough power. Once you power down the receiver, the speakers will follow suit. Your subs will remain “on” for a short period of time but will also cut signal after it senses inactivity.

On the top of these speakers, there is opportunity for an additional add-on as well. The metal plates at the top of the speakers aren’t just an aesthetic attachment. If you pop them up and off, you’ll see a little docking port at the top. This is for an optional Definitive Technology A90 topper speaker and it’s there for you to get a fuller and richer upward projecting Dolby Atmos and DTS:X experience. Best Buy Canada does not currently stock these, but from what I’ve seen, I’d recommend budgeting an optional $600 for each A90 speaker. All of the reviews I’ve read from owners with both this and the A90 highly recommend pairing them together.

Thoughts on the Definitive Technology BP-9060 3-Way Tower Speaker

In all honesty, these speakers have made me miss having something additional hooked up to my TV at home. Tower speakers are by and large a huge investment (both financially and for the real estate in your living room) for your home and if you can afford these speakers, consider them. They’re far and away the best tower speakers I’ve had in my home and I would definitely make good use for every movie, song or video game played at home.

As I was only reviewing the front tower speakers for the blog, I did not have, but would recommend adding the other pieces for a full Home Theatre surround experience. Definitive Technology separately sells their center and rear speakers, and of course, don’t forget the A90 toppers if you’re planning on going all out. I wouldn’t recommend a separate stand-alone subwoofer like a lot of all-in-one solutions have. Just run with the LFE inputs and you’ll be more than fine.

If you’re just looking to get started on a serious home theatre and piecing things together, these speakers are the perfect start. You might want to rethink your receiver too. I tested these speakers with 2 different receivers (one from my original Home Theatre in 2007, and another manufactured years later) and there was a pretty noticeable difference in the latter, especially when it came to the bass tones in music. The newer receiver had much deeper and richer bass output with the woofers on default settings than the old one did with as many bass boosts it put out. By the time I got to testing these speakers with the Tron Legacy End theme, my phone was actually shaking in my hand from the bass output. You’ll see it in the review video.

The Definitive Technology BP-9060 3-Way Tower Speaker is now available at your local Best Buy and online at BestBuy.ca. Just be sure that you’re clear that the price you see in my link is for a single speaker. Enjoy bringing this one home!

This speaker also has very positive reviews from owners on  the BestBuy.ca product page. If you own these speakers, what are your thoughts? Please let us know in the comments below.