Tower Speaker Reviews

Quick, which do you think would be more difficult to do: design a cutting-edge, no-compromises speaker or design a speaker that gives the best possible performance for a very affordable price? While coming up with a mind-blowing design without any cost boundaries is undoubtedly a daunting challenge, I would argue that producing a loudspeaker that can deliver killer results for a very affordable price is much harder. Making great budget speakers involves the art of compromise, knowing where you can save money without sacrificing the sonic results you're after.

Over thirty years ago, B&W Loudspeakers set out to build a speaker that would set the standard in sound and build quality, a speaker that other companies would strive for years to keep up with. Today, there is little doubt that B&W's goal was achieved. In fact, the designs of yesterday were so successful that 80 percent of all classical recordings are monitored using B&W loudspeakers.

A core tenet of stellar home theater reproduction calls for a system's ability to re-create infrasonic bass—the kind that drops so low that you no longer hear it, but you can feel it throughout the length of your alimentary canal. The kind of bass that threatens to shatter your gallstones. Of course, getting this kind of gut-whomping bass is relatively easy today, depending on your room's resonance nodes and the amount of greenbacks you can muster for the purchase of a foundation-rattling subwoofer.

Something that never fails to irritate me is an intemperately enthusiastic review of an outrageously expensive product. I'm sure this is partly because I hate reading about something that might just be every bit as good as the reviewer says it is when I can't afford to buy it. But I think the greater part of my pique is because I suspect the reviewer was so awestruck by the product's princely price that he couldn't bring himself to find fault with it. Oh, sure, he'll pick a few nits just to show how perceptive he is, but his "report" will essentially be an exercise in idolatry, with nary a question about value for money.

I've heard too many speakers. After 10 years of reviewing them, it's hard for me to remember what it was like to be surprised . . . astounded . . . amazed by a really good speaker. However, over the past couple of months, I've gotten a taste of what it was like when I first heard good speakers— when I first experienced broad soundstaging, precise imaging, and a neutral, natural tonal balance.

Having spent the first 18 years of my life in the great state of Alaska, it seems only natural that I've developed a taste for some of Canada's finer exports. As if hockey, some tasty rye whiskeys, and all that fresh powder that sweeps down upon the western ski resorts from the north weren't enough, the disproportionately high number of quality loudspeakers produced there intrigues me, as well. There may be fewer speaker manufacturers in that entire country than in certain regions of the U.S., but I'll wager that Canada's ratio of solid to subpar speaker offerings will hold its own against any other country in the mix.

R<I>evel</I>. Interesting name for a new speaker company. The most apt definition of the word from my old dictionary is "to take much pleasure; delight." Or perhaps those who chose the name were intrigued by the wordplay they could make with "revel-ation."