Tower Speaker Reviews

All five channels driven continuously into 8-ohm loads:
0.1% distortion at 168.8 watts
1% distortion at 184.4 watts

Analog frequency response in Stereo mode:
–0.90 dB at 10 Hz; –0.25 dB at 20 Hz
–0.48 dB at 20 kHz; –49.95 dB at 50 kHz

Analog frequency response with signal processing:
–0.89 dB at 10 Hz; –0.24 dB at 20 Hz
–0.47 dB at 20 kHz; –50.45 dB at 50 kHz

This graph shows that the GFR-700HD's left channel, from CD input to speaker output with two channels driving 8-ohm loads, reaches 0.1 percent distortion at 182.6 watts and 1 percent distortion at 207.4 watts. Into 4 ohms, the amplifier reaches 0.1 percent distortion at 365.1 watts and 1 percent distortion at 415.0 watts. Please note that the "all-driven" measurement was performed on a second sample, as the first failed on the test bench before we could complete the entire measurement suite. We could not complete the entire suite on the second sample, as one channel of the analog stereo inputs was inoperable.

Response from the multichannel input to the speaker output measures –0.37 decibels at 10 hertz, –0.11 dB at 20 Hz, +0.01 dB at 20 kilohertz, and –2.71 dB at 50 kHz. THD+N from the amplifier was less than 0.039 percent at 1 kHz when driving 2.83 volts into an 8-ohm load. Crosstalk at 1 kHz driving 2.83 volts into an 8-ohm load was –75.05 dB left to right and –75.29 dB right to left. The signal-to-noise ratio with 2.83 volts driving an 8-ohm load from 10 Hz to 24 kHz with "A" weighting was –87.03 dBrA.

From the Dolby Digital input to the loudspeaker output, the left channel measures –0.02 dB at 20 Hz and –0.44 dB at 20 kHz. The center channel measures –0.04 dB at 20 Hz and –0.52 dB at 20 kHz, and the left surround channel measures –0.03 dB at 20 Hz and –0.52 dB at 20 kHz. From the Dolby Digital input to the line-level output, the LFE channel is –0.07 dB at 20 Hz when referenced to the level at 40 Hz and reaches the upper 3-dB down point at 105 Hz and the upper 6-dB down point at 111 Hz.—MJP

WAIT A MINUTE! The Scoop on the Video Scaling

The GFR-700HD includes a high-performance video-scaling engine for those consumers embracing HDTV and who have displays with HDMI inputs. The GFR-700HD scales cable, video game, DVD, satellite receiver, and broadcast television video input to VGA, 480i, 576i, 480p, 576p, 720p/50, 720p/60, 1080i, 1080p/50, and 1080p/60 to match the display's native resolution. Plus much more.