Cooler Xtreme : Audio
/ Sound : Boston Accoustics BA4800
Boston Accoustics BA4800
Introduction
Boston Acoustics is a longtime
maker of quality home theater and home audio speakers, which gives them
somewhat of advantage in the multimedia/computer speaker market thanks to
their long time experience with speaker equipment in general. I’ve had the
privilege of having reviewed, quite extensively, nearly every multimedia
speaker set that Boston Acoustics has come out with thus far (all except
for their exclusive Gateway speakers), and all have turned out to be good
speakers. In fact, the BA635s, a diminutive entry level set that simply
blew me away during my testing, still remains one of my personal all time
favorite multimedia speakers, with some of the most beautiful musical reproduction
within the price range of normal PC speakers ($50-$250). In knowing the
good track record of the company first had, it was with some excitement
that I began my testing of the new 4.1 set from Boston Acoustics – the BA4800s.
The BA4800 speaker set consists
of 4 satellites and a single, jumbo subwoofer. I noticed that the entire
setup was almost certainly derived from earlier speakers made by Boston
Acoustics – the satellites looked nearly identical to all the other satellites
that Boston Acoustics has cranked out in the past BA-4800 Set (the MicroMedia
satellites are almost twin to the BA4800 satellites), and the subwoofer
is almost a twin to the woofer that comes with BA’s higher end MediaTheater
speakers. Each of the 4 satellites almost certainly sports the exact same
2.5” driver, housed in identical solid plastic enclosures and protected
by elegant gray metal grilles, yet two are designed for use as rear speakers,
and the other two are designed as front speakers, by nature of their connectors
at the back of each enclosure. The rear speakers are permanently connected
to 20-foot long cables that end in industry standard RCA jacks. The front
speakers are a little different – the leftmost speaker jacks into the rightmost
speaker using a 1/8” jack. The right speaker connects to the subwoofer via
a thick DIN cable, which also allows the right satellite to transmit its
operation commands, since the command module is mounted on this satellite.
The speaker controls are fairly
basic, with volume, surround, and bass knobs all seated within easy reach
of the user. The volume control also doubles as a power switch, but this
isn’t as cool as a dedicated power switch because it means you have to displace
your volume settings every time you turn the speakers off. Design wise,
some may criticize the BA4800s because the front speakers and rear speakers
are identical, but I see this as no problem, since it ensures that all speakers
are tonally matched, allowing a more transparent front and rear soundstage
which form a more uniform sound environment. This type of tone matching
is especially important in movies and games where front to rear pans become
a seamless experience, rather than a disjointed transition between two pairs
of mismatched satellites.
