Atlantic Technology System 4200 manual Lab, Absolutely.S&V

in the lab

climactic sequence, the extravagant de- mands of “big-sound” impacts and colli- sions were met with surprising realism.

In my standard checks for center-speak- er performance, the 4200 C was a near per- fect tonal match for the 4200 LRs, and its midrange tones changed very little as I

Sensitivity (SPL at 1 meter with 2.8 volts of

pink-noise input)
front left/right	88 dB
center	89 dB
surround	88 dB
Impedance (minimum/nominal)
front left/right	4.5/8 ohms
center	4.5/8 ohms
surround	3.8/6 ohms

Bass limits (lowest frequency and maximum SPL with limit of 10% distortion at 2 meters in a

large room)
front left/right	80 Hz at 86 dB SPL
center	80 Hz at 84 dB SPL
surround	80 Hz at 73 dB SPL
subwoofer	20 Hz at 79 dB SPL

103 dB average SPL from 25 to 62 Hz

105 dB maximum SPL at 62 Hz bandwidth uniformity 98%

moved off-center. Vertical positioning was just as critical for the 4200 C as for the 4200 LRs. Fortunately, the center speaker incorporates a tiltable base that makes aim- ing the tweeter easy. It’s cleverly simple and effective, but it does raise the speaker a couple of inches higher than optimal for TV-top placement.

Okay, okay, I’m nit-picking. Atlantic Technology’s System 4200 is simply an outstanding speaker suite for medium-size rooms. It might not be my first choice if all I played was stereo music — but I can’t imagine anyone seriously considering it primarily for that. For everything else, movies and multichannel music alike, it’s an undeniable winner. I don’t think you can ask for much more from so compact a speaker system. Expensive? Yes. Worth it?

Absolutely.S&V

All of the response curves in the graph are weighted to reflect how sound arrives at a listener’s ears with normal speaker placement. The 4200 LR left/right front and 4200 C center speakers had virtually identical on-axis response, with curious roughness above 1 kHz. The 4200 LR had extremely uniform off-axis response, while the 4200 C had some lobing at 30° and wider listening angles. The Boundary-On switch position cut output below 270 Hz by 3 dB for the 4200 C and half that amount for the 4200 LR. The HF Energy switch cut output by 1 dB above 5 kHz when set to the Reverberant position and boosted it by 1 dB in the Damped Room posi- tion. The 4200 SR had the classic relatively smooth but limited bandwidth response often seen with bipolar speakers. Measured directly on-axis in the Dipole setting, it had a 30-dB deep null that began at 150 Hz and extended to 8 kHz.

I measured bass limits for the 641 SB subwoofer with it set to maximum bandwidth and placed in the optimal corner of a 7,500- cubic-foot room. In a smaller room users can

expect 2 to 3 Hz deeper extension and up to 3 dB higher sound-pressure level (SPL). The sub had an impressively uniform power delivery across its bandwidth, delivering 100 dB SPL or greater at every frequency from 25 Hz on up. In the crossover-bypass setting, its frequency response extended to nearly 200 Hz. Because of a malfunction in my sample, I was unable to test the variable crossover. — Tom Nousaine

15	front left/right	90 Hz to 19 kHz ±3.4 dB
	center	90 Hz to 19 kHz ±3.7 dB
	surround	200 Hz to 15.4 kHz ±4.0 dB
10	subwoofer	29 Hz to 196 Hz ±4.7 dB

decibels	5
	0
	–5
–10
	–15 20	100	1k	10k	20k
	hertz