Outlaw Audio Bookshelf Owners' Thread

A few weeks ago I received an email from the folks at Outlaw Audio announcing the availability of their new bookshelf. Since I was setting up a new theater, I thought it would be interesting to test a pair (or three) of these out. Since I am partial to wood veneer, I ordered three cherry speakers. They arrived a day later (one of the good things about living near the Outlaws) and were double boxed. They are packaged two to a box (not sure why, as they'd be easier to lug around if packaged singly), so one of the boxes had foam in place of the second speaker.

Workmanship is top-notch: the finish is furniture quality, and the cabinets are finished in what appears to be a matte lacquer. All sides save the front are veneered, while the front baffle is finished in black. The grilles are metal and fit into a groove on the front panel. So as not to scratch the cabinet, the edges of the grill that fit into the groove are covered in felt. This would also appear to stop any potential rattling that a metal grill might cause, while still making the grills easily removable.

Price for the pair is $1099 in cherry and $999 in black (which I haven't seen) or $1649 for three. I am a firm believer in having matching (identical) speakers up front and thus am using them as LCRs. This gives to me a perfect match and panning of action across the screen. Of course, placement will cause response differences (shelf vs freestanding) and Outlaw has tackled this problem with a rather innovative solution. There are two toggle switches on the back: one to adjust the tweeter level (flat, plus and minus 2db) and the other to adjust bass level to tailor the sound to corner, shelf or freestanding placement (flat, minus two and minus four db). This is the first time I've seen this much flexibility in a passive speaker (active speakers such as pro monitors offer these types of adjustments as a matter of course) but the last speaker I can recall that offered low end of this kind was the AR 10pi twenty-five years ago.

The speaker is a two way with 5" woofer and 1" fabric dome tweeter. The drivers appear to be high quality and used with and appropriate crossover (80 hz in my case) can play quite loud with 100 watts per channel. I had no trouble hitting reference level with for instance a Panasonic SA-XR57 and got additional ease using an Outlaw 990 and matching amp all in a 3000 cubic foot room.

Well, how do they sound? I'll post impressions in a bit.

The bookshelf center is on a shelf right below the screen. It is tilting up slightly to be on the same acoustic plane as the left and right speakers. I will upload a couple of photos to show you.

They do sell singles, but in a box that holds two speakers. So if you want a single you get a double box but in place of the the second speaker there is foam.

As promised, some listening impressions:

I set the speakers on 30 Sanus Reference stands. They are about 9 feet apart and 11 feet from the listening chairs. The center is mounted just below my flat panel on the shelf of my Salamander Designs cabinet, which is open in its central position. Here, the bass adjustment switch worked to perfection, allowing me to attenuate the increased low-end response due to the shelf and achieve a seamless match between the left and right speakers. I've logged about 10 hours on them so far and have determined in my slightly live room that the -2db switch on the tweeter works best.

Sonically they are very neutral and transparent with an upfront sound and wide and deep soundstage. Subwoofer blending is excellent: the ported woofer of this speaker appears very well behaved. Without a sub, they sound rather lean and I sure wouldn't want to use them sans sub for movies, but for music you can get by without a sub (bassheads and organ aficionados excepted) but will be missing the bottom octave and half. Outlaw specs them to 54hz (and I have no reason to doubt their claim). Using a subwoofer though, frees up the midrange, makes the sound more fluid and of course adds the missing bottom that makes action movies and bass heavy music so visceral.

Imaging can be downright spooky on the right tracks: I was listening to Herbie Hancock's Possibilities and heard sounds way to the right of the right speaker. In fact, I had to make sure I hadn't accidentally turned on Pro Logic II, but was indeed listening to two channel.

I've run them through the paces using classical, jazz, vocals, opera, some pop and rock and they always sound good: even handed, not emphasizing one frequency range over another. Clarity is excellent and instrumental timbre spot on. Whomever Outlaw hired to design and build these knows speaker design and good sound.

For $1000 they appear expensive for what you get: a pair of small bookshelves, but I consider these to be reference quality with excellent pair matching and sound. They really achieve studio monitor levels of accuracy in a small, beautiful package with wonderful adjustability. I'd be interested in other's thoughts about this new kid on the speaker block.

I've got a set of Genelec 8030s and Dynaudio BM5as that I'm comparing them to. It's been an interesting weekend to say the least. I don't know why there aren't many active consumer level speakers: it seems like an elegant solution to lots of problems.

Oh yeah. I watched War of the Worlds on HBO HD, Planet Earth on Discovery HD, and of course a bunch of music using PL 2 as well as Stereo. You know how the purists would react if all you did was listen to MC Music.

Three identical speakers across the front is the way to go IMHO.

Last night I watched 24 at reference level. Dialog intelligibility was excellent: I was able to make out the various interplay of telephone and regular communication with ease. Compared to several horizontal centers I have had, I definitely felt it was much easier to "decode" what was going on in this complex show. Jack Bauer never sounded better and more there!

Thought I'd revive this thread. The first Outlaw Bookshelf review is out:

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volum...s-12-2007.html