PhaseTech dARTS in-wall speaker system

Contributing writer Steve Guttenberg feels that tried-and-true approaches are the path to audio perfection. He insists that the best sound comes from just two speakers, built with the highest-quality components and positioned perfectly in a room.

I prefer a brute-force technological approach. I say, if you want a strong center image, add a center speaker. If you want an enveloping sound, add surround speakers. If you want to fix a boomy subwoofer, put an equalizer on it.

So why don't I fire him? Because I see his point. The technological approach to sound reproduction often fails to deliver what its purveyors promise. Consider the dreadful-sounding Stadium and Concert Hall reverb modes built into audio/video receivers, and the wretched home-theater-in-a-box systems in electronics megastores. But the Phase Technology Digital Audio Reference Theater System (dARTS) is in a completely different category. I'm almost glad Steve's not here to hear it—I wouldn't want to see the crestfallen look on his face.

The DP-2000 amp/processor contains 16 channels of digital amplification and a digital signal processing chip running Audyssey Labs' MultEQ software. (Click image to enlarge.)

The dARTS system is the most advanced I have yet encountered. It uses only a single DP-2000 amplifier and a collection of ordinary-looking speakers. On closer examination, you see that the DP-2000 provides a staggering 16 channels of digital amplification. The system has so many amp channels because each speaker gets two: one for the woofers, one for the tweeter. A digital signal processor (DSP) inside the DP-2000 divides the sound into bass for the woofers and treble for the tweeters.

Then Phase Tech takes it a step further: It measures the performance of each and every dARTS speaker to discover its imperfections, and programs corrections for those imperfections into the DP-2000. Thus, each amp is custom-tailored to a particular set of speakers.

But then Phase Tech takes it another step. Even though the sound that emerges from the dARTS speakers is pretty close to theoretical perfection, the sound of your room is not. So the DP-2000 also incorporates Audyssey Labs' MultEQ processing. MultEQ finds and corrects the acoustical flaws of your room. These flaws include tonal errors caused by your room accentuating certain frequencies relative to others, and timing errors caused by room reverbration. MultEQ also makes the sound much more consistent from seat to seat. It even works on the subwoofer—the DP-2000 has jacks for subwoofer input and output that give MultEQ control of your bass signals. To calibrate the system, your installer simply connects a computer and a measurement microphone to the DP-2000, and Audyssey's software does the rest.

The DIW1.0LRC in-wall speaker has no crossover circuit for its woofers and tweeter, just terminals that connect the drivers directly to the DP-2000 amp/processor, which performs all crossover functions internally. (Click image to enlarge.)

Phase Tech recently introduced dARTS in an in-wall system, which company president Ken Hecht swears sounds indistinguishable from the freestanding version. Each of the front speakers has two woofers and a single tweeter, but no crossover circuitry. The speaker drivers connect directly to the amplifier through a standard four-conductor speaker cable. I use three DIW1.0LRC in-walls for the front left, center, and right channels; two DCB-SURR on-wall dipole surround speakers; and two of Phase Tech's DCB 112-SUB subwoofers.

What Phase Tech's engineers and Audyssey's scientists have achieved is nothing short of startling. In terms of tonal neutrality—the evenness, balance, and natural sound of bass, midrange, and treble—the dARTS system may be the best I have heard. It sounds two or three notches more neutral and natural even than my beloved Genelec HT205 powered speakers (which themselves sound more neutral than most speakers). Whether it's a deep-voiced male actor or a wispy female folk singer, I perceive no unnatural coloration. The bass is tight, the midrange distinct, and the treble clear. I think anyone who says dARTS has any perceptible tonal coloration would complain about tonal coloration if Pavarotti were singing right in front of them (i.e., "His gut is pumping up the lower mids!").

The spatial characteristics are similarly impressive-which is quite a feat, because so many other in-wall speakers produce a rather dimensionless sound. I am amazed to hear sounds from my favorite stereo recordings wrap around me, even when I am only listening to the front left and right speakers. Atmospheric sounds—rain, street noise, crowd murmur—in DVD soundtracks seem unusually realistic.

Imperfections? Only two. The in-wall speakers are rather large and ungracefully squarish; your interior designer may nag your installer to use something smaller. Also, the MultEQ software leaves one item to chance: Your installer must tell it how absorptive the room is of sound, i.e., reverberant, non-reverberant, or two steps in between. Hecht guesses on the least reverberant of the four settings for my room, but this leaves the sound too bright. Choosing the next setting and recalibrating the system yields the perfect sound I describe above. (Audyssey Labs promised a solution for this problem in late 2006.)

Guys like Guttenberg may always cling to the idea that the crunchy-granola, tubes/stereo/vinyl approach is the path to optimal sound. While I admit that the simple approach has its charms, the dARTS system proves that using the brute force of technology is the best path to perfection.

DESCRIPTION
Home theater audio system including amplifier/digital sound processor, in-wall and on-wall speakers, and subwoofers. Requires separate surround-sound processor

COMPONENTS
DP-2000: 16 250-watt digital amplifiers
DIW1.0LRC: two 6.5-inch woven-fiber cone woofers, 1-inch fabric dome tweeter
DCB-SURR: two 5.25-inch woven-fiber cone woofers, two 1-inch fabric dome tweeters
DCB 112-SUB: 12-inch poly cone woofer, two 12-inch poly cone passive radiators, 500-watt BASH amplifier

CONNECTIONS
DP-2000: 16 RCA jacks for line input, two line outputs for subwoofers, 16 pairs of five-way binding posts for speaker connection, 3.5mm input and output minijacks for remote on/off
DIW1.0LRC: four-conductor screw terminal connector
DCB-SURR: two pairs of five-way binding posts
DCB 112-SUB: stereo line input and output

DIMENSIONS
DP-2000: 5.6 x 17.2 x 16.8 inches (hwd)
DIW1.0LRC: 23.5 x 14 inches (hw), 3.5-inch installed depth
DCB-SURR: 20.2 x 10.5 x 4.7 inches (hwd)
DCB 112-SUB: 15 x 14.4 x 15.7 inches (hwd)

PRICE/CONTACT
PRICE: $18,450
CONTACT: 888.PHASETK, www.phasetech.com