4200e Build Quality & Features

We found the main speakers to be well constructed. You can really feel these speakers are solid just by picking them up. We noted that there was magnetic shielding on the drivers to prevent interference with your main display. There also appeared to be adequate bracing to render the cabinet inert, and plenty of internal dampening material to minimize cabinet resonance. In fact, I don't think they could have added any more foam in there if they wanted to. It took us quite a while to remove it all and get a good look inside the cabinet. The crossover network is a 4th-order asymmetrical Linkwitz-Reilly system that is computer-designed and seems to do the trick quite well. The crossover components looked top notch and the internal wiring was well laid out and efficient (there was not a lot of unnecessary extra wire.) These speakers are sealed up tight and present an overall solid design for a two-way sealed enclosure speaker system.

Handily available on the 4200e LRs is a boundary gain compensation switch (unceremoniously labeled "Boundary") which adjusts the lower frequency output of the speaker to compensate for coupling effects that occur when it is placed in close proximity to a wall or television, or located in or near a cabinet system. The default position is THX/Normal. The 4200e SR speakers are designed to be flush-mounted to either side walls or as rear channels. They have a dipole/bipole switch that alters whether the drivers fire in-phase (bipole) or out of phase (dipole). With exception, the intended use is:

• dipole: the default setting for creating a diffuse surround field desirable for home theater use
• bipole: use for direct-radiating needs such as multi-channel music or in certain rear surround scenarios where placing the surrounds on the side wall is impossible and a less diffused sound is preferred.

The newly-redesigned 642e SB subwoofer is a monster, measuring in at 19 x 19 x 21, or roughly the size of a 19" television. In this system it has to perform well all the way up through 80Hz, the standard THX Select crossover frequency and down through 25Hz. With its robust cabinet size this simply isn't a problem. The volume control for the sub is located on the driver side (front) of the cabinet along with a green power LED which remains on when the sub is receiving signal and red when it is in standby mode. The sub has the convenient-but-expected Auto/On/Off Standby Mode switch which allows the sub to come on when fed signal from the LFE output of the receiver. In addition, it features a pair of low level outputs that can be used to daisy chain another subwoofer to the system. No speaker level inputs or outputs are provided and they certainly aren't required in this system. The subwoofer is rated to extend down to 25Hz, a good tuning frequency and plenty low for 99.9% of the low frequency energy found in most theatrical soundtracks. Some subs which get down to 16Hz at the expense of the rest of the frequency range do not represent my idea of a good subwoofer design... but we'll let you decide.

Internally, the 642e SB subwoofer is well-braced and contains plenty of dampening material. The driver, a robust 12-inch unit, is video-shielded as well and mounted snugly against a front baffle with a double-thick MDF surround for additional stability. The only problem we had with the subwoofer had to do with the connections. Using a Monster-brand subwoofer cable we could actually wobble the RCA input connector quite easily during the process of running the input to the sub. In addition, we actually pulled off an RCA input connector from the back of the sub while removing the cable for inspection of the amplifier. While this is more a testimony to the cable's bad design (it's way too tight), it also showed us that Atlantic Technology could benefit from using better quality RCAs.

The newly-revised 642e SB subwoofer is just about a complete redesign from the original 4200 series. The new "e" series includes a brand new 12" woofer with a much larger motor structure and a new cone material for better performance. The cabinet is also much improved, indeed this sub is now locked up tighter than Fort Knox - an excellent thing for a sealed-enclosure system. Low frequency response seems to be greatly improved and the unit no longer wavers on the lowest frequencies. The driving force behind the 642e subwoofer is the 300-watt internal digital amplifier that incorporates Clear Filter Technology - which Atlantic Technology claims "eliminates the deleterious effects that the subwoofer's enclosure can have on the sound."