The Short Form

$1,580 / PURE-ACOUSTICS.COM / 718-788-4411

Snapshot

A stylish speaker package that delivers crisp, articulated sound

Plus

• Clean, detailed, and up-front sound quality • Tasteful styling • Unobtrusive footprint

Minus

• Bright presentation may disturb mellow-sound lovers • Subwoofer lacks real heft • Center channel off-axis colorations

Key Features

• Front towers: 1-in soft-dome tweeter, (4) 3-in mid/bass drivers; available in black, white, or cherry finish; 40 x 5 x 4¼ in; 15 lb • Center channel: 1-in soft-dome tweeter, (2) 3-in mid/bass drivers; available in black, white, or cherry finish; 4¼ x 15 x 5 in; 5½ lb • Surrounds: 1-in soft-dome tweeter, 3-in mid/bass driver; available in black, white, or cherry finish; 6 ¾ x 5 x 4¼ in; 2¾ lb • Subwoofer: 10-in cone driver, 150-watt RMS amplifier; available in black, white, or silver finish; 17¼ x 17½ x 15¾ in; 16 7/8 lb

In a world of globalization, mega-corporations, leveraged buyouts, and hostile takeovers, the audio industry, at least in part, still has a bit of Mom and Pop in it. The speaker-manufacturing segment in particular remains home to many small companies. Case in point is Pure Acoustics, whose five-speaker Dream Tower system falls into the small-room/elegant-style category. Rounding out my test system was the company's >Noble 10 subwoofer. Clearly, Pure Acoustics is not the only choice in this tough market segment, but does it bring anything new to the table?

SETUP

The Dream Tower system comprises the Dream Tower-100 front towers, 101 center speaker, and 102 surrounds. Each 100 tower stands waist high, and its wooden construction makes it surprisingly heavy. (The rounded and tapered Dream Tower speaker cabinets will satisfy the interior decorator lurking inside you.) My gloss- black review models were so shiny, unfortunately, that they could be confused with cheap plastic cabinets that use similar styling. The towers are stabilized with simple wooden bases (some assembly required) and come with stout steel leveling spikes.

Each tower hosts five drivers aligned in perfect vertical symmetry. Reading from top to bottom, there are two woofers followed by one soft-dome tweeter and another two woofers. The tower's top half is protected by a removable grill that covers the drivers, while the cabinet's rear sports binding posts and a small port.

The 101 center speaker uses the same styling cues and cabinet construction as its mates. There are no mounting provisions; the cabinet simply rests on thin cloth pads. At minimum, I would have appreciated a way to adjust vertical tilt.

If you like the towers and the center speaker, then you'll love the system's 102 surrounds, which are smaller (and hence, cuter) versions of the front trio. The two-way design shares the same tweeter and woofer as the rest of the speakers, but the port here is relocated to the back of the cabinet. Also, a mounting bracket makes an appearance.

The Noble 10 subwoofer's cabinet shares the same tapered styling cues as the other speakers. A 10-inch driver fires forward through a grille cloth. (But I thought that the sub looked handsome with the grille removed. ) The cabinet is vented with a downward-firing port and raised off the floor by plastic, spike-like feet. The control set comprises volume, low-pass filter crossover (40 to 180 Hz), phase (normal and reverse), and power mode (on, auto, off). There are stereo line- and speaker-level inputs and outputs. Power is rated at 150 watts.

Installing this system did n' t present any difficulties. It took only a few minutes to screw the bases to the towers and then attach the spikes. All the speakers share the same binding posts, which I found to be less than robust. These are serviceable, but I like my binding posts like I like my hamburgers - beefy. I toed in the left/right towers to directly face my listening position, and placed the center- speaker underneath and flush with my projection TV's screen. The surrounds went up on a bookshelf behind the listening position, and I placed the subwoofer in my usual spot, along the front wall, between the TV and the left tower. Finally, I used my receiver's setup menu to set the front left/right channels to "large," the center and surrounds to "small," and the sub crossover to 120 Hz.