Sat/Sub enthusiasts: just think of this bookshelf speaker as a ‘large satellite’ speaker. While I have not spent much time pursuing small satellite speakers for my own use, in any of the trade shows or conventions I have attended – quite a few – I have not heard any small satellite speaker that would satisfy me. That’s one reason I have three-way speakers all around that the manufacturer called ‘mini-monitors.’ With a 6” woofer, 6” mid-range and 1” tweeter, they are 18 7/8" x 8.5" x 10.5" and weigh in at about 40 lbs. each. For performance reasons, I’d even like to see them have a second 6” woofer and a larger enclosure, but then that would be stretching the term ‘mini-monitor’ beyond it’s meaning by a great deal.

At least two things intrigue me about the Outlaw offering. One, the Outlaws have customizable response settings that I usually only see on internally amplified speakers. To be implement this properly, Outlaw’s passive crossovers have a level of complexity and flexibility not seen in many well-lauded loudspeakers. Two, the commitment to make sure that all speakers of the same model will perform within half-a-dB of spec so that a buyer could start with two and expand later without fear of unmatched sound.

(Don’t know if they ever would, but I’d like to see Outlaw offer versions of their budding loudspeaker line available without any internal passive crossover components at all, instead matched to an active-crossover/multi-amplifier designed specifically to drive the associated loudspeaker(s). Of course Outlaw would likely have the majority of their business in the passive crossover configuration, since that what most of the market is used to buying and using. But having fully active crossover variants would certainly raise an eyebrow of interest on my face.)

I’ll be waiting to see a few reviews of these, although reviews of loudspeakers tend to vary much more than the electronics as loudspeakers tend to influence the ‘flavor’ of the sound more than almost any other component. I almost feel sorry for a loudspeaker heading for reviewers’ auditions. Even if the sound were somehow perfect, reviewers still have to find details of differentiation – and Outlaw is not claiming perfection. Watch out for the slings and arrows!