I've been meaning to make some notes regarding the performance of the Outlaw Surround Loudspeakers for a few weeks now. As I mentioned earlier in the forum, I ordered a pair for my side surrounds to replace some Axiom M3ti's that were installed due to space restrictions that prevented me from using my Paradigm Studio ADP's after we moved in January 2004. The M3's did a fair job, but they were never the equal of the other speakers in the system. They also were not dipole surrounds. I'd been contemplating some b-stock BLS's as replacements (didn't want to drill mounting bracket holes into a-stock cabinets), but the SL's provided me with a better alternative.



My SL's are mounted in the only available locations on my side walls. (Click on the images above for larger pictures.) They are not exactly optimal positions, but with the wall brackets I had from the M3's they have a reasonable chance of doing the job. They are smaller than the M3's in depth and height, although the sloped sides result in a wider face. The metal grilles give them what I consider to be a more handsome appearance, as well, and the aluminum top and bottom plates are a really nice aesthetic touch that I hadn't expected. I've had them installed for several weeks now, but our busy schedules had limited opportunities to really crank the system up and listen loud. Without that true test, my initial feelings were very positive, though. The surrounds seemed more natural and integrated when watching 5.1 sources, which is likely a combination of the dipole design (mine are set for "diffuse" operation rather than "direct") and the performance of the speakers themselves.

Then last week I had some work done on my right hip. The three large screws that were installed in May 2008 came out, and some other work was done to the head of my femur in hopes of slowing or halting the signs of necrosis likely caused by my fall last year. I was left to sit at home for a few days, and on Monday (the first day that I really had the place to myself) I queued up two Blu-rays to give the system a good workout: Transformers 2 and The Dark Knight. I had my BDP-83 set to bitstream over HDMI (a setting that fluctuates from time to time and is actually set to LPCM more often than not), and my Onkyo 885 defaulted to straight decoding of the lossless 5.1 tracks from both discs. I decided not to overlay Pro Logic IIx (which is my usual choice) in order to evaluate just the 5.1 performance without any additional contribution from the Studio ADP back surrounds.

My original expectations for the first Transformers movie were very, very low, and I rented it from Netflix simply out of curiosity. As such, I really was pleasantly surprised to get a somewhat silly, slightly over-long, generally fun summer action movie. That wasn't enough to cause me to actually try to see the sequel in theaters, though, so this was my first viewing of Transformers 2. The soundtrack was as lively and theater-testing as one would expect, and several times I found myself noticing that the surround effects were more open and non-localized (for lack of a better term) with the SL's. Never did I find myself thinking, "there is the speaker" and being able to pinpoint either of the surrounds. They did the job of creating an enveloping mix admirably. In that regard, they were a definite upgrade. The Dark Knight (the only movie of 2008 that I actually succeeded in seeing in theaters while encumbered by my broken hip) just reinforced that assessment. They did a great job handling the back of the room. The inactive rear surrounds really weren't missed.

On Tuesday, I lost almost half of the day to a conference call for work, but I was still at home. That gave me a chance to try out the new Up Blu-ray. This allowed me to get some idea of the effectiveness of the SL's at blending with the Outlaw speakers that provide the front trio (BLS fronts and LCR in the center). Little things like the knocks on Carl's front door were stretched into the right surround, and they were so well voiced that twice I wondered why someone was knocking on my deck door.

I'll probably try to add this to my earlier review of the BLS and LCR speakers when I get a chance, but I wanted to go ahead and share these experiences with the saloon while they were fresh on my mind. The week has re-affirmed my plan to eventually replace the big Studio ADP's with a second part of SL's, which I will most likely run in "direct" mode in their role as rear surround speakers.