By Mark Farmer
In a world of so many speaker manufacturers it is enough to make your head spin thinking about purchasing new speakers for your application. Well, Altec Lansing has recently released some new speakers in their DTS Line that will make your head stop spinning. The product reviewed here is a versatile box designed for live use or installations in your church, school, concert hall, or convention center.
Features
The DTS-200 is a two-way, vented Duplex® design. The design places a 1” horn driver mounted in the center of a 12” low frequency driver. The combined drivers actually share the same magnet assembly.
The box is an injection molded, high impact polypropylene made to withstand any bumps, bruises and weather conditions. The bottom of the boxes have four solid rubber feet and are designed to stack on top of each other. Threaded inserts are available on the paintable surface to mount with. Also, according to Altec Lansing, mounting kits are available to hang speakers in single units or groups. Input to the DTS-200 speakers is provided in two forms, 4-pin Neutrik Speakon® connectors, and a standard 1/4” female jack, with an extra Neutrik connector provided for jumpers.
A factory installed passive crossover is set at 1.5kHz, with a tweeter protection device attached, to avoid over-powering the horn drivers. According to the preliminary manual, the super efficient Duplex® system has a coverage of 110 degrees horizontal by 100 degrees vertical at 1kHz. The nominal pattern of the Vari-Intense® CD horn and the high-powered 12” is 90 x 90 degrees. Frequency response reaches wide from 80-20,00Hz and dips quite low for a box so small. According to Altec Lansing, up to 123 dB can be attained, with only 200 watts long term power input.
In Use
As I opened the boxes to view the new Altec Lansing DTS-200 my co-workers and I were astonished to find the comparable look of a Electro-Voice product. By removing the grill, we found the difference, a weird four-leaf clover horn flare integrated into a 12” speaker.
We stood there looking at the co-axial design examining the construction and design work. I could not wait to take it out and use it.
Since I had worked outdoor shows, in the winter before, I knew how hard it was on electronics and especially speakers. I was going to be doing an event outside, downtown Columbus, for the month of December and knew it would be a true test of integrity for the speakers. I powered them with a Electro-Voice 7100 amplifier which is rated around 100 watts per channel at 8 ohms. Since the nominal impedance of the speakers is about 6.5 ohms I figured this was a good match. An equalizer was inserted into the signal path to smooth the response. I notched 500-800Hz, and two dips, around 2.5kHz and 6.3kHz. It took a few days to match these speakers with our mains but they ended up sounding very close in tone. My colleague and I could not believe how efficient these cabinets were. Frequencies upward from 1.25kHz were nothing but astounding. Uneven studio soundtracks were played nightly, along with live speech, giving the DTS-200’s a test of their dynamic response. We could hear every nuance of the recordings in the speakers and they reproduced the vocals nicely. The bass response reached down below 70 Hz rattling our bones from night to night.
Summary
As far as speakers are concerned, the Altec Lansing DTS-200 boxes would help out in any situation needing some reinforcement or replacement. Because of their wide pattern, they could also be mounted sideways and still obtain the same coverage. If they can withstand the temperature extremes I put them through, I am sure they would work adequately outside anywhere. Give these speakers a listen at your local Altec Lansing dealer, it will be well worth your time.

Mark Farmer is an audio engineer with Live Technologies in Columbus, Ohio and can be reached on the internet at: mixthat@columbus.rr.com

Product Points
Altec-Lansing
DTS-200 Loudspeakers
Plus
+Durable construction
+Super efficient Duplex® speaker design
+Amazing horn pattern
+Full sound spectrum

Minus
-No XLR speaker jack

The Score
A true all in one speaker providing
efficiency and coverage all in
one box.