I searched and auditioned many brands of plasma speakers to find something that sounded great, but still pass the wife approval factor. I even purchased, set up and listened, either I didn’t like the sound, they didn’t fit the space or she gave them the thumbs down. We even looked into custom cabinetry to house speakers, but that was cost prohibitive.
Then one installer suggested Artison Portraits, all I had to do was find some to audition. Finally found a place 2.5hrs away, when we got there the sales guy said “they’re sold and for a custom install”. My wife gave him a good butt chewing and he agreed to hook them up for us. He said he couldn’t hook them up properly because of the dual mono center and special wiring. For a half-assed wiring job they sounded decent and I told him we’d think about it. After doing some online research I went back to the installer that recommended them to place my order for the Portrait LCR and mounting grills/hardware for my specific plasma, already had a pair of Paradigm in-ceiling speakers for the rears and an SVS subwoofer. $1600 and ten days later they arrived.
Installation:
Artison recommends removing the screen from the wall before installing the speakers, since my plasma has a tilt mount I just extended out as far as it would go. That gave me enough room to install hardware and speakers, took about a 1.5hrs to install and connect wires. The wire for the center needs to be split since there’s duals.
Sound:
1st thing I noticed was the center, it sounded as if the dialogue was coming from the center of the screen. The Portraits have a dualmono center, eliminating the center box (WAF).
"Artison’s Center Channel solution, places two speakers on either side of the monitor that both produce the monaural Center Channel signal. The dual speaker approach places the apparent source of the sound in the center of the picture where it belongs and eliminates the cumbersome box that usually sits above or below the TV. Artison has created a left and right speaker that contains the discrete Center Channel speakers. DualMono integrates aesthetics without compromising performance for home theater applications that utilize the new flat panel Plasma or LCD Displays."
War of the Worlds 2005 has been the only movie to stress the centers, but that was listening at 80dBs with the DTS track. The tripod warning horn would cause the driver to distort slightly.
Next was the front soundstage and how wide it sounded, one reason is the side stage tweeter, this is what Artison says,
“Side Firing Stage Tweeter widens the stage beyond the physical placement of the speakers, along with the forward firing Super Audio Tweeters. Portrait LCR provides a more accurate and dynamic Home Theater experience to a larger listening area.”
I was worried that the speakers being so close together that it would sound like one large center channel, but it didn’t. There was great channel separation, panning from left to right or right to left is seamless. These things play loud! Much louder than the Paradigms can handle, the rears distort at around 70-75dBs.
Update:
LRS surrounds added to replace the in-ceilings. These are again some new fangled hybrid speaker, Artison says,
“LRS Surround Satellites: Are based on a hybrid acoustic model. Where Low frequencies below 3K are Monopole providing directional components for Home Theater and Dipole for higher frequencies. This combination is ideal for all types of listening”.
Flight of the Phoenix (chapter6) is brutal on the rears, it would produce the worst distorion out of the Paradigms. My average listening volume now 80dBs, these sound perfect even at 85dB.
The Portraits need an addition of subwoofer since there are no woofers included, recommending the crssover set at 80Hz.
All I can say is what an improvement over direct radiators, makes the rear soundfield huge. Having all speakers match is another improvement. All in all, I’m happy with sound, my wife’s happy with looks….now she’d like me to do something about that huge subwoofer, but that’s another story.
http://www.artisonusa.com/index.html
Artison Portrait speaker system
Linear Mode
