Outlaw Audio BLSv2 Bookshelf and LCRv2 Loudspeaker Review

BLSv2 and LCRv2 Speaker Introduction

Outlaw Audio is most well-known for their audio electronics and subwoofers, but about 10 years ago they tried their hand at loudspeakers with successful results. The original BLS Bookshelf Loudspeaker and LCR Loudspeaker were met with acclaim and sold well, but their manufacturing source was closed down after being bought out by a private equity firm. Outlaw did not immediately follow up the BLS or LCR with a successor speaker, since there were few domestic manufacturers that could meet Outlaw’s criteria for a loudspeaker that they would be willing to sell. Recently, however, Outlaw Audio decided to get back into the speaker game. Advances made in design and manufacturing have made it possible to recreate and even improve on their classic BLS and LCR speakers for a significantly lower cost than the originals. Outlaw has also allowed manufacturing to be done overseas (Indonesia in this case), where previously they wanted manufacturing to be done in the USA. This brings us to our loudspeakers under review today, the BLSv2 and LCRv2.

The BLSv2 and LCRv2 were largely designed by the same engineers who created the originals; Snell Acoustics R&D group. Snell Acoustics was a very highly-regarded loudspeaker manufacturer who were famed for their tight manufacturing tolerances and tonally neutral sound. Snell Acoustics was bought by D&M Holdings in 2005, and D&M Holdings was bought by the private equity firm Bain Capital in 2008. Not long after D&M Holdings was acquired by Bain Capital, Snell was shuttered by Bain in 2010. Snell’s abrupt closure left Outlaw without a manufacturer, so the BLS and LCR were discontinued.

Outlaw Audio decided to bring together the same design team from Snell Acoustics (Joe D’Appolito, David Logvin, and Bob Graffy) who created the original BLS and LCR speakers. Even though the principle designers, Joe D’Appolito retired, Outlaw Audio wanted to recreate the great results that they had with the original, and who better to do that then the people who created it. So Outlaw recalled the design team from their retirement to make this next generation of BLS and LCR loudspeakers. Thanks to improvements in manufacturing and a few alterations to the original design, the BLSv2 and LCRv2 are touted as having better performance than the originals and also a nicer finish- and they cost 40% less than the $1,000/pair BLS and LCR originals. Outlaw Audio loaned Audioholics a pair of BLSv2 bookshelf speakers and an LCRv2 for a center speaker for review, so let’s take a look what kinds of speakers Outlaw has brought to the fiercely competitive bookshelf speaker market…

Packing and Appearance

The BLSv2 speaker pair arrived very well-packed. They were double boxed with a layer of foam padding between the two boxes. The speakers themselves were protected in the inner box by large foam pieces at the box edges. The speakers were covered in a soft foam wrapping to protect them from moisture and scuffing. With this level of packing, it would take some particularly harsh abuse to damage these speakers during transit.

   

Once unpacked, The BLSv2 and LCRv2 revealed themselves to be sleek, black enclosures faceted with a smooth black woofer cone and tweeter dome. These speakers do not use a flat black finish- they are a slick satin-black finish that does look quite nice. The woofer and tweeter blend in superbly with the satin black finish so that the speaker looks like a singular component instead of an enclosure with some drivers screwed into it. The exterior cabinetry is not all that remarkable. The front vertical edges are rounded with some grooves in the rounding, but aside from that, there isn’t much else that is distinctive regarding its exterior shape.

 

  

The BLSv2 and LCRv2 use the grilles as the distinctive visual element to set them apart from other speakers. The grilles are perforated metal screens that have a glistening black gloss texture and have a Outlaw Audio signature emblem inset at the bottom. Most grilles hide the front of the speaker as though cones and tweeter domes were so hideous, but not the BLSv2 and LCRv2. The grille can easily be seen though and does not hide the cone and tweeter so much as it lightly shrouds them. I think I like the BLSv2 and LCRv2 a bit better aesthetically without the grille, but the grille that Outlaw uses here is pretty nice and is not as dull as most grilles.

The overall appearance of the BLSv2 and LCRv2 is on the modern business side, tasteful but not attempting a warm classic look that would have been had with a wood veneer or fabric grille. However, the satin black finish is fine enough that these speakers could virtually disappear in any room they are placed in, especially without the grille. These speakers are not so flashy that they would draw attention in typical room, nor are they ugly so that they would stick out in that regard.

Design Overview

At a glance, the Outlaw Audio BLSv2 and LCRv2 look like a simple 2-way bookshelf and MTM speaker respectively, but when you look at them a bit closer, you find there is more going on under the hood than most speakers of their type. Let’s start our description of their design by focusing on the BLSv2 for the moment: it uses a 5.25” woofer and 1” dome tweeter, which is a very typical design for a bookshelf speaker of its type. The original BLS speakers used a fairly high-performance SEAS woofer which the BLSv2 tries to match, according to the engineers. It has a good sized motor with a 9cm diameter, 1cm thick magnet and a die-cast magnesium basket. It also uses a paper cone and copper-clad-aluminum wire for the voice coil. The designers were aiming for a smooth response over wide-range and no severe break-up modes. The tweeter uses a silk dome with a neodymium magnet and has a rather low 850 Hz resonant frequency. The wide band of the woofer with mild breakup behavior and low resonant frequency of the tweeter allows a crossover frequency that only has to focus on integrating the drivers rather than having to compromise their integration to compensate for mechanical shortcomings of the drivers.

  

The BLSv2 uses a heavy-duty crossover that looks to have six polypropylene capacitors, two large electrolytic capacitors, two resistors, an air-core inductor, and a large iron-core inductor. Both the BLSv2 and LCRv2 use a 4rth-order acoustic crossover network set at 2.4kHz. The LCRv2 uses the same tweeter but a significantly different woofer since it is using a sealed cabinet as opposed to the ported cabinet of the BLSv2. It has a similar but not same crossover network, naturally. One aspect of the speaker that undoubtedly plays a role in such a beefy crossover is the boundary compensation switch. Both the BLSv2 and LCRv2 have a switch on the terminal cup that adjusts the low-frequency response to counterbalance the boost in bass that can occur when a speaker is placed close to surfaces. Boundary gain can cause a boominess that makes for an unnatural bass sound. The Outlaw speakers can be adjusted to have a leaner low-end response that can make for more natural sounding bass when placed in less open areas. 

The Outlaw speakers have similar cabinet construction that uses ¾” mdf panels with an extra thick 1.25” front baffle and a window brace. There is also a healthy amount of stuffing lining the interior surfaces. The BLSv2 and LCRv2 are bi-ampable via a pair of very sturdy five-way binding posts. The BLSv2 has a 2” diameter, flared port mounted on the rear panel. The grilles are made from a sheet of perforated metal that get attached to the cabinet by two long slots that run on the edges of the front baffle. The grilles have a very tight fit and do resist when removing them and reinstalling them. The 12.5 lbs. weight does impart a sense of heft to these medium sized bookshelf speakers, and the ‘knock test’ on the side panel imparts a sense of solidity, since the resonating sound is low-pitched and short.

On the surface, all the ingredients are here for a good speaker: capable-looking drivers, a very beefy crossover network, and a sensible enclosure. Now let’s see how it all sounds…

Listening Tests

In my approximately 24’ by 13’ listening room, I set up the speakers with stand-off distances between the backwall and sidewall, and equal distance between speakers and listening position, with speakers toed-in toward the listening position. Listening distance from the speakers was about 8 feet. Amplification and processing was handled by a Pioneer Elite SC-55. No room correction equalization was used. At times, subwoofers were used to supplement the bass, mostly using an 80 Hz crossover frequency.

Music Listening

I find that the quickest way to understand a speaker’s tonality is by listening to something that uses familiar sounds over a broad spectrum of frequencies simultaneously, and the best recordings for that purpose is orchestral music. I know how these instruments are supposed to sound, and when a lot of them are playing at the same time, it can give away a spectral imbalance or tilt in the speaker’s sonic signature. If certain instruments or notes are over-pronounced, it can be an indication of a resonance or excess energy in a specific frequency range. Or, if there is a hollowness in some instrument’s sound, that can be an indication of a dip or an absence of energy in a specific frequency range. Obviously, for a natural sound, these characteristics should be avoided. To get a sense of the tonal balance of the Outlaw BLSv2 bookshelf speakers, I turned to a set of concertos by Bach as performed by Murray Perahia and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Orchestra. ‘Murray Perahia Plays Bach Concertos’ is a 2011 disc set from the Sony Classical label pairs the acclaimed pianist Perahia with the illustrious Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, so it is a given that this album will be a superb demonstration of musical talent and high fidelity. With respect to tonal balance, I could sense nothing amiss from the BLSv2 bookshelf speakers. While piano was very much the forefront instrument, as it is supposed to be on a recording like this, it did not overwhelm the other instruments, and I did not get a sense that the recording was being misrepresented in even the slightest degree. The soundstage was wide and enveloping with excellent imaging that spread beyond the BLSv2’s placement. I could tell that the microphone placements did not quite have the same location for every track, and I think on a less precise loudspeaker that detail might not have been so clear. Strings were spread across the stage, as they normally are in orchestras, while woodwinds and pianos and more specific spatial positioning in the soundstage. The speakers did not at all inhibit these fine set of performances; it’s always a joy to hear Bach’s concertos performed with such mastery, and the Outlaw BLSv2 speakers were able to deliver this experience wonderfully intact and with no interference that I could discern.

I wanted to bring vocals into the mix to gauge how the BLSv2 speakers would handle the human voice as an instrument, but I still wanted to keep the grandeur of an orchestra, so this naturally called for choral music. One album that comes highly recommended for this was Philippe Herreweghe’s 2012 recording of Bach’s ‘Mass in B Minor’ on the Out There label. This is the third recording of ‘Mass in B Minor’ by Herreweghe that has been released, and it is a recording of impeccable audio quality. Performers are the Collegium Vocale Gent, a Belgium ensemble of vocalists and instrumentalists. ‘Mass in B Minor’ remains one of the towering monuments of classical music that was written in the last year of Bach’s life after he had gone blind. This is a recording that should make for a fine demonstration of a sound system’s ability to render both vocalists and orchestral instrumentation, at the very least. After listening to this recording on the BLSv2 speakers, I can see what all the fuss is about for this release. The music as reproduced by the BLSv2 speakers was drop dead gorgeous. The instruments and vocalists were very detailed and vividly recreated. As with the Perahia recordings, the imaging was precise and distinct. The concert hall that this album was recorded in had a reverb which added to the beauty of the music without washing it out, and this environment was reconstructed in my listening room with remarkable realism. I acquired this recording of ‘Mass in B Minor’ on loan, but after listening to it, I am considering purchasing my own copy, and the BLSv2’s rendering of them gives me thought of purchasing a set of these speakers as well. Herreweghe’s third release of Bach’s ‘Mass in B Minor’ as heard on the Outlaw BLSv2 speakers is a terrific musical experience that any music lover would surely enjoy.

For something with a similar emphasis on vocals but in a more contemporary style of music, I listened to Sarah McLachlan’s hit 1994 album ‘Fumbling Toward Ecstasy.’ McLachlan’s voice is one that I know well, so it should be a good demonstration of how well the BLSv2 speakers handle vocals, at least within McLachlan’s range. It’s also a studio album that mostly does not obscure McLachlan’s voice with too much studio trickery. After already hearing what the BLSv2 was capable of in orchestral recordings, it is no surprise to me that these speakers nailed ‘Fumbling Toward Ecstasy.’ I have heard McLachlan through many different sound systems over the years, and this presentation sounds as good as the best of them. McLachlan’s voice imaged to dead center of the soundstage with instruments flanking her for their own well-defined placements. This is a studio album, and, like so many other studio albums, it creates an ‘impossible’ soundscape that does not ignore the artificiality of its ‘auditory scene,’ to borrow the expression from audiology- in other words, it doesn’t pretend to be a recording from an actual place. Nonetheless, a properly setup pair of well-designed speakers can suggest a scene, with some help from the listener’s imagination, and not merely be voices and instruments inside the listener’s head. The BLSv2 speakers do this, with the performance taking place in a seemingly close proximity. All acoustically recorded music is an illusion when reproduced on a sound system, and one measure of a sound system’s performance is how realistically that illusion is recreated. On this count, I will say the BLSv2 speakers performed admirably, because they could make this album seem like a live performance recording at times.

 

After spending some time listening to the finer points of the BLSv2 speakers, I decided to push the envelope. I threw on Spor’s ‘Caligo’, an album that was sure not going to go easy on them. Most of the tracks on ‘Caligo’ are Drum’N’Bass tunes which is heavy-duty, high-tempo, breakbeat music. This music is not intended to be played at gentle volume levels, so I cranked the volume to about as loud as I could personally stand for the duration of the album. While the volume level was quite loud, I didn’t detect anything that sounded like distortion or any other sound to indicate that the speakers were being stressed, although using subwoofers to take deep bass certainly does give the BLSv2 woofers a break. I wouldn’t recommend blazing bass-heavy music on these speakers or any other bookshelf speaker of similar build without being crossed over to subwoofers. But, with the high-pass filter of the subwoofer crossover in use, these speakers could throw a surprising punch. Normally I would say that bookshelf speakers in this form factor, ie., a 1” dome tweeter and 5 ¼” woofer, shouldn’t be used as party speakers, but after listening to ‘Caligo’ at a relatively loud level for the duration of the album, I think these are robust enough to rock a medium sized room with no problem. Common sense needs to be used if users intend to crank these things, so while power-handling spec states 50-200 watts, my guess is that 200 watts is meant at ‘peak’ power handling, and if user tried to shove 200 watts through these speakers continuously, they would die a grievous death.

 

Movie Listening

One movie that I watched with the Outlaw Audio BLSv2 and LCRv2 speaker set was Martin Scorsese’s 2013 opus, ‘The Wolf of Wall Street.’ I choose this movie to evaluate these speakers because of its heavy reliance on dialogue amidst a music-rich soundtrack, so I thought it might make for a great test of dialogue intelligibility. Of course, those who have seen this movie will know that a major fraction of the dialogue consists of profanity, and a fun activity for some has been to count and catalogue the various profanities in this film. It’s possible to do but not easy, since music occupies so much of the duration of ‘The Wolf of Wall Street,’ and also some of the dialogue is deliberately garbled when the characters have difficulty speaking under the influence of quaaludes which occurs in multiple scenes. A sound system that is strong on dialogue intelligibility is needed to accurately keep track of all the profanity in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street,’ and that largely falls on the shoulders of the center channel speaker, so it is up to the Outlaw Audio LCRv2 to render every F-bomb with the best possible clarity. While I didn’t try to count all the cursing in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street,’ I didn’t have any problems understanding what was said during the movie, and that is a great credit to the LCRv2. The music score was also a pleasure to listen to, since this movie has a diverse score in the 60 songs used throughout its running time, from blues, R&B, classic rock, 80’s new wave, and even opera. The sound mix was busy and energetic, and Outlaw Audio’s speakers had no problems reproducing all of the individual elements of sound clearly and with gusto. The BLSv2 and LCRv2 made this a fun movie to revisit, and they serve as a good example of how traditional sound mixes can benefit from high-fidelity speakers as much as if not more than the massive effects-driven action movies.

Another movie that I watched with the Outlaw speakers was the 2012 Bond movie ‘Skyfall.’ The Bond movies have always had a great balance of music, effects sounds, and dialogue in their sound mixes, and certainly ‘Skyfall’ is no exception. It starts out with an amazing car chase and then segues into the bombshell opening credit song by Adele. It is peppered with great action setpieces throughout, and, as one would expect in such a polished production, the sound mix design is first-rate. I watched the movie at a relatively loud level to see how the BLSv2 and LCRv2 could handle a wider dynamic range in the action scenes. The Outlaw speakers were not hindered by the spirited volume level, and I was surprised at the dynamic range that the 5 ¼” woofers could muster. It’s very likely that if I had a more powerful amplifier at my disposal I could have driven them into obvious compression and distortion, but the loudness levels that I was listening was already pushing the limits of what I was comfortable with. I don’t think many people would drive them louder than what I had them set to in ‘Skyfall.’ These speakers can get loud enough in a medium sized or smaller room without problem for most people, however I would be looking for something more powerful than bookshelf speakers for a larger room or dedicated home theater room. With that being said, I do think that an LCRv2 front-stage set would be a good choice in a medium sized or smaller dedicated home theater room. Their power handling will be considerably higher than the BLSv2, and they will undoubtedly hit harder.   

Outlaw Audio BLSv2 and LCRv2 Loudspeaker Measurements and Analysis

 

The Outlaw Audio BLSv2 and LCRv2 speakers were measured in free-air at a height of 7.5 feet at a 1 meter distance from the microphone, and the measurements were gated at a 8.5 millisecond delay. In this time window, some resolution is lost below 250 Hz and accuracy is completely lost below 110 Hz. Measurements have been smoothed at a 1/24 octave resolution.

 

Outlaw Audio BLSv2 (left) response curves

The above graph shows the direct-axis frequency response and other curves that describe the speaker’s amplitude response in a number of ways. For more information about the meaning of these curves, please refer to our article Objective Loudspeaker Measurements to Predict Subjective Preferences. These are a very good set of measurements, and they explain why these speakers sounded so natural in my listening experiences. The BLSv2 speaker looks to have a slight overall downward tilt, so some listeners might find that a tad warmer than totally neutral, but, aside from some small bumps, this is a very neutral speaker. The small bumps at 800 Hz and 4 kHz are likely too narrow to be of any real consequence. The curves involving off-axis measurements correlate very nicely with the direct axis, so the BLSv2 should carry the same sound signature anywhere over a broad angle in front of it. As with many other speakers of this type, directivity does increase in upper treble frequencies, in other words, the high-frequencies get progressively shaded as the listener moves away from the direct axis of the speaker. Those very few who find this speaker bright can simply adjust the toe-in angle for a warmer sound, and, since the mid-range frequencies are so stable off-axis, adjusting the angle of listening will not affect any other band of frequency.

     

Outlaw Audio LCRv2 response curves, horizontally oriented (left) and vertically oriented (right)

The above graphs are the various response curves for the LCRv2 speaker for its horizontal and vertical orientations. Readers may be asking: why post two different response curves for the same speaker when all that has changed is a 90 degree rotation? The answer is that the speaker behaves very differently depending on how it is oriented. It’s essentially a different speaker. The reason for that is that the plane on which the drivers are aligned matters; when the LCRv2 is stood upright, the woofers and tweeter are aligned vertically, and, of course, when the speaker is laid flat on its side, the drivers are aligned horizontally. This has a major change on the horizontal and vertical dispersion of the speaker, and the issue here is that the speaker’s horizontal behavior is much more important than its vertical behavior. When the drivers in a speaker’s enclosure are separated by a distance, and when they try to reproduce the same signal, the difference in distance can cause the output of the drivers to interfere with each other where the wavelength of the frequencies are not much greater than the distance of separation between the drivers. So if the listener is situated at an angle with respect to a speaker that places the drivers at unequal distances, they can interfere with each other when they play the same thing.

Vertical vs Horizontal Placement of an MTM Speaker

What does that have to do with the LCRv2 and driver alignment? When the LCRv2 is laid on its long side for a flat placement, if the listener is positioned at any angle except directly in front of the speaker, there will be a difference in distance between the woofers. The woofers are tasked with played the same frequencies, but if they are at unequal distances from the listener, the sound generated from the respective cones will arrive ‘out of phase;’ in other words, there is a time delay of sound between the woofers due to the greater distance that the sound from one of the woofers has to travel. So, at off-axis angles, the timing difference of the sound from the woofers causes them to interfere with each other in what is called a ‘lobing pattern’ This lobing pattern is characterized by dips in the frequency response where pressure waves in opposite phase of each other cancel out their energy. The effect can be seen in the difference between the ‘Listening Window’ and ‘First Reflection’ curves from the two graphs, because those curves put more weight in horizontal off-axis angles than vertical off-axis versus the direct axis response. There is a major drop in output in midrange frequencies where the woofers attempt to play the same signal, as opposed to the vertically oriented LCRv2 where those curves have a much greater correlation to the direct axis curve in both shape and amplitude, since the woofers are equidistant from the microphone at all horizontal angles and thus do not exhibit a lobing pattern. The audible consequence of this lobing may not be as severe as is shown on these curves, and we will discuss why that is when we get to the waterfall graphs.

For more information to determine how this will affect your situation, see: Vertical vs Horizontal Center Channel - Alternative Perspective

Of course, when the LCRv2 is stood upright, this lobing pattern shifts to the vertical plane, however, on the vertical axis, it will be far less audibly consequential, because human hearing isn’t as sensitive to reflections coming in from the floor and ceiling as it is to lateral reflections from side-walls. Furthermore, most people tend to listen at around the same height, unlike horizontal angles in which listening positions can be spread over a wide area.

I don’t bring all of this up to pick on the LCRv2 specifically, in fact, the LCRv2 is a bit better behaved than most MTM speakers in this regard, since it has a relatively low crossover point, so the woofers do not share as great of a range. I am only explaining all of this to emphasize the point that MTM styled speakers such as the LVRv2 take on very different acoustic behavior when laid on their side versus standing upright, so much so that they might as well be considered an entirely different speaker. The Outlaw Audio LCRv2 is a great speaker to use to explain this point, since Outlaw Audio is stressing its dual use as an upright main speaker or horizontal center speaker. This, in effect, makes it two different speakers, and a full evaluation of the LCRv2 should examine both of the ways in which it can be used.

With that commentary out of the way, let’s talk about the LCRv2’s actual performance in these graphs. Overall, it’s quite good. The curve is a bit wrinkly, but the ripples hover pretty closely around a flat line with nothing in the way of broad dips or peaks. The only exception is a broad but shallow valley that centers around 8 kHz that may be audible consequential, but it is not likely to be heard as objectionable; it may give the speakers a warmer quality than if they were neutral in this range. Of course, the speaker measures significantly better in its vertical orientation than in the horizontal orientation, and virtually all MTM designs would, for the reasons outlined in the above paragraphs. The LCRv2 appears to have a good tonal balance overall, and excellent off-axis performance in its vertical orientation. The measurements indicate that, some shifts in the treble range notwithstanding, this speaker should provide an honest reportage of the content that it is given. While I only had one LCRv2 and so was only able to listen to it in content that had surround sound mixes that use a center channel, I do think a stereo pair should make for a fine music system.

One more thing I will add here is that I measured these speakers with grille on and off, and the grilles do cause some rockiness from comb-filtering in the response at 6 kHz and above although not to a major degree. For the best sound, use these speakers without the grille, although if you need to have the grille on, there won’t be a severe decline in sound quality, if any difference can even be heard at all.

Outlaw Audio BLSv2 Horizontal Response +/- 100 degrees 

The above graphs depict the Outlaw Audio BLSv2 speaker’s lateral responses out to 100 degrees in ten-degree increments. In this graph we get a closer look at the BLSv2’s lateral behavior, and, as suggested by the ‘Listening Window’ and ‘First Reflection’ curves, its horizontal response has very good correlation to its direct response. Most of what is occurring at horizontal angles is related to the direct axis response, and that is good thing since the direct axis response is so neutral and even. One advantage to this is that lateral reflections will not be significantly different from the direct sound, so the speaker will have the same sonic signature regardless of where the listener is on a horizontal plane. Another feature we see in these graphs is how rapidly high treble rolls off outside of a 30 degree angle from direct axis. The dispersion of this speaker is quite wide, except for high treble above 10 kHz where listeners will want to be sitting within a 60-degree angle in front of the speaker. Even so, there aren’t that many people who would miss the content above 10 kHz, since that is mostly ‘air,’ and the ultra high harmonic components of certain instruments. It isn’t a critical frequency band, musically speaking.

One aspect I want to call attention to the how beautifully the tweeter blends in with the woofer. I can see very little evidence of a crossover, and that means the crossover is doing its job well. If I wasn’t told what the crossover frequency is, I would not be able to guess where it occurs from looking at these curves. All in all, this is a very good set of measurements which indicates top-notch audio engineering.

     

Outlaw Audio LCRv2 Responses per orientation +/- 100 degrees 

The above waterfall graphs depict the lateral responses of the LCRv2 per orientation. The left graph is the lateral response when the LCRv2 is used horizontally where it rests in the long side for a low-profile. The right graph shows the lateral response of the LCRv2 when it is standing vertically upright. Of course, these graphs also show the vertical dispersion of the speaker depending on what side it is resting on, so if the speaker is laying flat like a typical center speaker, the ‘upright orientation’ graph will actually be its behavior on a vertical axis, and vice-versa.

One aspect about the low-profile orientation which was alluded to in the ‘Listening Window’ and ‘First Reflection’ curves but can be seen here vividly is the effects of the interference between the woofers at off-axis angles. Those ‘valleys’  that occur off-axis in the midrange band change frequency depending on distance, and these are the lobing patterns that occur at a 1 meter distance where the mic was situated with respect to the speaker. So the distance-invariant effect is that output is depressed over the entire band where woofers are reproducing frequencies of wavelengths within the same distance as the distance between the woofers themselves, and that is what is shown in the ‘Listening Window’ and ‘First Reflection’ curves. The lobing really start to take a toll at 20-degrees and outward. When the LCRv2 is situated horizontally as is custom for many center speakers, the best sound will occur within 20 degrees of the direct axis. That might sound like a narrow listening window, but it would cover a broader area the further back the listener is, so it isn’t really that constricting in normal listening situations. To use examples of common listening distances, that would give the listener a smooth response over a seven-foot wide area at a ten-foot distance, and a ten-foot wide area at a fifteen-foot distance.

Again, as I mentioned above, all MTM style center speakers will have this problem- ALL of them. It can’t be avoided in this type of design. Audioholics has published multiple articles about this effect in center speakers such as Pros and Cons of Various Center Channel Designs, Vertical vs Horizontal Center Speaker Designs, and Center Channel Speaker Design Additional Considerations.

In the LCRv2’s upright, vertical orientation, its response is hugely improved. Simply put, it turns into a much better speaker. The direct axis response remains the same, of course, but the horizontal dispersion is much broader and far more uniform. As with the BLSv2, we see a wide, smooth dispersion pattern. Tweeter behavior is largely the same as the BLSv2 which is no surprise, since they use the same tweeter. Like the BLSv2, the tweeter blends in extremely well with the woofers here. We can see where the crossover occurs in the low-profile axis because we can see where the woofers stop fighting with each other off axis, but in the upright axis, there wouldn’t be much of a way to know from just looking at the graph. As with the BLSv2, this is a superb measurement set.

When used in this upright orientation, the left graph with the lobing artifacts become this speaker’s vertical dispersion pattern, and like that graph would indicate, the LCRv2 should be listened to with tweeter at the listener’s ear height. As we discussed before, uniformity in the speaker’s vertical dispersion isn’t nearly as critical as it is with the speaker’s lateral dispersion, so the lobing patterns should not be problematic so long as the listening occurs within a 20 degree angle of the tweeter’s vector. 

Outlaw Audio BLSv2 Horizontal Response +/- 100 degrees: Polar Map 

The above graph show the same information that the preceding graphs do but depict it in a way that can offer new insight regarding these speakers’ behavior. Instead of using individual raised lines to illustrate amplitude, these polar maps use color to portray amplitude and this allows the use of a purely angle/frequency axis perspective. The advantage of these graphs is they can let us see broader trends of the speaker’s behavior more easily. This polar map of the BLSv2's horizontal response better shows how the sound grows ‘darker’ as the listener moves further off direct axis. The high frequencies roll off at such a steady rate that simply angling the speaker away from the listener acts as a fairly predictable tone control. In-room, this speaker is likely to take on a warm signature, even for direct axis listeners, since very high frequencies won’t be reflected as much as the wider dispersion of the upper midrange and lower treble.

     

Outlaw Audio LCRv2 Responses per orientation +/- 100 degrees: Polar Map 

With the polar maps for the LCRv2, we get a better look at the radically different lateral dispersion patterns that occur from laying it down or standing it upright. We can see how much midrange output is lost at off-axis angles when it is laid flat on its side versus it upright orientation. This reinforces the need to listen at or near direct axis when using it as a low-profile horizontal center speaker to get the best sound. While the irregularities of these lobing patterns can average out by the various acoustic reflections that ultimately combines at the listening position, there will still be lessened amplitude overall for that frequency band. In other words, the audibility of the in-room effects of lobing will not likely be as stark as what is seen on this graph, although it still may be perceived as a reduction in midrange energy when compared to its upright orientation.

The graph for the upright orientation is a thing of beauty; dispersion remains at a very consistent level from 1 kHz to 5 kHz before it begins to tighten up to the direct axis. This is marvelously controlled dispersion and a tad more constant than the BLSv2. As with the BLSv2, the off-axis rolloff of high frequencies is so steady it could act as a tone control by merely adjusting the angle, although the high frequencies on the LCRv2 don’t start rolling off till a bit higher in frequency. I don’t think this speaker or the BLSv2 are particularly ‘bright,’ so I think most people would prefer the sound of of them within a 30-degree angle of direct axis where the high frequency energy stays steady. 

 

Outlaw Audio BLSv2 Vertical Response +/- 100 degrees 

The above graph shows the BLSv2’s response behavior along its vertical axis where zero degrees is directly in front of the tweeter, negative degree values are below the tweeter, and positive degree values are above the tweeter. As we mentioned before, the vertical response isn’t nearly as critical as the horizontal response. The valleys just below the 2.5 kHz frequency are lobing effects of the tweeter and woofer playing the same frequency but are not in phase because of the distance difference that occurs on the vertical axis when not directly in front of the speaker. Relative to many other speakers of this type, the lobing effects here are pretty mild. This is overall good behavior for this measurement. One attribute we can make out here is the steep slope of the crossover. We can see this because the ‘valleys’ of the lobing effects are relatively narrow. The bottom line here is that listeners will want to be within a 20-degree angle of direct axis on a vertical plane. This is very likely where most, if not all, users will listen to these speakers unless they mount them very high or very low (these mounting heights are not recommended). As with most other speakers, the ideal listening height is to have the tweeters be at the same height as the listener’s ears.

     

Outlaw Audio BLSv2 and LCRv2 groundplane bass responses

The above graphs show the Outlaw Audio BLSv2 and LCRv2’s low-frequency responses that I captured using groundplane measurements (where the speaker and microphone are on the ground in a wide open area). These graphs also show the difference the Boundary Compensation Switch makes. Curiously, the effect of the Boundary Compensation Switch does not seem to be very similar between the two speakers. It works pretty much as expected in the BLSv2, but it only seems to flatten out the low-frequency response in the LCRv2 as opposed to a shallow dip in the response centered around 200 Hz that is left when it is not engaged. The BLSv2 extends flat down to a lower frequency than the LCRv2, but the BLSv2 rolls off at a steeper slope, which would be expected given that it is ported and the LCRv2 is sealed. The LCRv2 has the characteristic 12dB/octave rolloff below resonant frequency of its sealed design. The LCRv2 looks to have about an 80 Hz low-end resonant frequency and the BLSv2 looks to be about 60 Hz. Regarding the effectiveness of the Boundary Compensation Switch, it’s easy to see how it affects the response in a groundplane measurement such as these, but in-room would be another question, since it only changes the response up to 500 Hz or so, and most of that frequency band lay beneath most room’s transition frequencies where room modes start to become the dominant factor in bass quality. I would advise owners to try the switch both ways and just keep the setting that they enjoy the most, regardless of whether there is a nearby surface boundary or not.

With a 60 Hz extension, the BLSv2 doesn’t really need a subwoofer for most music recordings, but if you enjoy bass heavy hip-hop or electronic music or deep pipe organ music, a subwoofer will be a necessity. Of course, for home theater use, a subwoofer will be a necessity as well. The LCRv2 rolloff happens at a higher frequency but more shallow slope. The shallow slope of the rolloff will likely yield more room gain, but I think users will get a fuller overall sound with the inclusion of a subwoofer.

     

    

Outlaw Audio BLSv2 (top graphs) and LCRv2 (bottom graphs) Impedance and Phase Response for Boundary Compensation Switch Change 

The above graphs show the electrical behavior of the BLSv2 and LCRv2 speakers. I have included measurements for both settings of the compensation switch, since there is a pretty significant change in the LCRv2’s impedance. The impedance and phase for the BLSv2 is fairly tame for the most part. There is a steep phase angle at the impedance minima around 3 kHz, but at 6.6 ohms, it isn’t a very low resistance load and should not be too difficult to drive by almost any amplifier. The Boundary Compensation Switch doesn’t change much except to move the port-resonance saddle down by 10 Hz or so. Outlaw Audio specifies the BLSv2 as a 8 ohm speaker, and this is a fair rating.

On the LCRv2, the Boundary Compensation Switch adds between 2 to 3 ohms of impedance in the mid-bass band below 500 Hz. It makes it an easier speaker to drive, and if the user likes to play their music loud and doesn’t have a great amplifier, they might want to run the LCRv2 with the Boundary Compensation Switch on, because it is a significantly more benign load with the switch engaged. It’s not a very challenging electrical load with the switch off, but the mid-bass frequencies hover around 5 ohms in that setting, which might be a bit taxing for cheaper amplification like is seen on entry-level AVRs. With the switch on, it becomes a very easy load that any amplifier should be able to handle without problem.   

I measured the sensitivity of the BLSv2 to be approximately 84 dB and the LCRv2 at 86 dB. These are very typical sensitivities for speakers of this type and is not surprising. These are not particularly high numbers nor are they low. They won’t need a beastly kilowatt amp to get loud but would need something more powerful than a 5-watt microamp for typical listening. Most AVRs would have adequate power to achieve louder levels than most people would ever listen at with these speakers. As was mentioned before, the LCRv2 will be able to tackle some hefty amplification if it is available, so you can rock’em if you got’em.

Conclusion

In summing up my experiences with Outlaw Audio’s new speakers, I want to briefly go over a few of their strengths and weaknesses as I normally do in most of my reviews. As usual, I will start with the weaknesses, but a list of the BLSv2 and LCRv2’s weaknesses is going to be short, because there just isn’t much to complain about with these loudspeakers. My only gripes are minor quibbles at worst.

One thing that doesn’t seem like it was worth the inclusion is the Boundary Compensation Switch, especially in the LCRv2. The reality is, for better or worse, many people who purchase these speakers will probably be using some kind of room correction equalization or tone control that which will negate whatever benefit that switch has. The nice thing about the Boundary Compensation Switch is that it does allow the user to tone down the bass without the phase shifts that occur with equalization. However, there is no way to know how much boundary gain will occur in each individual situation, so the switch is kind of a ‘one size fits all’ solution that will have varying effectiveness. Most of the change within frequency range of the switch will be subject to room modes which will inevitably wreak havoc on the bass response anyway. I think the Boundary Compensation Switch isn’t worth the added manufacturing expense if it adds significantly to the price at all. To be sure, I am not complaining about the switch’s inclusion; after all, it doesn’t hurt anything, but these speakers don’t need it, and it is an expense that could have been saved, in my opinion.

Another very minor nitpick is that I think these speakers look a bit plain for their price point. They don’t look bad at all, but you can find slicker-looking speakers at lower prices than these. The Outlaw Audio speakers are very conservatively styled, so this is an entirely subjective complaint, and doubtlessly there will be those who prefer their aesthetic. Also, the grilles are rather difficult to remove and reattach. They are tough grilles and really do protect the front baffle though, and their method of attachment looks to be cost-effective, so this isn’t really much to complain about. Outlaw could have used magnets to attach the grille without marring the front baffle with grille guides, but to have as firm of a hold would have necessitated some powerful magnets, and that would have likely raised the cost. 

With those petty complaints out of the way, let’s go over some of the BLSv2 and LCRv2’s strong points. First and foremost is their audio performance. These speakers sound great. They have a very neutral response, so everything sounds natural. If there is anything non-neutral about these, it would be that the upper treble is just a tad shy with respect to the rest of the response on the BLSv2, and that, combined with the rising directivity of the upper treble, means these could have a slightly warm sonic character. That makes these speakers very easy to listen to without giving up much in the way of high frequency detail. Those who find excess treble fatiguing ought to give these speakers a very close look. They present a distinct soundstage with very good imaging. They manage to get loud without running into significant distortion. The dispersion is wide and well-controlled so that they will sound good at off-axis angles and the acoustic reflection will not tell a different story than the direct axis sound. And this exceptional sound quality comes in a speaker set that has a relatively benign electrical load for amplifiers. They are all around great performers, and Outlaw Audio has certainly chosen the right design team in making these speakers.

No doubt the build quality is partly responsible for such excellent performance, since the components are all of good quality. Outlaw Audio set their performance goals for the BLSv2 and LCRv2 and did what it took to meet those goals which meant using high-quality drivers and a heavy-duty, complex crossover. They are not the cheapest bookshelf speakers on the market, but it is clear where their manufacturing cost was spent: premium components.

Now that I have spent some time with the BLSv2 and LCRv2, I can see why they were so highly regarded in their original release a decade ago. In a highly crowded market of bookshelf speakers at this price point, these are a standout choice. These are a speaker set where high fidelity was the highest priority as a design goal, and nearly everything in these speakers serve that goal. For those who want a no-nonsense, great-sounding speaker set in this price range, this is an easy recommend. I am reminded of the Outlaw Audio Ultra-X13 subwoofer that I reviewed last year in that it isn’t the flashiest product at its price-point, but its performance is exceptional. In fact, a set of these speakers along with the Ultra-X13 would make for a killer sound system. If these speakers sound like something you want to try out, Outlaw does offer a 30-day audition period where the buyer can return the speakers for a full refund if they are not happy. My guess is that Outlaw will see few returns of these superb speakers.

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Build Quality
Appearance
Treble Extension
Treble Smoothness
Midrange Accuracy
Bass Extension
Bass Accuracy
Imaging
Dynamic Range
Performance
Value