Pinnacle Black Diamond BD 1000 Tower Loudspeaker System Review

Pinnacle Black Diamond BD 1000 Introduction

Pinnacle isn't a name that's been on the Audioholics radar for quite some time.  In fact, it's been nearly 13 years since my love affair with the Pinnacle Classic Gold Aerogel Tower system that at the time impressed me so much that it served as my reference speaker for many years.  Pinnacle says that since 1999 its core market direction has been providing a wide variety of speaker products (over 100) primarily through accredited Custom Installers.  Their line up including speaker bars, ultra compact, high performance powered subwoofers, 3 lines of architectural in-wall/in-ceiling product, 2 lines of speakers in cabinets – all ranging in price from highly affordable to prices for people with virtually unlimited budgets.  Pinnacle proudly points out that they are in their 34^th year and claim to be the 2^nd oldest independently owned and operated speaker company in the United States.  Now, we have rediscovered them through their new Black Diamond series.  This new speaker line developed by Pinnacle is said to offer similar performance characteristics of their older Classic Gold series but in a more modern, compact, elegant cabinet.  Curious to see how Pinnacle progressed over the years, I requested a pair of their entry level towers - the BD 1000's for a formal review and inclusion into our annual speaker face off.  Unfortunately timing wasn't just right for the face off, but I have had plenty of time to focus my attention for this dedicated review. 

Design Overview

The Pinnacle BD 1000s only come in high gloss black, but that's not a bad thing -  especially since they look so elegant.  They feature a non-removable plinth which adds stability to the speaker to prevent tipping and also provides for accessory feet - though only theirs will fit as the threaded holes are larger than I've seen with most accessory items.  Pinnacle supplies solid brass feet with a ball tip on the bottom to prevent damage to hardwood flooring.  They seemed to make the speaker extremely unstable on carpeted floors, so I don’t recommend installing them in those cases.  Pinnacle did inform me that the actual production models have the holes spaced out further than my prototypes to add stability in such cases.  I recommend using the feet when placing these speakers on hard flooring to potentially enhance system bass response by better coupling the cabinet to the floor.

The BD 1000s I received are engineering samples, and the finish wasn't perfect upon close inspection as evident in visible seams across the cabinet. Pinnacle assured me this is not the case with production units.  The Pinnacles are quite a nice looking, unobtrusive speaker, especially with the grille off with the four drivers staring at you.  The grille frame is constructed of MDF instead of the cheap thin plastic you find on many more costly speakers.  The pegs are metallic and grated for a more secure and stable connection.  I hope Pinnacle will eventually move over to magnetic grilles like you see in many of their competitors these days.  The speaker looks much more attractive with the grille off without visible threaded holes.  On the flip side, pegs do offer a more stable grille connection which is an important consideration when the grille is too large or heavy for magnets to properly secure them.

The BD 1000 is considered to be a tower system standing a mere 40" tall.  Because of its slimline profile, it's less imposing than some bookshelf speakers.  Sitting in a listening space, these speakers will likely go unnoticed by most casual observers entering the room.  The back of the BD 1000's are unremarkable.  They have a simple pair of 5-way binding post connections with no provisions for bi-amping or bi-wiring.

The BD 1000 is rated at 8-ohms and has a claimed frequency response of 34Hz to 20kHz (+-3db) with a sensitivity rating of 88dB 1 watt/meter.  This system is a three-way, four element, 4th order front vented design consisting of two 5-1/4" polymer woofers, one 5-1/4" polymer midrange with phase plug, and a 1" horn loaded silk dome tweeter with neodymium magnet.  I'm not a huge fan of neodymium tweeters because they are often thermally limited, but Pinnacle was obviously well aware of this limitation and hence chose a high crossover point (5kHz) to reduce system strain and preserve dynamics.  Though, I couldn't help to wonder if the system would have blended better with a 3/4" dome tweeter instead of the 1" horn loaded dome they chose.  To pull this high crossover point off correctly, Pinnacle would have to use a small enough midrange with high enough usable bandwidth to ensure a seamless blend.  Small drivers require a larger motor structure and add cost.  Large drivers don't do well here but the phase plug does helps to extend bandwidth.

The midrange has a real phase plug and not the fake knock off (quasi-phase plug) popularized by some of the budget European speakers. Those quasi-phase plugs serve no purpose other than cosmetic and can actually hinder performance by providing an inconsistent surface area while also increasing cone mass. Typically, this yields poorer frequency response and linearity.  A real phase plug driver like the one found in the Pinnacle BD 1000's doesn’t move with cone excursions as its not directly connected to the cone.  This allows the driver to extend its usable frequency response by reducing cone mass and decreasing beaming.

    

The woofers are all stamped metal baskets and magnetically shielded though my samples were prototypes and unshielded which is a moot point in this day and age with virtually everyone tossing their bulky CRTs for flatpanel displays.

The crossover consists of a combination of air core and iron core inductors, ceramic resistors to pad down tweeter sensitivity and electrolytic capacitors.  Nothing here stands out as high end or specialty but, as I've found in the past, Pinnacle has a knack for designing good sound with budget components.  The resistors being so closely spaced causes me a little concern with regards to heat but I've seen many speaker manufacturers do this to cut down on PCB board space and cram the crossover into the enclosure.  The cabinet appears to be 1/2" MDF with a 3/4" front baffle and is stuffed with egg carton type foam.  The midrange is in its own enclosure to ensure optimal performance and employs a first order high pass filter.  The midrange still contributes to the overall upper bass output of the system without causing the system impedance to drop at low frequencies.  

Pinnacle Black Diamond BD 1000 Setup and Listening Tests

I set up the BD 1000s in the Audioholics Showcase home theater room using my Marantz PM-11S2 Integrated amplifier and Denon DVD-A1UDCI BD player as the source.  The BD player was connected via balanced analog outputs to the PM-11S2 using Impact Acoustics balanced cables.  The speaker cables were Kimber 8PR with WBT compression banana terminations. 

The speakers were positioned about 5ft from side and backwalls, spread apart 10ft from each other which was about two feet shy of the 12ft distance to my primary listening position.  After experimenting, I found they sounded best when toed in slightly which really focused the imaging and vocals but also overemphasized the treble slightly. 

Unless otherwise stated, all listening tests were conducted full-range without a subwoofer in two-channel configuration.  This is the worst possible test condition for this speaker system as I suspect most users will bass manage them utilizing a powered subwoofer to take the stress off the speakers and provide more bass impact, especially for movies.  Nevertheless I treated this review as a dedicated two-channel setup but in most cases I do recommend a powered subwoofer even for two-channel setups.    

Listening Tests

Dianne Reeves - Never to Far
I wasn't expecting much bass playback on this track with the little BD 1000s, but they surpassed my expectations.  Instead of the anemic bass heard on most economical systems like this, it was quite punchy and extended.  I did notice a bit of boom but I would suspect this would be welcome to people that like bass emphasis in their music.  Dianne Reeves' voice sounded very articulate, especially when the Pinnacle's were toed-in.  I found the saxophone started to sound a bit stringent when played at high output levels but the speakers never bottomed out - even when being pounded with the intense bass of this track.

Fourplay - Chant
This song tends to break improperly designed woofers because of the extremely dynamic kick drum.  I honestly thought the little 5" drivers of the Pinnacles would go spastic if I turned the volume up.  Instead, I was pleasantly surprised at how loudly they would play without ever bottoming out.  At very high levels I did hear things start losing composure, but no nasty bottoming was evident.  I've tested $3k+ tower speakers that couldn't play as loudly as the Pinnacles did with this track. 

Pat Metheny / John Scofield - Say the Brother's Name
The clarity of the brushes was excellent while the reverb of Pat Metheny's guitar sounded heavenly.  Upon cranking up the volume in my large listening space, I noticed the instruments started to lose composure.  Everything began sounding a bit mushy and compressed.  It sounded like thermal compression of the tweeter or the coils in the crossover was the likely culprit but I was asking these speakers to provide full-range sound in a listening space that demands much larger, more dynamic, speakers..    

Harry Connick - Receipt for Love
This is a good track to check for chestiness in the male vocals. I didn't find this coloration artifact in the BD 1000s which is tribute to not only the good midrange they used, but properly executed crossover points to avoid having their midrange extend too low in frequency to cause this issue.  I did find Harry's voice a bit sibilant but it wasn't offensive.  Voice articulation was excellent and the speakers imaged well enough to give the illusion of a phantom center channel at the sweet spot.

Sade - Hang On To Your Love
The BD 1000s really did a nice job of placing that raspy sound at the beginning of this song front and center on each speaker.  Guitars were forward and vibrant and Sade's voice was clear and relatively uncolored.  When loudness was kept at reasonable levels, the overall presentation of this song was very pleasant.

Santana - Put Your Lights On
You can tell that the BD 1000s love to show off their percussive prowess.  They really dug the beginning of this Santana classic featuring the lyrics of Everlast.  The transparency of the acoustic guitar was excellent as the BD 1000s did a nice job of conveying stereo imaging here.  Bass had a good thump to it, certainly enough to seamlessly blend in very well with a sub to reach the bottom octave with more authority.  Vocals were a bit more recessed than I was expecting in this song but the BD 1000s did a great job of showing off just how good they could sound on well recorded music.  

Pinnacle Black Diamond BD 1000 Measurements and Analysis

Impedance / Phase Measurements of the Pinnacle BD 1000

 The BD 1000s maintain an 8 ohm rating all the way down to DC but the sharp dip down to 5 ohms in the 100-200Hz range where amplifiers are usually taxed to deliver a lot of power gives me pause about saying they are an easy load for any receiver amplifier to drive.  Further work could have been done by the manufacturer to better optimize the crossover.  Looking at the frequency response of these graphs and the impedance plot, the BD 1000s appear to be tuned at around 50Hz.  The asymmetrical saddle points are likely caused by the impedance dip of all three 5.25" inch drivers in combination with their crossover network.  Again further optimization of the crossover would have helped this.

In-room 1/2 meter SPL vs Frequency Pinnacle BD 1000 (1/12^th octave smoothed)
Purple trace: on-axis; Green trace: 15 deg off-axis; Yellow trace: 30 deg off-axis

Measuring the BD 1000s in my listening space revealed a very smooth midrange response overall with a bit of excessive top end likely caused by the horn loaded tweeter.  In my experience, Pinnacle has always run the tweeters a few dB high in their products to appeal to a wider listening audience.  Overall this strategy pays off in most cases unless the listener is ultra critical about having a tonally neutral speaker, or if they tend to play the speaker at very high output levels which places further strain on the tweeters since they are working harder.  Normally I would NOT recommend toeing in these speakers because of the excessive tweeter output, but I found them to image much better when toe-ed in.  So slight toe-in is recommended in most cases.

When I power swept the BD 1000s, I found one of the cabinets resonated slightly at around 300 Hz.  If I applied pressure to the cabinet, the resonance went away.  Since these were prototypes I think it's safe to assume this issue was a function of my sample and not a flaw in production units.  In any event, I never detected this cabinet resonance in my listening tests so the comments here are mostly academic. 

In-room 1/2 meter SPL vs Frequency Pinnacle BD 1000 (1/3rd octave smoothed)
Purple trace: no-grille; Blue trace: with grille

 The grille cover does soak up some of the upper midrange and high frequency response of the BD 1000s (about 3dB from 4kHz to 7kHz).  This can actually be a welcomed thing for listeners finding the speakers to sound a bit too bright.  In those cases, keep the grilles on, this will reduce the brightness and also make the wife happy as the speakers literally disappear into the room with them in place. 

Pinnacle Black Diamond BD 1000 Conclusion

If you're looking for a tonally neutral full-range tower, than the BD 1000s aren’t for you.  You can expect to pay a lot more for such an animal and it will most certainly take much more real estate in your listening space.  If instead you're looking for an unobtrusive, relatively affordable compact tower speaker system that gives you plenty of boom and sizzle with excellent midrange clarity, then this is your speaker.  The BD 1000s are ideally suited for small to medium sized rooms (under 2500 ft^3).  In fact, I think they are perfect size speakers for a college dorm or studio apartment.  I listed "pricey" as a Con for these speakers but Pinnacle did point out that their pricing includes professional consultation, delivery and home installation which Pinnacle estimates these services to be valued at $300 per pair.  In the day and age where people mail order products and set them up themselves (sometimes incorrectly), its nice to know there are companies offering a customized service to go that extra mile to ensure consumers get the most out of their purchases.

I do recommend bass managing the BD 1000s with your A/V receiver and supplementing the bass response with a dedicated powered subwoofer.  This will not only free up amplifier strain, but will reduce the burden for these little speakers to produce bass, allowing them to remain cleaner in the mids and highs at higher listening levels.  This is advice we give for most multi-channel systems even if the speakers have more output capability than the BD 1000s.

Pinnacle has done a decent job with the execution of their BD 1000 speaker system both aesthetically and performance-wise.  They understand the trade-offs in providing a small form factor tower speaker system and know their audience of buyers for such a product.  A few tweaks to the crossover, and usage of a smaller non horn-loaded tweeter could have potentially improved product performance but I suspect many folks will appreciate the overall sound of this product as is.

Pinnacle BD 1000 Review
MSRP: $1299/pair

Pinnacle Loudspeakers
http://pinnaclespeakers.com/

Read Consumer Reviews on

About Pinnacle
For over 34 years Pinnacle has been a speaker company best known for high performance loudspeakers at incredible consumer values.  As family owned and operated company based in New York they proudly design, manufacture and distribute world class speaker products from right here in the United States.  Pinnacle is the 2nd oldest privately owned speaker company in the US.  Pinnacle estimate there are approximately 5,000 installers that work with our product through our network of distributors and online authorized store partners like the Audioholics E-store.

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
Soundstage
Dynamic Range
Performance
Value