Definitive Technology Mythos ST-L Review

From the sublime, Focal’s Sopra No2, to the subtle, T+As Pulsar ST20s to the outrageous Definitive Technology Mythos ST-Ls in three weeks.  I have, already, nearly taken the tiles off my garage listening to these. These ‘DefTech’ Mythos ST-L are from America, Californian in origin.  The Mythos ST-L  have a powered subwoofer in each tower, with a remote control, for goodness sake!  They are tall, very heavy, very loud and, I would suggest in the Trump era, quintessentially American.  My neighbours are going to be building a wall to keep out the noise folks, and I’m paying for it!

Design Features

The speakers are, I believe, transmission line, meaning they need to be pointed towards the listening area.  There is a fair amount of literature about alignment in a 5.1 set-up with various centre speaker recommendations.  All of them have heavily angled speaker configurations, interesting because the speakers are really heavy to shift around.  The speakers do come with some nice speaker gliders to sit on and help you shift them about a bit.  There are optional carpet spikes included in the packaging which is great.  The binding posts have the flexibility to take five different cable ends, including spade, pin, single and banana as well as bare wire.  There is a bi-wiring option as well as a normal configuration, the jumper strips can be removed simply by thumb pressure.

The speakers have an LFE terminal for connection to an SACD or DVD-Audio source or a multichannel Home Theatre System.  This apparently gives you greater bass control.  Interesting!  Finally, the speakers need plugging into power the subwoofer.  This happens under the tower in a recessed terminal.  If you do purchase these make sure you have three pin UK plugs in the box.

The speakers may need subwoofer adjustment on the first plug-in, this is prudently done starting at a lower volume so that you do not blast the plaster off your walls.  Firstly, set your speaker up be either a leftie or a rightie!  Then you have to adjust the gain on each speaker if it important to you.  I feel that the amplifier should probably do this work for you but if it is a question of balancing your room then go ahead.  This gain adjustment can be done using the remote control pointing at each tower to get what you need.  I have ended up with very little adjustment to get the soundstage I wanted.  There is a LED range of indicators on the front of each of the Mythos ST-L towers showing the adjustments made, and whether they are on or not!

The lower frequencies are actually delivered by using bass radiators which Def Tech. claims is a more efficient and more controlled bass reproduction system over other such systems such as a bass reflex.  With this much power who are we to argue with them.

Drivers 

1 x 1″ (2.54 cm) d (Round) Tweeter – Magnesium/Aluminum Alloy Dome
2 x 5.25″ (13.34 cm) d (Round) Midrange – BDSS™ 3rd Generation
1 x 6″ (15.24 cm) h x 6″ (15.24 cm) w (Oval) Subwoofer – Woven Carbon-Polymer Fiber Long Throw Racetrack
2 x 6″ (15.24 cm) h x 6″ (15.24 cm) w (Oval) Bass Radiator – Racetrack Planar Low Bass Radiator

Frequency range – 14Hz – 30kHz

Impedance – 8 Ohm compatible

Sensitivity – 93dB

Height 130.81 cm x Width 32.39 cm x Depth 36.07 cm.  Weight, each 34kg

Performance

My review system is basically the array of amplifiers indicated below, hooked up with bi-wired Atlas Hyper 2.0 cables.  My sources include 24-bit recordings using J River software into the DAC 8 and a Bluesound Node streaming Tidal.

Overall, I would say these speakers are for a particular buyer, but they do demand a listen.  In my experience with the three configurations below, the Mythos ST-L are very easy to drive and are very easy to get loud!  If you like a bit of EDM (e.g. Knife Party), these speakers are tight, fast and very exciting indeed.   The bass control is excellent, full and rounded, you can really feel the air moving around you.  There is no sense the room and the bass frequencies are too boomy for me so I am impressed by this.  In my notes  I’ve written ‘fussy’, I can’t recall specifically why I have written this but there were a few moments when everything seemed to get clouded over with excess energy.  The cloudiness occurred, particularly, listening to Cee Lo Green’s ‘Bright Lights’ recording that bounces along but needs the gain turning down with the remote control because there’s just too much going on.  Returning to specific recordings, however, the piano tones are very nice, Coldplay’s ‘Everything’s Not Lost’ is a very nice listen indeed.  Also London Grammar’s ‘Strong’, presents a really powerful soundstage, one of the best.

With the T+A AMP8 & DAC8 DSD

With the DAC 8 DSD the speakers have a really good sound and there is plenty of detail here.  I have had the DAC 8 AMP 8 set-up for an extended period now and I am hugely impressed with their flexibility, power and performance.  The Mythos ST-L perform very comfortably indeed, My high points are the detail and the image presentation which I appreciate a lot.

With the T+A R1000 E Music Receiver

Again a very nice, and similar performance to the AMP 8 & DAC 8.  There is bags of resolution.  With the Music Receiver, you can throw in a CD and this very satisfying and rare these days.  As I have already said the nice balanced image is worth noting.

With Roksan K2 and Rega RP3

As with the T+A Pulsar speakers, this purely analogue combination presented the most exciting and clear sound of the lot.  The speakers respond in kind and are very precise.

Overall

I am hugely impressed with these Definitive Technology Mythos ST-L towers.  I can imagine an AV set-up might be terrifying give the performance and ease with which these speakers can be driven in differing arrangements.

These speakers are on Amazon.co.uk (not in stock at the time of writing) but I will post a UK supplier and price when I have it.

Definitive Technology
11433 Cronridge Drive, Suite K
Owings Mills, MD
21117-2294
Phone: (800) 228-7148, (410) 363-7148
Fax: (410) 363-9998

E-mail: info@definitivetech.com
Website: www.definitivetech.com