Definitive Technology’s Incline is a stereo desktop PC speaker system with plenty of power and lovely balance. The angled contour delivers sound upward to the listener’s ears, which is a design decision often overlooked by competitors. At $399, the Incline is not cheap, but its magnificent audio performance lives up to the pricing. It’s a little unfortunate that it suffers from some odd design and operational flaws not usually seen in this price range. But it isn’t a deal breaker for those seeking a system with excellent balance. The minor operational flaws are the only issues holding the Incline back from eclipsing the Editors’ Choice Harman Kardon SoundSticks III($169.95 at Harman Kardon)(Opens in a new window), but they don’t stop the speakers from sounding fantastic.

Design
The appropriately named Incline speakers sit at an angle upon rectangular metallic bases, with the trapezoidal speaker enclosures leaning back and pointing the drivers up toward the listener’s ears (assuming the speakers are placed at desk level). The 11.5-by-5-by-4.4-inch (HWD) speakers’ simple, handsome monolith-style design manages to blend in with modern decor without looking boring.

Each speaker has a front-facing 3/4-inch tweeter and a 4-inch midrange driver that are powered by an 80-watt internal amplifier (4x20W), all covered with black grille cloth. Both speakers also have 4-inch, rear-facing passive bass radiators pressure-coupled with the midrange drivers. If they don’t produce enough bass for you, the system also has an output for a subwoofer (not included, though Definitive Technology makes several suitable options).

The right speaker houses all of the connections and controls. The bottom of the front panel holds a white power LED, with controls for Volume and Power on the right side of the satellite. A snap-off plastic cover conceals a power port for the included power supply’s cable, a port for the left satellite, a USB port for pulling digital audio signal from PCs, a 3.5mm audio input, a digital optical input, and the subwoofer output. The system comes with USB and 3.5mm cables for connecting to your PC. A remote control would have been a nice touch for when you’re listening to the system from across the room, but its exclusion is not a major issue for a pair of speakers designed for a desktop.

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The Incline has two listening modes, Standard and Purist, that are supposedly selectable by holding down the Power button for five seconds and then using the Volume buttons to switch back and forth between modes. However, holding down the Power button seemed to do nothing on our test unit. It would have been simpler to have an additional button on the speaker to toggle between the two modes. 

Most modern speakers are well-shielded from cell phone interference, but our review unit had interference problems when a phone placed nearby received text messages. This is a bizarre operational issue that is rarely seen for speakers in this price range.

Performance
On tracks with intense sub-bass frequencies, like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the Incline reproduces the deep low end faithfully. The speakers do not distort at top volumes, most likely thanks to the use of some digital signal processing (DSP) that manages to preserve a decent sense of the dynamics and prevent distortion simultaneously. With a subwoofer connected, one can imagine this system sounding monstrously huge, but even without the sub, the Incline does a solid job of outputting a rich bass presence along with crisp highs.

On Bill Callahan’s “Drover,” the Incline sounds stunning, lending just the right amount of low-end depth to the drumming and an ideal level of richness to Callahan’s baritone vocals that doesn’t take away from the treble edge. Both the vocals and the guitar strumming are delivered with a lovely clarity that never seems overly sculpted or harsh. The result is a wonderfully balanced sound signature.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild,” the kick drum loop is also imbued with ideal levels of both treble and bass, so that it both slices through the mix with its sharp high-mid attack and anchors the song with its lower sustain. The sub-bass synth hits on this track, however, reveal the limits of the system’s depths: The raspy top-end of the hits get plenty of presence, but the actual sub-bass doesn’t appear much in the mix. This is fine for anyone who plans on connecting a subwoofer, but extreme bass lovers might want to reconsider using the Incline as a standalone desktop pair. The speakers in no way sound anemic, but they do leave the very lowest frequencies to the subwoofer output.

The opening scene in John Adams’ “The Gospel According to the Other Mary,” is beautifully balanced through the Incline, with the lower register strings getting a subtle boost that complements the levels of the higher register content nicely. At moderate to high volumes, the balance seems pretty close to perfect. The dynamics don’t change noticeably, so while the system does employ some form of DSP, it’s some of the more judicious use we’ve heard.

The excellent audio performances only makes the Incline’s weird shortcomings seem more tragic. It combines fantastic audio performance and a refined visual design with some rookie-level operational issues like the cell phone interference and the mode-switching awkwardness. If those quirks are bound to drive you nuts, its worth checking out the Focal XS or the Bowers & Wilkins MM-1 instead, the latter of which offers similarly robust sound, but with much more obvious DSP-involvement at top volumes. If these are out of your price range, we love the stereo Audioengine 2+($219.00 at AudioEngine)(Opens in a new window) and the subwoofer-included Harman Kardon SoundSticks III. All told, the Definitive Technology Incline sounds every bit like a $400 PC speaker system, even if it doesn’t always behave like one.