The DL-625
The DL-625 is a two-way bass reflex design that marries a 165mm bass/midrange driver to a 25mm silk dome tweeter. The cabinet measures 425mm high, 220mm wide and 287mm deep, though the depth increases to around 310mm if you include the grille and the rear terminal plate, which protrudes from low down on the back panel of the speaker. The cabinet on our sample was for the most part wrapped in black vinyl with a woodgrain finish, but its top was covered in a textures vinyl. The whole look is quite classy, helped along by the curved cabinet edges, which also aids sound quality.

Accusound lists the mid/bass driver's diameter at 165mm, but its Theile/Small diameter is 128mm. It's a sturdy driver with a cast aluminium basket supporting a paper cone terminated in a rubber roll sound. The side of the cone that's visible has been coated with a silver painted finish, presumably to counteract the hygroscopic nature of the paper cone. We are pleased to see Accusound is still using paper-coned drivers. Despite advances in plastics and metals technologies paper is still, in many respects, a superior material to both.

The smallish (79mm diameter, 14mm thick) magnet that drives the cone is centre-vented, to help cooling and increase power handling capacity, with a mesh over the cooling vent. The magnet is not shielded, so the DL-625 should not be placed close to a TV or monitor. The driver is rebated into the front baffle, where it's gasketed and secured by four hex-head particleboard screws.

The bass driver crosses to a 25mm silk dome tweeter that is also recessed into the baffle and secured by four identical screws. This tweeteris a very substantial affair, with a very large (111mm diameter) and very thick aluminium mounting plate . Around the back of the tweeter, the magnet assembly is hidden beneath a very large plastic back cover that presumably acts as a small chamber. The tweeter is connected to the lead wires from the crossover network by standard slip-on spade lugs (as is also the case with the bass driver). Interestingly, Accusound uses two different sizes of Figure-8 cable to connect the drivers back to the crossover, the largest of which is a little thinner that 'standard' Figure-8 (24 x 2.0).

The crossover is fixed to the rear of the rear terminal plate, in the usual fashion. It comprises two ferrite-cored inductors, two 5 watt wirewound resistors (1 x 20, 1 x 2.2) and two capacitors, one a 2:2µF MKT and the other a standard bipolar electrolytic. All components are mounted on a phenolic PCB.

Delta DL-695
The DL-695 is a four-driver, three way, bass reflex system, with front-firing ports. The two bass drivers and the midrange are exactly the same driver that's used as the bass/midrange in the DL-625 and so need no further explanation. The two bass drivers are run in parallel. The midrange driver and tweeter are housed in a sub-enclosure at the top of the cabinet, with the tweeter mounter underneath the midrange driver. The finish on the DL-695 is exactly the same as described for the DL-625. The floor-standing DL-695s are the same width and depth as the DL-625 but stand 946mm tall. Inside, the crossover comprises four air-cored coils, two electolytic capacitors and two MKT capacitors.

Delta DLC-165
As you've probably guessed, the DLC-165 centre channel uses the same bass/midrange drivers as the front-mains. The difference is that in the DLC-165, for obvious reasons, Accusound has shielded all the drivers, so the speaker can be placed close to a TV or monitor without disturbing the picture and the drivers are 4-ohm versions, wired in series.

SW-250 Subwoofer
With the design of the SW-250, Accusound adopts the northern European trend of using a special cabinet type called a dual band-pass. In this design, the woofer is completely hidden inside the enclosure and both the front and rear of the cone are used to excite two trapped air masses, which in turn cause low frequencies to exit through the two horn-shaped exits on the front 'baffle'. This type of design is capable of delivering excellent results, but it does put the pressure on the cabinet-makers, because the cabinets have to be perfect to control the considerable stresses and to ensure correct allignment. In the SW-250, Accusound matches a 250 watt power amplifier to a single 250mm bass driver, so no prizes for guessing the origin of the model number!

The rear panel of the subwoofer is very simple, with just a single mono line-level input, a single mono line-level output, rotary volume, phase (0-180degrees) and low-pass filter controls (40-200Hz), and a power switch (auto-sensing/off/on). We agree with Accusound's decision not to fit speaker level inputs and outputs, since almost everyone connects their subwoofer to the LFE output on their receiver, which demonstrates why providing just a single RCA input is also very clever. As for that output, it's so you can daisy-chain another subwoofer (but given th eperformance of the SW-250, you're never likely to need to do this!)

Listening Sessions
We had a quick listen to the DL-695s on their own, in stereo, and were impressed, forming the opinion that they'll deliver excellent two channel sound from any format. That said, we noted a small drop in output level at around A4. The tonal quality also changed very slightly at this point, thinning almost inperceptibly. High frequencies were clear and distinct, with a good amount of air. Low bass was a bit back in the mix, but this is the area where the subwoofer takes over, so is not of consequence. Upper bass was marginally forward (around G2) but not overly so.

Once we had the entire system hooked up, with the subwoofer taking over the low bass, the system really came to life, delivering rich, powerful sound right throughout the room. Bass was tight, realistic and dug deep into the audio spectrum, performing a little better with sustained low-frequency sounds than with transient sounds, like impacts. As you'd expect, the tonal matching was excellent, so sounds moved from one channel to the other all the while maintaining the correct tonal balance, an admirable trait that extended to the rear channels. The system seemed to work even better with 5.1 channel Dolby Digital sound from DVD with the result that dialogue came through seeming to 'float' through background music and sound effects, yet still a part of them, which made the movie experience more enjoyable.

Conclusion
Being able to 'mix and match' with any of the Delta series components means you will be able to tailor this system to suit your room and your budget, but even 'ready-to-roll', this Accusound system stands head and shoulders over all the so-called 'sub/sat' systems on the market, and delivers true home theatre performance in a very attractive package.