In part two of EI’s special deep dive into the world of Dynaudio, its time to stop looking and start listening.
With the factory tour complete, as covered in Part 1, it was time to check out the fruit of Dynaudio’s labours and its latest offering – the integrated Performance Series.
In-Wall and In-Ceiling versions are available, with each designed to deliver advantages like a thin form factor (70mil), but without compromising on sound.
The In-Wall version has three models, the P4-W65 and its bigger brother, the P4-W80. Both are two-way models, the 6.5in P4-W65 has a 28mm soft dome tweeter and a 165mm mid/bass driver, whilst the P4-W80 has the same tweeter, but with a 200mm mid/bass driver.
The trio is completed with a centre speaker design, which has the 28mm tweeter and twin 130mm mid/bass drivers.
The In-Ceiling models are the P4-C65, (tweeter 28mm, mid/bass165mm), the P4-DVC65 (2x tweeter 28mm, mid/bass 165mm) and the P4-C80 (tweeter 28mm, mid-bass 200mm). There is also an In-Wall sub on the way, pencilled in for a September launch.
The idea was to deliver lots of performance for a strong price point and ease of install. The In-Walls are a simple dog leg and screw connection method, while the In-Ceiling features a twist and fix method, making a single person install easy.
In demo, all the speakers are very full ranged, detailed and agile. They can also go very loud with no loss of quality – always a difficult performance curve to pull off, and one that many customers really love.
With audio this good, you could easily make the case for a 2.1 or 2.2 system being sufficient for quite a few rooms, particularly if budget is an issue.
The ‘media room’ phenomenon is a growth sector, and these speakers are good enough to deliver a serious boost to TV or projector-based entertainment without the need for harder to install full surround sound.
Having said that, fully specified home cinemas however will enjoy very competent performance from these new lines.
We also got a look at the new On-Wall Outdoor series, which offers 6in and 8in versions in black and white with UV resistance, IP65 rating and the option of 70/100V operations.
These variants are suitable for the patio/garden market, as well as the marine sector, and carry all the Dynaudio signatures of attention to detail and sound quality.
Standing tall
The next demonstration was over in the company’s main demo room, and it was time to experience some of the company’s free-standing products.
Using Moon electronics to drive the system, our guide for the day, Roland Hoffman, Dynaudio’s Academy Director, explained that the team like Moon as it gives a very neutral performance and allows assessment of each speaker line to take place without any colouration from the electronics driving the speakers.
First up, in a two-channel set up, were the recently launched floor-standers, Evoke 50, which feature the all-new Cerotar tweeter, a design based on Dynaudio’s award-winning Esotar Forty anniversary tweeter and the powerful Esotar3 found in the new Confidence range.
Underneath the 28mm soft-dome diaphragm sits the new Hexis inner dome, which optimises the airflow behind the playing surface to smooth-out the tweeter’s frequency response and eliminate unwanted resonances.
The speakers, of course, feature Dynaudio’s MSP (Magnesium Silicate Polymer) in their diaphragms. The 18cm drivers in Evoke 50 and its cousin Evoke 30, borrow technology from Contour and Confidence to deliver low-frequency dynamics and better timing.
The Evoke 50’s midrange driver is the same as in the popular Contour 60. It has powerful neodymium magnets, lightweight materials (including an aluminium voice-coil) specifically optimised for midrange duties.
It was fascinating to hear these speakers perform right after seeing how all these components are conceived and made earlier in the day around the factory.
Thankfully they don’t disappoint. The performance is very controlled and never overly bright. Plenty of detail is on show, and these speakers will deliver strong performance in two channel or cinema applications. The Evoke 30 is around £3,200 and the Evoke 50 is £4,400. More details on this range here.
Next up, the flagship floor-stander from Dynaudio, the imposing Confidence 60. This speaker bristles with Dynaudio tech offering an Esotar3 28mm soft-dome tweeter, twin 15cm MSP midrange drivers with Horizon Surrounds and two 23cm MSP NeoTec Woofers.
The drivers are all new and part of the next generation of the company’s DDC (Dynaudio Directivity Control) sound-shaping technology, which is designed to focus the sound waves radiating from the speakers into a tight vertical ‘beam’ that avoids reflections from floors and ceilings while maintaining a wide horizontal image.
All this should deliver a very large ‘sweet spot’ and huge amounts of detail. Again, hype lived up to, these speakers find every last detail in movie soundtracks and music.
Imaging and staging are excellent, in no small part because of the huge lengths Dynaudio goes to in making each speaker identical that we saw earlier in the day.
Beaming of the audio is also controlled by a specially shaped baffle, made from a unique material which avoids room reflections. The assembled listeners put the speakers through their paces, as control was handed over to the group with every conceivable type of music being chosen, high-quality and frankly not so high; the speakers coped admirably.
The final word here has to go not to EI, but to one of the installers on the trip. Peter Miller, Client Sales Manager at Cornflake, recalls, “I think the most impressive aspect of the visit is the steep engineering roots the Danes have regarding acoustic engineering, from the first electro-magnetic driver to the first Acoustic university!
“Dynaudio has not changed its design philosophy, but merely improved its performance over 40 years, consistently delivering an effortless accurate sound whether it’s a £300 in-wall speaker, or the Hi-end Confidence speaker costing over £60K!
“Not being content with the generic anechoic measurement technique, Dynaudio has created the custom-built Jupiter room capable of measuring the speaker off axis. The measuring robotic arm has 31 high grade Mics and is like nothing I have ever seen! Dynaudio push and strive for perfection with every speaker model that’s designed, whether it’s for the studio, a living room or a portable cabin. Has to the best factory visit I’ve ever had, and there’s been a few over the years!”