The email you entered isn't valid. You subscribed successfully. You're unsubscribed. If you've ever listened to a pair of Dynaudio speakers, you'll realize that the Dyn-elves build one hell of a fine speaker. One of Dynaudio's design beliefs is that a drivers voice coil size should be at least one half the diameter of the driver itself. In the 42's case, this 6' driver has a 3' voice coil. Dynaudio was founded in Denmark in 1977. They build loudspeakers using only there own drive units, but are also OEM manufacturers for other loudspeaker names, as well as supplying Volkswagen and Volvo automotive audio systems. The motto is simply 'all there is'. Danish loudspeaker company Dynaudio is one of the few manufacturers that is both a supplier of raw drivers, and a provider of complete, high-end loudspeakers for consumer and professional audio.
Dynaudio is well known for their consumer, pro audio�and automotive loudspeakers, and they are also one of the foremost OEM (original equipment manufacturer) providers of raw drivers to other loudspeaker companies. The company's Excite X12 is a compact bookshelf loudspeaker that exudes quality. Term lab software cracked.
Made in Denmark, the Excite X12 is beautifully crafted--a point of pride to the company and a refreshing exception to all the mass-market, vinyl-clad, plastic-trimmed speakers out there. The X12, like all Dynaudio speakers, has the look, fit and finish of fine furniture. The X12 is not an inexpensive bookshelf speaker at $1,200 to $1,275 per pair (depending on finish), but if you're the kind of person who prizes quality--and, like, me, laments cheaply- and poorly-made products of any kind--you'll appreciate the X12.
Measuring 11 inches high by six and a half inches wide by 10 inches deep and weighing a little over 14 pounds, the two-way Excite X12 features a five and three quarter inch woofer made with an exclusive light, rigid magnesium silicate polymer (MSP) membrane, and a one inch coated silk soft-dome tweeter--a high-frequency transducer which has earned a great deal of acclaim. The drivers feature aluminum voice coil wire and die-cast aluminum driver baskets. The tweeter is mounted as close as possible to the woofer, to more closely approximate a point source design (more on that later).
Additional Resources
The X12 has a frequency response of 50Hz - 23kHz, 86dB sensitivity and a nominal impedance of 4 ohms--not the most efficient bookshelf out there, but Dynaudio states that the impedance is constant and linear throughout the frequency range and provides an easy load to any amplifier. High quality crossover components are used, including ceramic resistors, air-copper inductors and premium internal cabling (the crossover point is 2kHz). The enclosure utilizes MDF with a one-inch-thick front baffle, and has a sealable rear bass-reflex port.
The Excite X12 is available in a choice of maple, cherry, rosewood and black ash real-wood veneer finishes�at $1,200 per pair, and $1,275 per pair in high-gloss white and black lacquer, all with removable grilles. (Personally, I think the white lacquer is absolutely gorgeous.) The speaker is simple in design--a rectangle with a slight vertical chamfer on the sides of the front baffle. The optional matching Dynaudio Stand1 is available in black or silver.
There are many who feel that a compact two-way loudspeaker has a distinct sonic advantage over larger multi-driver designs--a small two-way enclosure can more closely approximate a point source, and its benefits of precise imaging and soundstaging. (Other speaker designers favor a line source or other configuration.) The Excite X12 is no exception, offering excellent performance in these areas (easily heard even on a trade show floor), along with a smooth, refined quality yet with plenty of musical detail. There's a reason why Dynaudio and many other manufacturers favor that sweet-sounding silk-dome tweeter. With a 50Hz low-frequency response, the X12 won't deliver true deep bass, and doesn't have the low-frequency weight and heft of a larger speaker--on the other hand, I didn't feel that the X12 sounded thin or missing anything musically important in any way.
How to beat the green machine slot. Competition and Comparison
If you are interested in comparing the Dynaudio Excite X12 loudspeaker against its competition, be sure to read our reviews for the Paradigm Reference Studio 20 V.5 loudspeaker and the Revel Performa M22 loudspeaker. �You can also find more information available in our Bookshelf Speaker section and on our Dynaudio brand page.
Dynaudio Audience 42 Loudspeakers
The Danes’ success with speakers is something to behold. Ever since the Dynaco A-25 of the 1960s (made by SEAS), Denmark has been the source of many great speaker systems, and of raw drivers for long before that. Dynaudio, one of Denmark’s largest producers, is also one of the youngest; the firm, established in 1977, offers a broad array of speaker systems for home, car, and professional applications.
Dynaudio’s Audience series constitutes the entry level of their speaker offerings, but that doesn’t mean cheaply made. The subject of this review, the Audience 42 ($850 USD per pair), is surprisingly heavy for its diminutive size, and surprisingly lovely.
Description and setup
The Audience 42 is small -- a mere 11' high by just under 7' wide and 10' deep. Rar pc download 32 bit. The 'midwoofer' (Dynaudio’s word) is 5.9' in diameter, the fabric-dome tweeter just over 1'. Each speaker weighs 10.5 pounds. The stated sensitivity is 86dB, the frequency response 53Hz-28kHz, +/-3dB. The 42’s nominal sensitivity is 4 ohms, with a range of 3.7-18.7 ohms over the entire audioband. The review pair was clad in a handsome rosewood veneer; the Audience 42 is also available in cherry, maple, and black ash.
The rear panel contains a pair of gold-plated, recessed, multiway binding posts, as well as a 1.75' flared bass port with a matching plug of high-density foam. Dynaudio suggests that the Audience 42s be set up to describe an equilateral triangle with the listening position, and that they be placed no less than 0.5m from the front wall. If the 42s must be placed closer to the wall, Dynaudio suggests plugging the ports, which turns their bass-reflex enclosures into sealed boxes. I found that the bass tightened up a bit with the ports plugged, and probably didn’t descend as low as the quoted 53Hz. Most of the time I had to use the plugs, but didn’t think badly of the 42s for that. Vgt slot videos may 2019.
I placed the 42s on 31'-high Sanus speaker stands, and used Blu-Tack to secure them. The speaker’s gray grillecloth is secured by four posts. I heard very little difference in sound with the grilles removed, and so left them on for most of the review period.
System
Most of the time, I used the Audience 42s with my office system: JVC L-F41 turntable with Grado Green cartridge, Onkyo DX-6800 CD player, and Boston Acoustics Recepter Radio HD feeding a McIntosh C27 preamp and Carver TFM-15CB 100Wpc power amp. The low bass was handled by an Advent ASW 1200 subwoofer driven directly from the McIntosh’s center-channel output. Speaker cables were 16-gauge Recoton/ARs. I found the best crossover setting for the sub was about 90Hz.
I also used the Dynaudios with my living-room system: NAD C525BEE CD player and NAD 712 receiver with a PSB Subsonic 5i subwoofer. Here, I removed the Audience 42s’ port plugs and set the crossover frequency between sub and satellites to about 80Hz.
Sound
Overall, I found the Audience 42’s integration of its midbass and treble to be seamless. It sounded about as close to a point source as I’ve heard. With or without the port plugs, the midbass had some slam and punch -- with lots of rock music, the 42 could get up and boogie. Yet it didn’t sound odd reproducing ethereal choral music. The 42 handled the dynamics of full-bore classical music, yet also seemed to delight in such intimate music as cabaret performances, small jazz combos, and solo vocals.
When I played the Hoedown from Aaron Copland’s Rodeo, as performed by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet on their Labyrinth [CD, Delos DE3163] in a fine arrangement for four guitars, the Dynaudios displayed outstanding imaging: the two main guitars on left and right, with appropriate fill-ins between. Even through fairly good speakers -- including my own Celestion 3s -- the articulation of the individual pluckings of strings in this very percussive performance can often be lost or glossed over. Not with the Dynaudios: their very fast reproduction made this music sound wonderful.
'Be Cool,' from Claire Martin’s The Waiting Game [CD, Honest/Linn CD 5018], is a favorite of mine. I’ve been a fan of this smoky-voiced British chanteuse, who only now is being properly introduced to American audiences, since I heard a track from her debut album on an obscure jazz station. Once again, the Dynaudios offered perfect imaging that even extended past the speakers’ outer side panels. There was good depth, too -- the bass and drums were suitably in the rear, and the guitar and piano were just behind Martin.
Manhattan Transfer’s cover of Weather Report’s 'Birdland,' as heard on The Manhattan Transfer Anthology [Atlantic/Rhino D200146], was instructive. In this tour de force vocal performance, the group was well integrated with the spare instrumental accompaniment, but when each singer soloed, he or she came across brilliantly. (Janis Siegel’s scatting of her closing notes is nothing short of amazing.) Compared to the Celestion 3s, the usual speakers in my office system, the Dynaudios showed a bit more restraint, even without the port plugs -- as if they were following along with the score. I was impressed by the accuracy of the sound.
On 'The Shadow of Your Smile,' from In Tune, by the Oscar Peterson Trio and the Singers Unlimited [CD, MPS 821 850-2], the harmonies are some of the best ever. Peterson is ever sensitive to whomever he accompanies, and here he does a delicious piano solo as well, accompanied by the Singers with heavy echo. The Dynaudios reproduced all of this just as I wanted it. Maybe that’s subjective, but doggone, they sounded wonderful. By contrast, the Celestion 3s, as good as they are, sounded just a touch artificial in comparison: a tiny bit muffled, although, given the price difference, still in the ball game.
I then listened to Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops perform Leopold Stokowski’s arrangement of J.S. Bach’s 'Little' Fugue in G Minor, from The Fantastic Stokowski [CD, Telarc CD-30338]. The piece begins very softly, gradually adding members of the reed and string sections. By a third of the way through, the basses and cellos have joined in, and the overall volume has increased; when the violins then enter, the volume increases significantly. But even when the first violins reached for the heavens, the Dynaudios reproduced them without sounding screechy. This was a real ear-opener, with, again, great articulation and great imaging. I couldn’t imagine much better imaging from any other pair of speakers.
But don’t play the Audience 42s too loudly -- they began to break up at about 105dB. Then again, so do my ears, and the Celestion 3s bail out even sooner. With full orchestral music, the Dynaudios sounded a wee bit confused, though not so much that I’d kick them out of my listening room.
'Finally Found a Reason to Believe,' from Art Garfunkel’s Fate for Breakfast (Doubt for Dessert) [LP, Columbia JC 35780], sounded very good through the Dynaudios. Garfunkel was in front, but the backing voices were up close too -- perhaps an artifact of my JVC L-F41 turntable and Grado Green cartridge. The accompanying guitars were nicely up front, and the spread was very left-and-right. The overall reproduction sounded very natural and very satisfactory. High elves total war warhammer.
If you want to hear how your system reproduces a nice variety of acoustic music, mostly guitar and vocal, get Jazz Moods:Twilight in Rio [CD, Concord CCD-5224]. My wife and I treasure this low-priced compilation of tracks by mostly great artists who record for the Concord Jazz label: Charlie Byrd, Karrin Allyson, Toots Thielemans, and a few I’ve never heard of, such as Manfredo Fest, Tania Marie, and Carlos Barbosa-Lima. The sound on this disc is excellent. If you listen to the attacks on the guitar strings and the general sound of Toots’s harmonica (he appears on several tracks), you’ll get an idea of how well your speakers can handle voice and some unusual instruments. With the Audience 42s, I was treated to a great sense of intimacy with the performers. These weren’t the ultimate 'right in the room' speakers or recordings, but both were darn close. Listening to Twilight in Rio through the 42s, both with my NAD living-room system and my hodge-podge office setup, I was very pleased.
Still, the Dynaudios didn’t like being overloaded by really bad recordings, such as vintage Motown singles. Playing Edwin Starr’s '25 Miles,' the 42s began to overload at about 100dB. Those badly overdriven Motown recordings sound as if recorded on some wind-driven piece of 1960s Japanese junk by an engineer had no concept that '0VU' means tape saturation. But that’s also part of their charm. You’ll never hear a recording as raw and natural as an early Motown recording.
Conclusion
All in all, the Dynaudio Audience 42 is a fabulous small loudspeaker. Over the years, I’ve been exposed to any number of fine small speakers -- the KEF Coda 7, Celestion 3, Advent 3, Monitor speakers from the UK, and PSB’s Alphas and Minis -- but I don’t believe I’ve heard one as fine as the Audience 42. It’s not inexpensive; for $850/pair, you can find any number of other good floorstanders. But few offer the immediacy of performance and the smooth character of the Audience 42. If it fits your budget, don’t miss hearing it. I believe you’ll find it among the best you’ve heard.
.Thom Moon
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