High level of detail, smooth highs & mids, total absence of long term listening fatigue, tight bass slam, nicely built and small footprint.

Vinyl covering and they do reqire quality amplification to perform their best.

I believe I have fairly well summed it all above as have the other reviews. I will only add that after one year and change of ownership, I have not experieced any desire to upgrade these speakers. From time to time, I visit local dealers and have yet to find anything that would warrant an upgrade anywhere in the vicinity of the price range on the A70s.

I also own the Audience center channel speaker which IMHO, is an excellent performer. Vocals are accurate and rich without any hint of sssss and in addition, will go quite low when required w/o any hint of distortion.

Weather it be music or HT, these speakers truly excell at their respective price points.

Per the other reviewers, magnificent sound, excellent value.

None, if you don't mind the vinyl covering.

My goal was to do the best I could in the $1,500 to $2,000 range. I auditioned also a number of speakers above and below those prices (why pay more if I can't hear a difference?).
The closest competion, as good or perhaps a tad better overall, ranged from $300 to over $1,000 more then the Dynaudio Audio 70's. Mostly this was low bass extension. Most listeners would probably not notice much or any difference. After two hours of experimenting with placement and phase alignment, the 70's were seamlessly blended with a Paradigm PW 2200 sub and the results are most pleasing.
The rest of the system is pretty modest:
*Sony GA8ES (120 watts x 2 @ 4ohms)
*Sony CA7ES CD player
*Old monster cable interconnects and speaker cables(will be replacing soon).
The long break-in period isn't as daunting as it may seem, although some of the almost too bright edge to the upper end did moderate nicely after 50 - 60 hours.
Right out of the box these speakers impressed on a wide variety of instrumental music. Never heard Rameau's harpsichord music sound so good, ditto for Brahms' serenades and Holmboe's chamber concertos; Richard and Linda Thompson came through like a great seat at the concert and the female is especially well treated by the 70's. The Greatful Dead at high volume don't tax anything in the system and are great--hope my goofy neighbors make good their threat to move to Tucson, will serenade them some more late tonight. In sum, these are wonderful speakers, easily at the the top of their class--at least in my listening experience. I recommend them without reservation.

Similar Products Used:

Closest competion auditioned: Totem Model One Sig., Tannoy Saturn S10, Jamo Concert 8. Others used or auditioned: various B&W and Paradigm, Bose 901, many less expensive models at Good Guys and Circuit City.

Powerful Bass Slam, beautiful mids/highs, unbelieveably clear.

Definately need some time to break in, can be a little to true on poor recordings.

What can I say that hasn't been said before. These speakers really do live up to their reputation. I couldn't believe what I was missing out on before I got these speakers.

For the past 5 years I've been using a little Denon D-08 mini system, so the upgrade was amazing. I am using a Marantz SR-8000 to power these. Straight out of the box these speakers amazed me. The difference in sound was amazing.

They definately need a break in though. I've been using them for approximately 40hours, and things are sounding much better now. Initially the highs were very harsh sounding, almost unbearable actually. Also, quite complex music (such as my many Nine Inch Nails albums :p ) which have many many many layers of sound did start to sound very congested.

However, things sound near perfect now, and I'm sure they will keep getting better. Highs are now clean and distinct, and seperation is perfect. Each individual sound is distinct from all others. I hate to use this expression, but I am hearing things that I've never heard before.

The only real weakness I can find in these speakers (which isn't exactly a weakness really), is that low-quality recordings can sound very bad. You will know which of your CD's are quite poorly recorded, especially MP3 -> CD recordings (although what do you expect from an MP3!)

I was suprised to find that quite a few retailers in sydney stocked these, as I thought they'd be quite rare. I ended up purchasing these from a store in Newcastle called Audio Junction, simply because they could offer me interest free finance. I paid AU$2640 for them, but if I had paid cash, I could've got them for around AU$2250.

I can't say much more than just buy a pair today!

I listened to the Audience 70s with matching center channel a few months back. The speakers were powered only by a Nakamichi AV-10. I was floored. The speakers don't look like much, but they certainly make up for that with an amazing, full-bodied sound. They tend to be on the bright side, but I was listening in a bare-bones room in a cramped audio shop. I'm sure they would sound warmer in a home environment. List for the 70s is $1,599, and retail dealers don't seem anxious to bargain. Apparently there are only about 60 Dynaudio dealers in the United States. The matching center channel, by the way, lists for $700. It is also well worth the price. I chose to go with B&W CDM7se speakers only because they are more in my price range. 4 stars because there's always something else out there that's better.

Nice uncolored and transparant sound.

Harsh on a number of tacks I heard. Bass could use a little more down low.

I like a very uncolored sound and for the most part listening to these speakers I got that from them. Bass was tight and accurate, vocals and piano were natural sounding as well as there was a good soundstage listening to Diana Krall. But, there was something very fatiguing listening to them to my ears. Maybe it was the equipment hooked up to these speakers where I demoed them, or they were a new set that had not been broken in, but to my ears they were harsh in the upper mid frequencies. I think that they are definatly worth a listen too in this price range as others may enjoy them more than I did.

Similar Products Used:

Listened to quite a few in this price range and higher. Paradigm 100s, B&W CDM7, Monitor Audio, Canton

overall coherence, bass...and sound much "bigger" than its actual size.

none

The rating on this speaker is currently 4.67...after listenning to this pair of speaker yesterday, I feel the need to do the justice for Audience 70. At $1700, one of the comparable speaker is B&W 604s2....comparable in price, not in performance! Audience 70 exceeds B&W in every way!! it has a warmer sound, and better soundstage. And despite its smaller footprint, it actually has a very good bass that matches 604s2. In conclusion, plz do yourself a favor, and go audition these speakers if it's within your budget.

Entire frequency range is balanced to near perfection. Imaging, and dynamic slam are incredible.

Vinyl finish. Need serious current to make them sound their best

My previous speakers (for 10 years!) were the Celestion SL6S. I was used to incredible midrange reproduction with no bottom end and found the positive qualities of that speaker tough to beat. I auditoned several speakers with a $5,000 (Canadian) maximum price range in mind. Most exhibited some qualities that I found to be acceptable, but lacked in other areas which I felt to be important given the price range mentioned above. Each of the speakers had a "sonic signature" that was easily identifiable upon repeat listenings.
Rather than critisize the competition, i will state that the Dynaudio audience 70 and contour 1.8 MK 11's stood head and shoulders above the rest.
First, The natural reproduction and balance throughout the entire frequency range is mind boggling. These speakers have no readily identifiable sonic signature and present the music in such a way that keeps you listening hour after hour.
Second, this is the first speaker I have heard at this price range that does equal justice to R & R, classical, jazz and vocals. the old celestions are incredible in the mid and upper (upper!) bass region, but souded like dog@#$% with some heavy R & R.
Third, Side by side comparisions with the Contour 1.8 MK 11 made me realize that for my living room area, and my current electronics, and of course my taste in musical reproduction, the audience 70's were the answer . The contours were a little fuller in the mids, a little tighter in the bass, and a little more dynamic throughout the frequency range, but no matter how much I tried, I could not justify the $2,700 price difference. The build quality on both models is excellent, but you get real wood instead of vinyl with the 1.8's I know that many serious music lovers will justify the small increases in perfomance with the 1.8's, but do yourself a favour if like the dynaudio's and listen to both of them!
Finally, the bottom line is I love this speaker and thought that the audience 70's and contour 1.8's sounded incredible. These are simply the most honest music reproducers that I have heard and you should go have a serious listen if you are shopping in this price range.
Associated equipment:
Rotel RCD 971 cd player
Cyrus 111i integrated with
PXR power supply
Tara labs interconnects
Kimber speaker cables

Similar Products Used:

Linn , Jm lab, pmc, B&W 804/805, Sonus Faber grand piano, monitor audio.