EVERYTHING!!!!!!!

EVERYTHING THEY ARE CONNECTED TOO

No Speaker is Better than Dynaudio, not ribbon speakers, not even planar magnetic, Dynaudio speakers sound real not overy and unrealistically sharp like planar's but like music and voices actually sound in real life...imageing is first rate, highs are perfect, mids are perfect and bass is perfect...not bloated but realistic and true to the sourse. These speakers will let you know exactly what your weak link is, change a cable, change a amp or anything up stream and you can hear the difference. You will need a very good amp with power to bring out the truth in these speakers and if your other components arent up to par you wont be doing them justice either. Point is the better components you have [amp,pre-amp,cd player, wires] the better sound you will get...I can truely see these speakers holding their gound with any speaker given quality sources with the right synergy.

Similar Products Used:

Magnapan, Klipsch, Theil, etc.

Sound is detailed and covers all freq. range. Very detailed and strong highs, detailed midrange, very tight base. Built quaility is superb. Built on a base stand. Grill can be attached at the back.

Absolutely none for the price.

I am writing this review a year after I bought these speakers. I just needed a break since I spent almost a year trying to find a speaker under $2500 that'd be worth it. I tried a lot: * B&W 600 series - Really really bad as an entry level speaker line from a respected brand. * B&W CDM 7NT - Good highs, light bass, boxy sound that is not present in Nautilus series. * B&W N804 - I liked them a lot. Bass a bit weak maybe. Great speakers tough. Only if they weren't $3500. * Meadowlark Kestrel - Might be good for audiophile stuff (jazz vocals etc.) but not good enough for regular music (soft rock, pop etc.) * Paradigm Monitor series - Don't buy them. Get Polk Audio instead. * Paradigm Studio 100 - Best Paradigm speaker, good, but not good enough. * PSB Gold-i - nice overall sound, great bass, lacks detail in high and mid. freq. Altough they're good, I can't call them high and after missing all the detail. * Revel M20 - Wow. Good bass for a monitor; but not a full-range speaker. Better than N805. * Thiel 1.2 - Might have good detail but * * Revel M20 is way better at a similar price. * Klipsch RF-3 - Nice sound, highs are definitely not accurate and detail is missing. But the best overall sound under $800. How about Dynaudio Audience 80? Audience series is the cheapest line of Dynaudio; so I didn't expect them to sound this good; after wittnesing that entry level of B&W (600 series) has nothing in common in sound with the more expensive models (CDM and Nautilus series). I see that Dynaudio did not compramise in sound and quality even at their cheapest line; they are still Dynaudios with similar tweeters and midrange drivers in structure, as the ones in Contour and Evidence series. Sound is very detailed, bass is tight. It has the 'nice' sound over all freq. range like the PSB Gold along with the detail of Nautilus N804. Simply amazing. One other thing is the nice build quality. Grills are not plastic, the whole cabinet is mounted on a base with 4 feet, and the base has 4 spike feet. Grills can be attached at the back, when not in use. Altough not real wood, finish is wonderful; and I am more than willing to trade the looks for built and sound quality. This is THE speaker with the highest value, one that comes with great sound and built quality at the lowest price possible. Sorry to say this, but none of the above speakers I mentioned except B&W N804 is worth to keep; they can't even compete with my Sennheiser HD600 headphones; well Audience 80 and N804 can.

Similar Products Used:

Extensively auditoned all above.

Everything!!!

Nothing, except that the finish is not real wood but only you will know.

THe best...damn near I have heard a lot of speakers, I have no idea what the some of the people below thought, the best the speaker deserves to be in a different class, this speaker competes with speakers costing $5,000 + easy. The midrange is so revealing, I orget I am listening to a speaker. That is impressive! The bass is very natural not over bearing and can play loud if needed...very very loud. Excellent don't be fooled by speakers costing more these speakers will spank them!

Similar Products Used:

B&W, Matin Logan, Thiel, Alon, Genesis, Energy, harbeth

The problem with owning a pair of Dynaudio's is that you are spoiled for imaging and accuracy, and it makes shopping for new speakers very hard. If I had the money, I'd just go buy the Confidence 5 and be done with it forever, but for the price of a nice used car ($10,000), it's hard to justify to the wife. :-)
So, I started thinking it was time to upgrade my little Dynaudio Audience 50's. Wonderful speakers, but they need a sub for serious bass impact. After spending a few hours with the Audience 80 in the local dealer's room, I'd like to offer my impressions. The Audience 80 is an exceptional loudspeaker; Posessing the typical Dynaudio holographic imaging and "cool" analytical sound, but with no harshness or fatigue. It is somewhat unforgiving of poor source material, but so are all accurate speakers. If it's on the disc, you WILL hear it. The Mid-range has that signature "rightness" that is the forte' of the Dynaudio line. The bass extension is respectable, but not awe-inspiring. It's a good solid bet for a speaker that will satisfy for a long time. I compared these to the PSB Stratus Gold i, and in terms of imaging and soundstage there was no comparison - the Dynaudio's had it. I found the PSB's pleasant and warm sounding, with more bass, but much less definition in the low-end. The high-end was very good, almost close to the Dyn's but without that "rightness" that lets one lose themselves in the music.

They also absolutely humiliated the Von Schwiekert VR4 Gen II they were next to - those sounded overly bright in the hi-end and lacked an authoritative bass response. For $4k, I expected way more of the Vr4 Gen2 after reading the reviews.

Having said all that, I didn't buy them right away - I wasn't immediately drawn to them for the money, like I was the Audience 50 (which at $900 is a steal). In the $2300 range these play in, they're up against much stiffer competition. I'm leaning towards them but my search for the perfect $2500 speaker continues. Next up for audition are the Hales Revelation 3 and the JosephAudio Rm22si Signature.

5 stars for sound, 4.5 stars for price/value: 4.75 stars overall (rounds to 5)

Ever buy a product and feel you've completely got your money's worth, and then some. This is how I feel about my Dynaudio 80's. I upgraded from their 2-way Audience 8's to this fine speaker. And I really loved those 8's, but the 80's are in another league altogether. The one thing about Dynaudio speakers is you have to grow them. ;-) No, not with water and fertilizer, but with extended use. I watched my 8's go from a really good speaker to an outstanding one as I approaced a 100 hours of use. Highs became more airy and life-like, bass became more pronounced and refined. It was fun to turn them on each day to see how they had changed. Now, the 80's were even more impressive right out of the box. The soundstage was expanded and the music had much more presence. Bass was a bit laid back, but that was the case with the 8's till I broke them in. Once broke in, they are sharp, quick and very pronounced. I don't think you can find a more "accurate" speaker in this price range. I know, I've looked, and nothing approached them in musicality and clean sound at that price. The other improvement made on this new Audience line was in efficiency. These Towers can be driven effectively by almost any receiver/amp. The one requirement in the past with Dynaudio's was that you needed a high end amp/preamp to fully appreciate their qualities. While that is still true with the new Audience line, they also perform excellently on medium quality gear. They've also added two new finishes for the line. Mine are in light cherry, and they are gorgeous to look at next to my oak entertainment center. I expect to be living happily with these speakers for a long time. Unless of course I win the lottery and then I'll be going after the Contour 3.3's ;-)

I have the Dynaudio Audience 9, a three way floor standing full range transducerThe first thing I should say is that Dynaudio products need power to fully bloom. The associated equiptment is Adcom CD player, Adcom Pre-amp, Hafler Amp and all cables are Kimber. Out of the box they sounded good, a little tight but still good, so I left the house with them playing some break in tunes. When I returned some 9hrs later I thought someone was in the house! There was talking on the CD and it sounded so real, but my anxiety quickly turned into a smile when I recongized the CD and hurried downstairs to listen. The sound blew me away, even though they were still not close to being completely broken in and during the next week all the weaknesses in my system showed up. These speakers are TRUE to the source, they reveal everything in a system and yes even if you change the outlets to a hospital grade outlet as I have done they will reveal that too. Needless to say I have found that my other equiptment is not worthy of such a speaker so I have upgraded to a Crown Studio Ref. amp 555watts/per and a Manley Labs Puriest tube Pre-amp. and JL Labs interconnects. I have found that professional products really deliver the goods, if not more over consumer gear. So now I am in audio heaven. Dynaudio RULES!

Recently, I have been in search for a speaker set. I was trying to look for the best overall speaker for both music listening and home theater and at the best possible value. I have read many reviews about many different speakers here in audioreview.com. And now that I have finally purchased a new set of speakers, I feel that I must contribute something to audioreview.com. Please keep in mind that these are strictly my opinion. Please trust your ear (and watch your pocket) before you buy.
There are many speakers (perhaps too many speakers) out there and all of them seem to claim that theirs are the best. My old pair of speakers are American made (Infinity). So this time, I want something different. This time, I looked at European speakers, primarily British made. This is not to say that the American made is not good. But for the same given set of speakers, I can get better value for British speakers, at least in the country where I live.

In the last four or five months that I have been in search of a speaker set, I have auditioned different speakers at different price levels. This includes B&W CDM 7SE, Mission 753F, KEF Reference Model 2, NHT 2.5I, Boston Acoustics VR760, Dynaudio Audience 80, Dynaudio Contour 1.8MkII, Vienna Acoustics Mozart, Vienna Acoustics Haydn

A lot of people have said about how wonderful Dynaudio drivers are. I myself have a set of Dynaudio speakers in my car. And I must say, it is worth every praise. Every components of Dynaudio spekaers are manufactured in-house. The company claims that it used the best component available. This seems to be the case with the drivers.

The Audience 80 performs impressively with both music and H/T environments. The music characteristic is typical of the Dynaudio line: Clean, dynamic, detailed, and are very enjoyable to listen to. The sonic quality is inferior the the Contour Series though.

The built of the Audience is another story. At this price, I would expect a real wood finish. Instead, it is vinyl finish, which I dislike. But if you don't mind the built and care for sound regardless of price-value. This speaker really is a good choice for music and H/T.