Top quality is the craftsmanship, Simple the best speaker i have geird for the music I like!

None, i mean NONE!!!!! (dont pay more than 6500 new)

Well it started a few years ago, i was looking to replace my dads old JBL L300 speakers that are older than me! So first things first go out and listen to everything. First i loved the Pro-ac's but im not a tube guys so next came the nautilus line from B&W. First impressions were good but soon realized that something was missing, maybe it was the highs, but the reviews where so good could it be me? Of course it's me! Anyway after trying too many other speakers i came across the Confidence 5 and life was great!! These speakers fill every hole in my head! Simple they disapear and fill the room with such joy that one really has to cry!

Ok some requirements:

power hungry
try directing them behind listening position!
Good cables a must

MY SYSTEM:

Can be seen at PSAUDIO.COM (personal systems/confidenceHIFI)

overall by these speaker and you will not regret it
P.S. anyone who says they have bass problems is using to little power or is subwoofer happy!!

Similar Products Used:

JBl l300

Small Foot Print
Clean Mids & Highs
Tight Fast Bass
Build Quality
Instruction manual very vague and non-discript

Low Sensative @ 86dB [Needs crazy amplification]
Placement critical
Requires 'blue blooded' front end and electronics
Sitting position is very critical, ears to be at woofer height

08th August, 2001.

DYNAUDIO CONFIDENCE 5 LOUDSPEAKER

Serial Number :- 729879 & 729880.

Date of Purchase :- 05th May, 1999. [70 % Advance Paid]

Date of Delivery :- 06th June, 2001. [YES ! THE DATES ARE CORRECT, IT IS NOT A TYPING ERROR. I SHALL EXPLAIN LATER]

Price Paid :- US $ 7,961/- + transport cost from Denmark to Mumbai [Bombay] 900/- + Customs Duty & Local Taxes [Indian] 2,500/-.

SUBLIME, SEDATE, ACCURATE, FATIGUE FREE, TRANSPARENT, WELL BUILT, FAST, DETAILED are some of the adjectives that come to my mind the instant Confidence 5 is mentioned.

One of the finest dynamic drivers have been used in the making of these lovely loudspeakers [I am tempted to call them ‘musical instruments’]; THE ESOTAR DOME MIDRANGE & ESOTAR DOME TWEETER. Of cause there is the Scanspeak ‘Revelator’ & the Focal ‘Titanium inverted dome Telar 57 pole-piece’, The Seas Magnesium etc., but none in my opinion can come close to, let alone perform better, than the ESOTAR. It is the closest one can get to any Electrostatic or Ribbon / Planner driver. Smoother than a 18 year old ‘The Macallan’.

The Confidence 5 is a ‘Time Alligned’, ‘Phase Coherent’, ‘Impedence Compensated’ ‘Isobarically Loaded’ floor standing loudspeaker. The speaker plays very ‘REAL’ Bass, although the ‘Anacoheic’ response says 43 Hzs. the
actual ‘in-room’ response is much lower and the speaker plays well below 30 cycles @ - 12 dB. Considering that the speaker is a compound enclosure [2 bass drivers, 1 behind the other] in a sealed box, the bass is really ‘fast’ and does not have any ‘boomy’ ‘hang-over’ characteristics. In fact this is the only ‘sealed box’ design loudspeaker in the Dynaudio stables.

The speaker is rather in-sensitive @ 86 dB and hence requires a ‘high current’ very powerful amplifier to drive it. Mono Blocks are a preferred choice. The speaker has a 6dB per octave crossover topology and is therefore very placement critical, rather the ‘sweet spot’ is a very small area. Setting up the speaker right is very crucial and extensive exercise, not to mention time consuming and arduous. However when you get it right, then, it is in a different league by itself.

Any person with a budget of US $ 10,000/- for a speaker must audition the Confidence 5 prior to choosing any JM Lab Utopia, B & W 801N or 802N, Vanderstine Model 5, Aerial Acoustics Model 10 T, Dunlavy SC IV A, Theil’s etc.
I recommend the speaker with all my heart, I have spent many an hour listening to my favourite music through the Confidence 5 and I shall only replace them for the ROCKPORT TECHNOLOGY or WISDOM AUDIO M-75’s [which in my humble opinion are ‘exceptional’ ‘cutting edge’ ‘revolutionary’ loudspeakers]

The speaker has monitor like attributes, if it gets a CD with a poor recording it plays it ‘as it is’, no ‘cover ups’ here. It also needs top class electronics and complimenting cables. Please do not mis-interpret the ‘pedigree’ of this speaker.

With regards the delivery time, I paid an advance of 70 % of the value of the speaker to Dynaudio directly on the 05th of May, 1999 and the speaker was delivered to me only on the 6th of June, 2001. The speakers arrived into India [at Madras / Chennai] in December, 2000 & the Local Distributor / Dealer Ms. Intech gave the same to me only in the month of June, 2001. Hence all prospective clients of Dynaudio products, please, do not part with your money until you get the delivery of the speakers or else you shall have to face the same ordeal of making an advance payment of more than 70 % and having to wait for 26 months for your speakers to be delivered to you. Very sad, yet very true.............

Testing and review carried out with :-

A] Equipment [I own and use]

Simaudio Moon Eclipse CD Player [Returned back]
Electrocompaniet EMC-1 CD Player [Current CD Player]
Ultech Audio UCD-100 CD Player + Sonic Frontiers SFD II [DAC] Spare
Simaudio P-5 Pre Amplifier [Returned back]
Bryston BP-25 Pre Amplifier [Returned back]
Pass Labs X-1 Pre Amplifier [Current Pre-Amp]
Bryston 7B ST Power Amplifier
Dynaudio Confidence 5 Loudspeakers
vdH [Van den Hul] ‘The Second’ Balanced XLR Interconnect
vdH [Van Den Hul] ‘The Revelation’ Speaker Cable
vdH [Van Den Hul] ‘The Mainstream Hybrid’ Power cable

B] Music

M.A. Recordings - Begona Olavide / Mudejar MA042A
Water Lily Acoustics - Tabula Rasa WLA-CS-44-CD
ECM Records – Making Music / Zakir Hussain ECM – 1349
Moment Records – Ustad Sultan Khan MRCD – 1006
Reference Recordings – TUTTI ! RR-906CD
Telarc – A tribute to Oscar Peterson CD – 83401
Chesky Records – The Raven/Rebecca Pidgeon JD 115
Mercury – Essential / Yello 512 390 – 2
Pope Music – Entangled Devotions PM 1004 -- 2
The Grapevine Label -- Mary Black – Best of…GRACD 012

Mazher Bashir JAFFAR

08th August, 2001.

Mumbai [Bombay] INDIA

e-mail :- schwinn@bol.net.in
www.schwinnwarehousing.com

Similar Products Used:

JM Lab Utopia
B & W 801N & 802N
Vanderstine Model 5
Aerial Acoustics Model 10 T
Dunlavy SC IV A
Theil’s etc.
All have been auditioned by me, but none have been owned.

Fine details, midrange neutrality, speed, etc

None

This is the real thing. Stereos are about capturing one's emotion, recreate the you-are-there live music goose bumps, and truth. I have owned more than a dozen $10k+ speakers in my life, and Confidence 5 redefines my defition of high-end speakers.

Midrange is the most critical spectrum of music. Look around, good speakers always have decent midrange because that's what human hears most. Confidence 5 uses Dynaudio's most exotic Esotar midrange dome, a product costs 5 to 10 times more than other midrange cone. The result is lightning fast speed and transparency that rivals electrostatic and some. Just one listen to a female vocal track will convince the most stubborn.

Along with the best tweeter and midrange domes, Dynaudio packs compounded bass drivers in the same box. Here we have 8" woofer with 4" voice coil followed by 7" woofer with 3" voice coil. That's a lot of force when driven with proper power. The spec only says half of the story, 43 Hz is what equipment measured, you will hear and feel all the way down to 20 Hz with details to spare. Lots of details indeed.

The little flagship from the most well known high-end driver manufacture, that is a lot to say about Confidence 5. If you have $10000 to spend on speakers, don't look any where else. If you have $5000 to spend, save the money until you can afford the Confidence 5. And if you have way too much money to waste, buy a couple pairs of Confidence 5 and get ready to be impressed. 10 stars for sound if I can give them.

every audiophile term you can think of

low sensitivity

So I sold my Confidence 5 hoping to find a better speaker under $20k that is better and easier to drive since I love my tube amp.

First stop was B&W 802 N, not even close to Contour 3.3's performance. Piano sounds muffle, dead, and slow. Next was Revel Studio, integration between drivers are so poorly done it's like hearing individual drivers. As a former Extrema owner, I also tried the Sonus Faber Amati Homage. Are you kidding me? That thing is bright and lean, the complete opposite of Extrema sound. I later discovered all new Sonus Faber speakers sound that way because they use cheap drivers. Got to give Dunlavy SC-IV/A a try since he claimed they are the most accurate speakers on earth, very bass heavy and lack ultimate resolution, it sounds "big". Aerial 10T, I don't even remember what it sounds like. Hales T-8, Proac 3.8, Avalon Opus, and Wilson Watt/Puppy 6, they all sound lean and quick, like Martin Logans. Have you ever heard an instrument in real life that sounds lean? Since the introduction of electro-static, many manufactures are pressured to make box speakers that can resolve as much details while still have weight on lower mid. Over years, they only concentrate on resolving low leve details, a technique if you only want details. Contour and Confidence both can resolve low level details without sounding lean, an achievement worth praising. And the bass, have any Confidence 5 owners try listening to speakers out there recently? You will really appreciate your Confidence 5.

Conclusion, I think I have to buy back another Confidence 5. They are not the heaviest, biggest, loudest, or sexiest furniture you can buy for $10k, but they sure are the sounding $10k furniture money can buy.

Similar Products Used:

too many to list