Good afternoon!!! Acoustic systems Dynaudio Crafft very musical.

But will be even better they if it to make a upgrade.

The scheme and a photo under the reference:

http://photofile.ru/users/yras/3542295/

Plenty

binding posts too close

One amp. that kill all

Similar Products Used:

Mark 20.6,jeff 8T,Bryston 14B

All

None

It has everything. Using with Mark Levinson 383 and Mark Levinson No. 39 cables : Transparent

Similar Products Used:

Linn, ProAc, TDLs and Sonus Faber

Neutral, revealing, big soundstage, it will take whatever amount of juice that the amplifier can squeeze ( I have heard it with amplifiers ranging from 50wpc to 1000wpc).

Extremely amplifer demanding (i.e., difficult to get it sound right)

It is by far the best pair of bookshelf speakers that I have owned (if you get the right amplifier for it). I switched from crosssoverless design (Reference 3A) to the Crafft with complicated crossover. The 3A was warm and bass was extended, I was impressed by the amount of low frequency that it can produced as well as its high efficiency. It worked well with my YBA integre DT integrated as well as Forte Model 2 and 1 Alpha pre-power combo.

I bought a pair of Crafft at a price that I could not resist. Boy, that was where all my trouble begin, The 2 amps that I have could not handle the Crafft at all, the control over low frequency was obviously lacking, as the room was booming big time. However, the mids and highs were significantly refined as compare to the 3A.

Next thing that I tried was to switch all of my warm sounding cables to high definition ones, the effect was minimal. Knowing the source of problem, I switched the power amplifier to one with higher damping factor, an Aragon 4004 MKII, it helped a little but still far away from satisfactory. The next amp that I used was a Threshold T100, again slightly better but not all that great.

I got hold of an older Chord amp by chance, it was a SPM 900. I was so suprised that the amp with such a small footprint can produce 200wpc. When the Chord was installed into the system, I instantly understand why the dynacoustic (professional models of Dynaudio) used chord amps as their official amplfier as well as amplifiers in their M series active speakers. The Chord and Dyna are perfectly matched. The improvement on low frequency control was significant. I was also surprised that the Chord amp with 200wpc, does not sound coarse at all unlike many amps with similar power.

I am now using a newere Chord, the SPM 1200B, rated at 250wpc @ 8ohms, 380W @ 4ohms. Again, the improvement is significant with a more sophisicated power supply (an improved swithced mode power supply over the SPM 900). The sound stage is wide and deep, more details,resolution and dynamic.

I can come to the following conclusion about the Crafft after 6 months of usage:
1) It is a true monitor, its output is extremely faithful to the input.
2) It has big sound that can rival many floorstander at higher price bracket.
3) Because of point 1), the user have to be very careful with the source and cables matching.
4) It is not easy for amplifier matching. I found that it likes European Amps better. So far, the Chord is its rightful partner. BTW, never use a tube amp with it!
5) The OCOS speakers cable is the best speakers cable for it. The OCOS is also recommended by Dynaudio for use with their speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Proac T50S, Response 1SC, Reference 3A Royal Master, KEF Ref 102.2

I previously had small ProAcs (Tab. 50 Sig.) and although I liked the sweetness and imaging of the ProAcs, I wanted more weighty and better balanced sound. At this point, I am looking for quality standmounts due to its inherent advantage in imaging over floorstanders and also due to some budget constraint. Among the standmounts I auditioned: ProAc Response 1SC and 2S, Sonus Faber Electa Amator II and Dynaudio Crafft.About the ProAcs: 1SC is about the same as Tab.50 Sig. except that it is slightly warmer sounding and noticeably deeper bass. The bass was very good for the size but I found somewhat loose. 2S has deeper bass but sacrifies in imaging department and I found the bass is overly warm and even looser than 1SC. I noticed some ugly discussions going with 2S at its review site. Although I find it absurd somebody's posting 1 star there many times; nonetheless I think he has a point in this regard. I, myself cannot rate the 2S more than 3 stars.
About the Sonus Faber: It is polite, warm presentation and has certain merit of presenting the essential aspects of the music it played. However, I found the sound is somewhat masked and congested (not open). It was trying very hard to say whatever it was saying, and not easy flowing at all, and I did not like it.
And finally about the Dynaudio Crafft: this should be one of the most accurate monitors available. Driven by Krell 300i with Meridian 508.24, I was very impressed by its detail and neutralness (absense of coloration). It played music with authoritative truthfullness. The things againt it is that it is a hard drive for an average amp and its sound is somewhat surgically dry and emotionally sterile. I think the setup with the Krell magnified this character. Still, I found the Crafft is a very attractive option. If anybody with more experience with the Crafft, please advise me whether it is the kind of speaker that can be enjoyed for a long time. Also, please comment on the proper amp to use with it. Overall, I highly rate the Crafft, and am sure that it would sound great with right amplification.

Absolutely the best speaker I have heard in the < US$10k range and I only paid US$3k for a brand spanking new pair. I am driving them w/ a SimAudio Moon I-5 Integrated @ only 70w per and the sound is absolutely incredible. I just picked up some Nordost flatline cables which bumped up sound quality approx 5%. In short, I love these speakers :-)

This is follow-up review of the speakers. I must say these speakers go from strength to strength.
The McIntosh MC7300,though a very good amp, was proved to be not a good match w/ the Crafft. and the Crfft takes no mercy to reveal the truth. Speed and high freq. were simply missing and sound became too rich and lush for my taste where my previous Dyna Compound 2 is more forgiving.

I bought an int. amp SAME from Audionet. Those you don't know it, it is from Germany. Audionet is formed by a group of professors in a German Univ. dedicated to audio perfection. They produce really high end solid state gears. The sound is very neutural and whole frequency range is smooth and flat as silk. Their strong point is the ability to produce superb music dynamics, both micro and macro. Speed and transient is excellent. Music pieces gets more interesting and vivid. It has a very high damping factor which controls the Crafft with no problem at all. Rated at 150W/ch, it's adequate to drive the Crafft in 90% of the time w/o running out of steam, of course, it's shy of when playback complex orchestral music.

The Crafft is now much faster than ever, the highs goes further up, the mids still remain absolute transparent and neutral. The mid bass is solid and tuneful but not overripe. The freq. response is dead flat resulting an extremely smooth sound. Its monitor characteristics reveals all deficiencies of the ancillary equipment which too often the owner blames it for the sound of the Crafft. With poor eqip., it gives you poor sound. With excellent equip., it excels. It also gives you different sound with different CDs which makes music listening much more interesting than ever.

This is the best, most neutral bookshelf I have ever heard since. I 'm glad I own it and I can forget about the endless speaker search. Not until I opt for the floorstanding spk. Confidence 5 from Dynaudio.

Remember to use the OCOS speaker wire from Sumiko, a must for Dynaudio. It won't sound as neutral if you use other expensive exotic speaker cables. That save you some cost for upgrading spk wires! These speakers is extremely eqip. sensitive and revealing the coloration and tweaking from their ancillary equip.

A solid 5-star performance.

I'm hesitant to put this review on since my current system does not truly reflect the potential of these speakers. However, they are already showing its strength even in a less than perfect( or near perfect) system.
Upgraded from Contour 1 MkII then CompoundII, finally the Crafft took a big leap in sonic improvement. What is before excellent is now bettered previously by a large margin.

Remarks:-
Absolute colorless and neutral.
Midrange is smooth, although slightly grainy because of my CDP.
Highs could improve by upgrading my equipment! not the Crafft. It reflects the slight inferior treble presented by my CDP. Substituting to Sony CD7000 improve a little bit. Top of the line Esotar tweeter can perform much better.
Bass..ah this little gem can definitely go down to 40hz and the cabinet hardly resonance at all! However, it needs amp that has a higher damping factor than what i'm having now. Nevertheless, it provide tuneful bass down to 40hz, though w/ some humming. Wish the bass could be a little more tighter and taut. Again, the fault of my equipment other than the speaker! The plentiful bass info provide a solid foundation to the overall sound which makes whole lot more sense to the music.
Overall sound is very musical with a lot of flesh and muscle, more a character of the amp than speaker! Could be toned slightly more.
Soundstage is wide and reasonably deep and yet to further improve after I had purchased a preamp or trade it to an Int.Amp. Instruments tends to be a little congested right now when playing complicated music, its my CDP again..
Timbre is preserved nicely for different instruments although I expect a little more decay on instruments. Another shortcoming of my CDP.

Problem is that I've come to know more and more shortcomings of my system and it urges me to improve my system.

There a treble and mid gain switch which I've toggled a bit and still prefer set it at neutral. Maybe someone can advise me on how to use it.

I love it more and more and I am dead sure that the speaker would reward me every time I improve my other equipment! I would not need to change speakers to suit certain shortcomings/coloring/character of different speaker make. Crafft is simply like pure water from the mountain top or a piece of white paper. It simply reflects what the ancillary equipment's character than has its own earmark.

Ah.. as for my system:-
CAL IconMkII (excellent CDP, though w/ a lot of shortcoming, but I'm comparing to player at $3k+). I've bought it at less than $400US as a demo that is seldom use.
Transparent Ultra as interconnect. Big, deep(even w/o preamp),lush and musical. Bass is great where highs is slightly inferior to others say Ortofon 8N, Audionote ANVX or VDH MC silver.
Direct feed to McIntosh MC7300 300Wx2 power amp controlling volume via gain control. (weak part of the chain and would upgrade later)
OCOS speaker cable. ( A must for all Dyna owner, this is THE speaker cable which Dyna specifically recommend. It's comparatively cheap but is extremely neutral and does well, 80-85+, in every aspects). I've bought a new pair for $50US in a clearance sale!
Crafft Speaker. (bought at an unbelivable price in a clearance sale. So cheap that I won't tell you for you might got heart attack!)

I'll keep you inform if I had upgraded my equipment.

But for now, a definite five star for the potential it possess, though 4-4.5 stars for the current performance which is not of the fault of the speaker.

A reference in its class, a mirror that reflects all the good and evil!

Bravo!!

Just bought a pair of these last night. They've been breaking in for a couple weeks at the dealer. These speakers are amazing. I have listened to SO many speakers in the last 4 months, and none of the other brands have the instrumental articulation and vocal clarity that these Dynaudios do. I've listened to every speaker I could find up to about $5000 a pair. Now I know why so many OTHER high-end speaker manufacturers use Dynaudio drivers. Nothing even comes close to these speakers. Can you tell I'm happy with my purchase? All I need now is that Myrdyn CD player and everything will be perfect... well, almost, I still need those Sunfire separates. :-)

That's a Myryad CD, duh.