Excellent balance of frequencies. Very natural presentation. Never bright or fatiguing, open midrange, rich tunefull LOW bass.

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Dynaudio speakers never jump out and say one particular thing loudly, but what they do is say everything extrememly accurately, leaving you to finally say something like "wow! this speaker is so natural." I have listened to and set up numerous loudspeakers of this price range, including Wilson, and B&W. None speak to you like the dynaudio. This is by far, my favorite reference level speaker. In a nutshell, it conveys a very natural presentation of all the instruments and frequencies. What you can be assured of with this speaker is that you are not listning to what one particular designer wants to hear, but what the accurate presentation is intented to be. This is not a company that makes a speaker to the CEO's ear, but to principle of mathematics and physics. Ok so lets get to the point. I sit down in from of a pair of Evidence masters, and what is the first thing I do? I relax, why do I do this? I do this because I am not looking to notice any one thing in particular, I am just looking to fade into the music. I am not adjusting my head so that the time aligned cabinet is hiting my ears at that precise milimeter where the whole universe falls into whack!. I have a snifter of cognac in one hand and a remote in the other. So this is how they sound. This speaker is never bright. The highs are very smooth, kind of like my cognac. Even characteristically bright instruments are not noticed as fatiguing, if you hear any brightness, its on your disc! The midrange is very open, but this takes a lot of break in to occur. I noticed the mids being very veiled until about 100-200 hours of play time. In fact, when you get them. Turn them on, go one vacation and then come back. By that time they should be broken in. The mids are very resonant at the right times, but not overly warm or harsh. A guitar note for instance tends to resonate for just the right amount of time. Now on to the bass. Wilson X1's have a bass hit that slamms you in the chest like a pile driver. This is an effective demo, but it is not "natural." At first I thought the Dynaudios were weak in the bass. They have the kind of bass that sneaks up on you. You'll be listning to it, thinking "do these things go low?" and then all of the sudden WHAM! ok... maybe not WHAM... more like WHOA! a low bass note hits and you realize what just happened, yes the same old word again "natural" bass, very "natural!" So what is the overall presentation of the speaker? It is a smooth accurate speaker across the board. It does everything right, and nothing wrong, but this doesn't mean its boring. I mean a corvette may have twice the horsepower of a comparable BMW but when you are sitting in the car for hours on end or tasking every single one of its abilities, not just drag racing or doing burnouts in the parking lot, what matters more? long term comfort or short term fun? I would say long term comfort and accuracy, after all $85,000 is a lot to pay for something that doesn't accell in every area. So what about the other cool things about the speaker. Here is one that I loved! and will really benefit you Home Theater guys. You know how some speaker image like no other in one particular sweet spot, but fall apart in all other areas. The dynaudios are not designed that way at all. This is on paper a 3-way speaker, but for all intents and purposes, it is an 8-way. Want proof? look at the back of the thing. See the two sets of wires going to the top bass cabinet? A 3-way wouldn't need two sets, just one. What has been done with this speaker are slight changes to each crossover for each driver, making it close to a three way, but since the two tweeters, mids, and four bass drivers have slightly different crossovers, it is technically an 8-way of sorts. Why is this done? and why does it benefit you home theater guys? Because behind and left and right of the sweetspot, the image stays very settled where it should be. Of course when it is just me listning in the sweet spot, who cares! Lets image a home theater with two tiers of four person sofas. With most speaker systems. The sweetspot location has the best sound. With the dynaudios, everyone has a pretty good earful. If you want a reference level theater and you care about your guests, get them a glass of cognac too, cause their sweetspot is pretty darn good, even if they are behind or next to you. So to wind down. Is this the best speaker in the world? I say yes! I have heard nothing out there that does absolutely everything as well as the dynaudio. No pile drivers for me, just a glass of cognac, a handful of CD's and a very natural listning experience! There's that word again, "natural"

Similar Products Used:

Wilson X1, B&W Nautilus 800, Dynaudio Temptation, Wilson Watt Puppy 6. What I listened with. DCS front end, Musical Fidelity KW preamp, KW monoblocks, and Krell 750mcx monoblocks.