Dynaudio Audience 60.

Manufacturer: Dynaudio North America, 1144 Tower Lane, Bensenville, IL 60106; 630/238-4200; www.dynaudiona.com

Source: Manufacturer loan

Price: $1,199/pair

Reviewer: James T. Frane

Dynaudio, the Danish loudspeaker designer/ builders, hand makes its own drivers and enclosures. This gives them complete control over the performance and quality of the finished product, an advantage for any manufacturer. Interestingly, Dynaudio recommends a break-in period. It has been my personal experience that the loudspeakers I have auditioned have required a break-in period, some short, some long. Not all manufacturers have agreed with me on this subject, and it is refreshing to see this in a manual.

When I introduce new loudspeakers into my system, there is always a difference in some aspect of the sound as compared to my speakers. This is because: a) the components have different frequency response; b) the speakers' sound dispersion patterns are different; c) the speakers' interactions with the room are different. There has been no component change in my system that has made as great a difference in the sound as the loudspeakers. Sometimes, even relocating the speakers in the same room or rearranging the major items in the room make more difference in the overall sound than changing an electronic component. The Dynaudio Audience 60 loudspeakers sound different from my Mach 1 M-Two speakers in a few respects, but come closer in important sonic characteristics than most.

Description: The bass-reflex, floor-standing Audience 60 speakers measure 31.5" x 9.5" x 8" and weigh slightly more than 25 pounds Located on the 1.1"-thick MDF front baffle from top down are a 1" soft dome tweeter, a 6.5" midrange/woofer and a 1.625"-diameter x 4.5"-long flared port. Foam plugs are supplied to fill the ports if one so desires. No guidance is provided for their use. I experimented with the effects of the plugs in and out, and the results are addressed later. The tweeter uses magnetic fluid cooling and a die-cast aluminum front plate to dissipate heat to the air. Its sealed rear chamber is damped to control resonance and distortion. The mid/woofer has dual magnets to increase usable magnetic energy, a vented pole piece to improve cooling, and a progressively resistive spider for control at high power levels. Its voice coil is nearly 3" diameter, which is much larger than is normally seen with drivers of this size. This feature provides the advantages of the driving force being transmitted to the cone over a greater area to minimize uneven cone flexing and making possible greater power and control. The port is flared to minimize air-flow noise. Drivers are mounted so that they protrude slightly from the front baffle, and unusual configuration.

The two-way crossover frequency is at 2100 Hz, with a 6 dB/octave woofer slope and a 12 dB/octave tweeter slope. It uses high quality polypropylene capacitors and air-core inductors. Wires are connected to the speakers via gold-plated 5-way binding posts mounted low on the back and angled upward for ease of use. The spacing permits the use of dual banana plugs.

Sensitivity is rated at 86 dB with a frequency range of 38 to 25 kHz +/-3dB. The wood grain vinyl-covered cabinet is raised on a 0.75" MDF plate by short columns. Fit and finish are superior, and the vinyl is high quality and can pass for wood veneer until one is close to the enclosure. Rapping on the enclosure surfaces with my knuckles identified an area on the side and back baffles between the mid/woofer and the port where there was less stiffness than the rest of the surface area. I don't think this was at all detrimental to the sound because when I felt these and other areas of the enclosures while the speakers were playing, there was minimal panel vibration.

The grille frame is 7/16" thick MDF with black double-knit cloth. It extends downward past the port, but leaves a section of the front baffle uncovered. The grille is held in place by posts the fit into sockets on the baffle. Its top is straight across and the bottom describes an arc for aesthetics.

The 8-page instruction manual (counting the front and back covers) has 3-1/2 pages in English. It states that the drivers need some break-in time and will always need 3-4 minutes of warm-up. It also states that "a very powerful amplifier which produces linear and undistorted signals, will enable even the smallest DYNAUDIO loudspeaker to master extremely high levels without risk." There are a couple of paragraphs addressing the need for high quality cables, followed by a discussion of placement, care and maintenance. It states that resonance-absorbing rubber or spikes may produce a more precise sound image. The effects of those two suggestions are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Spikes would tend to couple a speaker to the floor and rubber to isolate it. I used 1"-diameter, 1/16" thick, adhesive-backed felt pads on the bottoms, which worked very well, sonically. Dynaudio recommends floor placement. Dynaudio offers a five-year, transferable warranty.

Associated Equipment: For this review, my stereo system consisted of a Parasound HCA-1000A power amplifier controlled by a Carver CT-17 preamp-tuner. Other speakers are Mach One model M-Two 2-way supported on a pair of NHT SW3 subwoofers run in dual mono and separately driven by an NHT SA-3 power amplifier with integral electronic crossover. The M-Twos were run full-range, and the NHT low pass control was set to about 40 Hz. Interconnect cables were by Mach 1, Gotham, WireWorld, and Monster Cable, and speaker cables were Mach 1 cables to the M-Twos and Original Monster Cable to the NHTs. Sources were a Sony CDP-XA20ES CD player, a Denon TU-767 tuner, and a Thorens TD320 Mark III turntable with Grado Prestige Red cartridge.

Use and Listening: I set up the speakers 9 feet apart with each 9 feet from the listening position. I tried them pointed straight ahead and angled in toward the listener, adjusting them in increments. The best sound in my room was with them pointed directly toward me. Location did not appear to be critical, as minor changes had little difference. The greatest differences were noted in the aiming. Dispersion is relatively wide at all but the highest frequencies. With pink noise there was little difference in the sound as I moved around and stood or sat. This shows there is a wide area in which the characteristics of the sound, such as stage width and depth remain intact. I always try speakers with and without the grilles in place (where grilles are meant to be removable) to test the difference in sound. I found that many aspects of the overall sound were better with the grilles removed, possible because of sound diffraction from the grille frame. Dynaudio has anticipated that many people might like to listen without grilles and has included a very clever feature. The back baffle has grille-mounting sockets so that the grilles can be stored on the back baffles. The appearance of the semi-gloss black front baffles sans grilles is appealing. The black drivers visually fade into the background. The port plugs, a medium-gray, are somewhat noticeable when installed.

On to the plugs: I measured the Dynaudio's frequency response with and without the foam plugs in the ports. Measurements were made from the listening position with both speakers running, and from one meter in front of the right speaker with only that speaker running (to measure the direct output without delayed response from the left speaker). I used pink noise generated by the ADC SS-525X 2/3-octave analyzer, which also read the response through its calibrated microphone. The mic was placed at a listener's ear level at the distant location and midway between tweeter and midrange/woofer at the one meter distance. In summary, bass response was decreased by two to four dB at 100 Hz and below with the plugs in. Bass extension was also decreased slightly with the plugs in, but the bass was a little tauter. The most interesting aspect was that the plugs had some effect on the flatness of the response in an way that I wouldn't have predicted. When measured from the listening position, the response was flat from 100 Hz through 500 Hz with plugs in and +/- 2 dB over that range without plugs. When measured from one meter, the response was flat from 160 Hz to 1 kHz with the plug out and +/-2 dB over that range with the plug.

With or without plugs, response was down 4 to 8 dB at 25 Hz compared to output at 63 Hz. Response was flat +/-2 dB from 63 to 1 kHz, shelving down a few dB from 2 kHz up at the listening position, and flatter at one meter.

The overall effect was a more polite presentation with the plugs in. I found the sound slightly more enjoyable with the plugs out, with the exception of male speaking voice, which had a slight heaviness that was not there with the plugs in. The downward shelved, but flat upper range resulted in a very pleasing musical presentation.

I use the test tracks of Chesky Records' Jazz Sampler Vol. 1 (Chesky JD37) as one of my standard methods of speaker evaluation. With the Dynaudios aimed straight ahead, the Left-Right Imaging Test locations were in the proper spots, but the localization of the sound was not precise where the sound came from beyond (to the outside of) the right and the left speakers. With the Listening Environment Diagnostic Recording, the "Up" sound went straight up for most of the distance and then arched toward the inside a little. "Over" made and arched several feet above the speakers. "Lateral" went straight across.

When I aimed the speakers directly at the listening position, there were improvements or differences in the above tests as follows: the beyond left and right positions were more precise with less of a phasey quality. "Up" went straight over its full distance, but was located about a foot inboard of each speaker. I preferred the speakers aimed directly at the listening position.

I played pink noise through the speakers and moved around to identify changes in frequency response with different listening positions. Highs dropped off slightly from sitting to standing as I got farther off the tweeter axis. There was little change when moving from side to side, indicating wide and even dispersion.

The following comparisons between the Dynaudio 60s and the Mach One M-2s were made with the sound level matched exactly within the accuracy of a Radio Shack digital sound level meter.

Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor played by Samuel John Swartz (Perpetua PR 7001) was clear and dynamic with the 60s and went deeper in the bass than the Mach Ones, but not as deep as the Mach Ones with the NHT subs. The last statement was true with all of the music that had significant bass in the lowest 1-1/2 octaves.

With Houston Person's "Blue Velvet" from The Party (Muse MCD 5461), the bass could be felt through the oak floor. The bass volume and depth were identifiably reduced with the plugs in, yet the bass was a bit over-emphasized without the plugs. The 60s and the M-2s had similar clarity, wide spread, and dynamics. The M-2 portrayed more depth and was more precise in localizing the sax.

Roosevelt Sykes' "Rock-A-Bye Birdie" from Windy City Blues (LaserLight 17002) had good ambiance and slightly more three dimensionality with sound beyond the outside of the 60s. With the M-2s, there was better front-to-back layering and depth and a spread extending to the speakers.

On the Doors' LP of the same name (Electra EKS-74007), "Light My Fire" was a bit more diffuse on the 60s with more ambiance and softer sound. The M-2s were more detailed with a wider presentation.

Julie London's "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To" from the LP By Myself (Liberty SCR-1) had a width spread between the 60s with Julie farther back than on the M-2s, which had a greater 3D presentation.

Mozart Piano Sonata in F Major performed by Andrei Gavrilov (EMI CDC 7 499632) had a more precisely centered piano on the M-2s as compared to the unrealistically wide image on the 60s.

Ray Charles' "Georgia On My Mind" from Ray Charles: His Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 (Dunhill DZS036) had a wider and deeper spread with the M2s with good layering and depth and Ray centered between the speakers. The 60s' were more diffuse with less depth. Also, Ray was heard from a greater distance and wandered a bit off center.

Conclusion: The Dynaudio 60s' frequency response is not perfectly flat but their inaccuracies are pleasing to the ear. The music was open and effortless with good dynamics and no apparent distortion. Their sound is closer to my Mach One M-2 speakers than most of the speakers I have reviewed, although they are different in some respects. However, as with stringed and other musical instruments, differences are common and are not necessarily detrimental.

The outstanding characteristics of the 60s (with a good recording) were a very wide spread of the performers that extended to the outsides of the speakers, and good depth of presentation and good ambiance. The overall sound was a bit softer than the M-2s. The drivers integrated well and there was never any wind noise from the port.

The Mach One M-2 speakers had slightly greater depth and more precise and steady localization of performers than the 60s. They did not go as deep in the bass by themselves as the 60s, but outperformed them with the NHT subwoofers. The NHTs could mate well with the 60s, extended the bass output to include the lowest octave.

The Dynaudio Audience 60s are well made, visually appealing, and have good sound. I think the quality of construction and components are likely to continue to produce good sound for many years. I could listen to them for hours at a time without fatigue and their slightly softer sound will appeal to many people. At $1,199, they are a very $ensible value. -- JTF