Dynaudio Owner's Thread - Page 600

Right now I'm using the Focus 110's crossed over at 80hz to a pair of Seaton SubMersive HP's while waiting for my Contour 5.4's to arrive. They are great little speakers, a higher performance level than what I was expecting when I purchased them. The big subs will run away from them a bit when you start pushing higher spl's. When the speakers were calibrated with Audyessy XT32 it was more of an issue than the Audyessy Pro Kit calibration than I'm using now, the integration between the 110's and the subs is much better now.

 

The 110's can still be found new in some dealers, got mine at a great discount now that they're discontinued.

weird 23,
Nothing weird about your advice! Thanks!

Consider this official "want to buy" post for six of the following Dynaudio stand mount gems:

Audience 52se
Focus 140
Focus 110

Four monitors must be same finish. Two monitors same or different finish compared to the other four.

All three models above share Esotec D260 dome and 1st order slopes. The 140 and 52se share the same 17cm Esotec 17WLQ mid bass, while the 110 has 15cm mid bass, quite certainly Esotec but not confirmed.

The mid bass of the 110 is 2cm smaller diameter vs. the other two models. It's odd that Dynaudio lists the 110 crossover pole as 1.8kHz, lower than the other two models' 2.4kHz. I'd have guessed, all other things being approximately equal such as in this case (tweeter, slope, manufacturer, etc), a smaller mid bass would cross higher, not lower.

The only two reasons I can imagine for this oddity are:
1. Diminish a cone break up mode not present with the larger mid bass (not uncommon for smaller cones to have such problem)
2. Diminish increased Doppler effect resulting from increased stroke required to achieve similar bass from a smaller driver
Edited by ribbonspeakers - 12/6/12 at 1:36pm

according to this review the 110s use the D280 tweeter, and from what I have learned the Excites use a D28Titan tweeter. I was under the impression that the 140s, 220s and 200C all used the T380 tweeter.
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_14_1/dynaudio-focus-speakers-1-2007-part-1.html

ribbonspeakers, I'm kinda intimidated by the idea of making my own amps, and I'm worried that later on, I might have some lingering doubts that I messed up somewhere, etc...

Thanks guys for your advices... I'll go for the C273BEE

By the way, is the Focus 160 much easier to drive than the Audience 62? How about the Contour 1.4? Is it harder to drive than the Audience 62 and would the NAD C275BEE be enough? I'm looking at this two since the price are so close and I really prefer the looks of the Contour 1.4 over the Focus 160... I actually prefer the looks of the Excites a lot more than the Focus 160 as well. Its so unfortunate considering I feel I will like the Focus' sounds better since when I auditioned before, I liked the 140s a lot and didn't really liked the sounds of the Contour 3.4s.

The s1.4 is going to have the same tonal qualities as the s3.4.

I have s3.4's and use an s1.4 for my center channel.

I had the S1.4s and changed to S3.4s. The S3.4s sound like the S1.4s except they are fuller sounding and have more low end response. As Jamhead says they have similar tonal qualities. If you didn't like the S3.4s you may not like the S1.4s either.

I'm having an issue with my Sub500 losing its programming and I've got a calibration guy coming by tomorrow a second time to set it up again.

It seems like every few days the programming we mapped to preset A on the remote is lost and the sub defaults to stock settings. I notice it immediately because of how boomy the sound is after it wakes up (auto-on is enabled). The weird thing is that when I hit the 'A' preset on the remote the correct settings are loaded and it's fine for a few days, even though it's cycling on and off with input from my pre-pro. We were careful to put the sub in 'Store' mode and toggle it back to 'Protect' mode after the first calibration was complete. I figure either we did something wrong procedurally, a battery is low, or the amp in it is defective.

Is there a battery in the AMP that may be low? I'm not sure if the EEPROM that stores the settings is of the volatile kind. That would certainly explain this behavior.

Or, do I have to make sure the remote is pointed at the IR eye on the sub while holding down the preset button to save my configuration? I would think I could just dial in the sub with the remote, map the settings to the preset button with no regard to where the remote was pointing, then point the remote at the sub, tap preset 'A' with the sub in store mode (which would upload all of the settings) and then toggle back to protect mode.

Has anyone had a similar issue?

Thanks in advance for the help,

Jason

Thanks guys for your advices... I'll go for the C273BEE

I know you've already made up your mind but let me tell you anyway, +1 for the NAD 275bee, I've had the pleasure of living with a NAD 272 before and it was a great amp!

Here's a review from UltraAudio of the C2 Signature that compares them favorably with the Sonus Faber Amati Futura (which cost $36K)

what sonus faber uses the esotar2 tweeter?

tone audio had a review of the C1s that went up last week

None that I know of. What makes you ask that (or are you trying to be droll)?

no i read a review, dont remember which but it was talking about that... I could have swore it said that. and if you look at the homage collection that mid/woofer sure looks familiar.
Edited by callas01 - 12/8/12 at 7:35pm

No, but I tell you what. I thought the Focus 260 sounded better than the SF Cremona costing more than twice as much. I'm still waiting to be impressed by the sound of Sonus Faber.

When I was on my speaker search I was very impressed with creamora auditor m driven by a huge AR tube amp. About a month later I finally met that Tyler guy and he convinced me to demo the C1's. He was driving them with a Sim Audio stack (which is not an amp I care for) and preferred the C1's. I did bring my Mission/Cyrus 782's to compare since that was my only speaker for 20+ years. Funny thing is that SF dealer now also picked up the Dyn line and Focal. I haven't been back since. Maybe someday I'll go back and compare all 3 together. But for now I am too happy with the C1's.

A side note - I saw the Trans Siberian Orchestra yesterday and all I can say is what a Fantastic show.. Music was really good too if you like Xmas ROCK
Edited by OctaDyn_Dude - 12/9/12 at 10:07am

My bet is on the C1s blowing the Cremora's away into abject mediocrity.

When I asked my dealer why they carry the SF line, when the Dyns sound so much better at less cost, they responded that they can't just carry Dynaudio. They have to present a choice of lines. They also have Focal, but I have not listened to those.

Wondering if Dynaudio didn't shoot themselves in the foot with the pricing on the new focus line. I know the old focus line were best sellers, but people can't seem to get takers for the new line on audiogon. There's a pair of 340s on audiogon that's been there for months with no takers at $5k. That's a great price for nearly new speakers that retail for $7500. And people are having to practically give away the 260s that have shown up for sale. Makes me wonder how new sales are doing. I love my 340s but I do think the price jump from the old focus line was a lttle too agressive. I also think for $7500 the 340s should have the esotar2 tweeter....

Going on 5 months with mine now and still love them but someday I'd like to upgrade to C2s and no doubt I will have to take a bath on these 340s.

I would have thought that the 340 and 380 would have both had the Esotar tweeter as well with the 340s just being a smaller 3-way. Other then that I do think they are priced fairly well, But hell if I the 160s were $2500 vs $2900 and the 260s were 4500 vs 4900 I wouldnt have complained in anyway.

I think the issue is with the Contours showing up at some of the prices they do, it makes it hard to justify the asking price of the new focus on the used market, many of these people are only months to a year into ownership. If you can find 3.4s for $2400-3200 how do you justify asking $5k for the 340s?
Edited by callas01 - 12/9/12 at 4:08pm

Pretty rare to see 3.4s below $3500, but still good point...

S3.4s have been listed for $3K on a regular basis on Audiogon. I paid a lot less for mine, but the seller was eager to unload them locally and not too concerned about getting top market value. In the end I am out of pocket for the S3.4s and Esotar2 for less than I would have paid for a used pair of C1s without stands..
Edited by RaceTripper - 12/9/12 at 5:44pm

No doubt you got the deal of the century then.

I think Sean Farley paid around $2500 for his 3.4s and as long as dynaudio holds onto this current crop of contours the more it will affect the used prices of the focus as people will always see the focus as the inferior speaker and so the used prices will be tough on those selling the new focus now. However if dynaudio updates or drops the contours that will probably help those stating their case as these new focus speakers were their replacements.

I'm still pinching myself.

Me too

You guys are lucky to be able to buy used dynaudio speakers for such a low price. Here, I hardly see them being sold 2nd hand. And usually the ones being sold are Just from the Audience line :P

I paid around that and broke even selling it around that price. I also wouldn't pay over $3k for used s 3.4s unless it was gloss finish with warranty. I don't think the used audio market is selling well on anything. People don't really have spare cash it seems to buy stuff. This audio hobby we have is a luxury and not a necessity. I have my Sapphires listed on agon currently to test the market with very few inquiries in the past week.
Edited by seanmf - 12/10/12 at 10:07am

I look at agon frequently. $3000 appears to be the average price lately there for used 3.4s.

+1
But I wonder what they are actually selling for?

I wouldn't pay more than $2500 used for 3.4s considering I paid around that couple years ago. I'd consider them in the $3000 range with a gloss finish/warranty on agon but that is rare.

There was a pair of Maple S3.4s that sold on Craigslist here for $2300. I paid somewhat less than that for mine. I didn't pay full retail for my E110 Esotar2, so all told I came out with really big bang for my buck.

Now that the C1 MkII and Sigs have been out for a while, and are starting to show up for sale in the used market, I suspect the older C1s should start coming down to well below the $4K range I was seeing on A'gon.