Dynaudio Owner's Thread - Page 97

Hi Guys, I'm in the process of upgrading my amp to run my S1.4's. I'm going to borrow an Ayre AX7e on Monday and would like to know if anyone has heard or had any experience with this combo? My only reservation is the Ayre's power rating is only 60watts @ 8ohms. I know the quality of the amp will be a step up but will it control the low sensitive S1.4's. My last amp was a Shanling A3000 200watts @ 8ohms.

Thanks James.

OMG, I don't expect you'll want to give it back. I have not heard that integrated, but I love the Ayre sound. I'm awaiting delivery of a C-5xe.

I am looking at new speakers and would like a warm, smooth sound. I like the Vienna Acoustics, but they is more than my budget. I was thinking the Dynaudio Audience 52. My receiver is the Marantz 5002 at 90wpc. Not having any Dynaudio dealers near here, I am asking opinions here. I have read that the Dynaudio speakers have that warm sound I want. Is that true and will I have trouble driving them with only 90wpc? I want to stay around $1000 for a pair of bookshelves.

I personally wouldn't call Dynaudio's sound to be "warm", rather I'd say Dyns are more neutral and very well balanced and smooth as silk(dome tweeters). They sound nothing like Vienna Accoustics. If warm sound are more to your liking then check out paradigms(definitely warm) and sonus fabers as they fall on the warm side of neutral. To me the Viennas jump right at you causing listening fatigue. 90wpc should be ok to drive the 52s but you won't be able to fully unleash them.

I totally forgot....You're definitely better off with the Excite x12. Although is $100 more than the 52 it offers Dyn's latest technology and are easier to drive.

if you have the amp power would it negate the effect of going with the excite over audiences? i mean im sure the excite are slightly better with more power behind them, but not as much as if you were to run them against audiences with both being driven by an AVR.

I see no need to remind us of this, we are in a bad economy, and would hate to have the wife get a second job.

Good to see you around Matt.

yeah i was checking out the dynaudio website and noticed the magnet was outside of the basket on that driver shot as opposed to their regular basket design...

im really interested in dynaudio speakers ever since seeing their 30 minute vid showing their speakers being built and talking about the design

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-dLuJ34Wlc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVPGx...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaqmf...eature=related


required viewing for anyone considering purchasing dynaudio i think... very interesting stuff

So The Sugden Masterclass IA-4 at 35watt or the Leben CS 600 would be a waist of time with the S1.4's? I'm after a bit of quality and refinement, not just muscle and high dB's.

Those video clips were fantastic! thanks for posting them
My C1's will be here very soon, can't remember when last I was so excited about getting new toys!!!

sounds like nice amps, but they like juice. i would give it a try, but budget for some more power.

if anybody wants to buy a pair of S1.4 black ash email me, Audioarchitect is holding a pair of SR thhat i want, and these must go first.

I would definitely take a look at the Excite series for these amps, at the very least you get the Dynaudio house sound and even the Audience 52 as a starting point is already very good, if the excite betters it even better.

Personally I LOVE LOVE LOVE the way the Leben looks, very old school. Personally I wouldnt mind giving a listen to the new Yamaha as it shares this look and has the muscle to move the Dynes http://www.yamaha.co.jp/english/prod...hf/as2000.html

As for refinement I believe the NAD M3 is extremely smooth and Jeff Rowland Capri/102 combo is worth listening to.

I recently went to my local AV dealer with the purpose of urgrading my power amp. I ended up not only getting that new amp I was looking for (McIntosh MC205) but also got a new pair of speakers. After much talking with the guys at the AV store I auditioned the Contour s3.4's against B&W's and a few others they had on dislplay and was blown away by the Dyn's. I thought the 3.4's held their own against B&W's 2 to 3 times more expensive. I ordered them on the spot. After a two month production backlog at Dyn they ended up giving me a great deal on a pair of B-stock S5.4's for the trouble. These speakers are awesome! Now when I listen to music it's like I am hearing the songs all over again for the first time.

I just have to laugh when friends ask me 'can you really hear the difference'.

Very cool, the S3.4 are nice, but the S5.4 do everything just that much better. What are you driving them with?

Welcome to the Dynworld.

McIntosh MC205 power amp.
Meridian 565 preamp

I would love to hear the S5.4 on a McIntosh Amp, I have always wanted to try the 501's.

Whats up all?

I ran across Dynaudio when I was out looking for B&W speakers. I went to a local shop where they carried my loved B&W's. The salesman said "if you like these you might want to check out Dynaudio". I never heard of them back then(about 11 years ago or so) and I sat down and listened. They where running off Rotel gear. I could not believe they out classed my B&W's. I was not really cool with that.

I started working in the field(audio video as a In home Installer) and got exposed to all sorts of cool stuff and brands I never really paid any attention. Vienna Acoustic's was another speaker that I really enjoyed and almost owned.

I was a huge Polk audio fan back then as they where family owned speakers. it how I got into hi fi in the first place. My uncle had Polks and I loved listening to them when I was a kid.

Currently I own the Audience 82's , 122c , 2 pairs of 42w's and a sub500. I also use rotel gear in the rsp1068 and the rmb1095. I don't have the 7.1 setup so the other pair of 42w's are in there box(shame I know).

Dan

Dan,

Whatever you do, don't tell B$W owners that their speakers are easily outclassed by Dyns that are even 2x cheaper than theirs. Your story reminds me my experience with B$W and Dyns. I once went to a dealer here in Chicago that carried B$Ws but the salesperson had previously dealt DYNs in his former job. At that time I was auditioning the Focus 220 and speakers in its price range. The dealer said he's going to let me audition the 800 series to see if they come close even though he knew and told me that the 700 series are in the price range of the focus. After about an hour I felt that the B$W 800 were totally outclassed by the focus and never even bothered to listen to the 700 seriesThe dealer said "YUP" with a smile. He said that B$Ws are not really speacial and don't really do it for him. Now thats an honest salesman.

I wouldn't worry about it. Denons are very reliable actually for low-ohm loads, particularly so for receivers. You may want to step up for SQ reasons or if you want to blast it really loud with less distortion, but it will work just fine for now.

It'll be fine. I ran 52SE for a long time (and a contour center, and 4 paradigm surrounds, 2 of which were parallelled off) off an older marantz 5300. Kind of lost a bit of dynamics if you were blasting a movie near reference, but it sounded pretty great.

You should listen to the speakers obviously. I do like vienna acoustics, I wouldn't say they're too dissimilar to dynaudios, just IMO a lot less value.

All I can say is I don't think you would be disappointed!

It is amazing that I had the exact same experience you described.
The only difference being when I found out about the Dyn's I was already a B&W owner.
Lucky for me my dealer has a trade-up program so I didn't get caught short on the B&W's. I couldn't trade those suckers in fast enough after auditioning the Dyn's!!!

Hello Mantis.

Long time no see!

joe6pak...

My uncle uses B&W and loves to crank them hard. He loves to say don't you love that sound, as blood is coming from my ears.

There is a speaker for everyone, and we are lucky that we found out about the Dynaudio world.

Michael

I just though I sould share my experience this week trialling a lovely 33 watt Class A solidstate integrated amp. I was concerned bringing this amp home to trial because of it's very low power rating and my S1.4's not so great sensitivity.

After setting the amp and speakers up, I put a CD in the TRI CD4SE player and was overwelmed with a sound I have never heard out of those Dyns before. There was a sense of realism, scale and purity I thought not possible. Those were my first impressions.

After a few days I realised something wasn't quite right with music with extra LF in it. There was a room drone that accompanied some passes. I moved the speakers sideways, forward and back in small amounts (mainly sideways) trying to control the room resonation. I tried different IC's with out any luck. I then thought there was not enough current to control the woofer and gave up on the amp thinking I couldn't live with the LF drone.

The back of my S1.4 sit approx 500-600mm from the rear wall. Just before packing the amp up this evening ready for it's return in the morning I thought I would try one more time but radical this time. I pulled the speakers out another 300mm and to my suprise the drone has completely gone!! I have tried some heavy drum and bass, and other music with lots of LF and those woofers are under full control. I don't have a dB meter but the control extends to uncomfortible listening levels too (95-105dB or more) and that loud enough for me. All the other music types I listen to are nicely balanced through the range and the setup sounds heavenly.

All a good learning experience with a happy ending and an eye opener seeing this 33watt class A amp controlling my beautiful S1.4's to a new level. I'll try the Ayre AX7e tomorrow

James.

Speaking of B&W, has anyone compared the Dynaudio Contour S1.4 to B&W 805S standmount speakers? Both are in the same price-class.

I'd like to hear your views!
Thankx
Beertje

Both are great sounding speakers, but sound completely different. Both can reward when given the appropriate amplification. The biggest difference between the two is the tweeter design with the B&W being a bit more forward.

Have you auditioned either yet?