Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: Dynaudio Special Twenty-Five Speakers by Steve K General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

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Model:	Special Twenty-Five
Category:	Speakers
Suggested Retail Price:	$4800
Description:	25th anniversary edition, 8
Manufacturer URL:	Dynaudio
Model Picture:	View

Review by Steve K ( P ) on December 15, 2002 at 18:47:14 IP Address: 66.188.57.91

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I guess the best place to start any review is with a bit of background/sundry info about the goods in question. The Special Twenty-Five is a limited edition [they will be made for one year only] 8”, two-way, stand mounted monitor that Dynaudio has introduced to celebrate their first 25 years in business.

The Twenty-Fives come individually boxed in nice, latching, thick gauge, cardboard boxes with dense foam spacers at each corner. Port plugs are included; as well as a warranty card you can fill out and return to Dynaudio, to receive a personalized warranty certificate. That certificate gives the speakers a 25 year warranty!

The build quality is [typically] impressive. A Contour like cabinet with an aluminum back panel that acts as a heat sink for the resistors used in the crossover. Input is via WBT top-line CE approved binding posts [one set only…in typical Dynaudio fashion, biwiring/amping is not allowed]. Curiosity got the better of me…I just had to pull the crossover out and have a look. It’s pretty impressive…heavy gauge circuit board with pretty thick tracing. The caps and coils are mounted to one side [facing the drivers] and the resistors are on the other [sandwiched in-between the PC board and the backplate/heatsink]. All the coils are quite precise looking, air-core style; all the caps are Solen.

The Twenty-Fives are rated at 88dB/W/M with a nominal 4 Ohm load. Frequency response is shown as 35Hz to 25KHz +/- 3dB, anechoic. The cross over frequency is at 2400 Hz, and is a first-order design. Although the cabinet is of the Contour style, the drivers are another matter. Esotar2 style drivers are used throughout, instead of the less expensive Esotec that is found in everything below the Confidence series.

The finish is a “cross grain” birch. It’s a rather unique looking wood. The way it was explained to me [by Dynaudio] is the veneer is obtained from a diseased birch tree. A very small percentage of birch tress suffer from this ailment and of that few, only a small percentage are useable for finishing. Also, the veneer is quite delicate and requires skilled hands to install properly, thus its’ use on only one speaker in the lineup…and on a speaker that will only be made in limited quantities.

I installed the Twenty-Fives on my Dynaudio Masterstands that had previously kept my Contour 1.3mkII’s off the floor. They’re 24” tall, have four round columns and come “pre filled” with a fiberglass like compound that is quite inert [yet not all that heavy]. I really like these stands. They allow for excellent resonance damping without excessive mass loading…a wonderful combination that is rarely seen. A pity they’re no longer available. The speakers are coupled to the stands with a blu-tak like substance that is a fair shot thicker…I forget what it is called, but it is sold at craft stores as a alternative to blu-tak and is white in color. I’ve been curious about trying cones to couple the speakers to the stands, but one speaker stands in a traffic path in my living room, so for the foreseeable future, its gonna be sticky stuff instead of spikes. The speakers are about 6’ apart and about 7’ from the listening position, moderately toed-in, in my irregular shaped living room. I placed the Twenty-Fives about 4’ from the wall behind, and while one is only about 1.5’ from the side wall, the other is about 12-14’ away [like I said, irregular shaped]. Acoustic treatments include Echo Busters “Corner Busters” and US Graphite “Silent Series” panels on the walls. The room is still quite lively [too much for my taste], but it’ll have to do until I get a better/bigger place.

The rest of my gear consists of a Denon DP59L turntable with a Denon DL103D and a DL304 cartridge[s], a Sony XA7es CD player, a Hovland HP100mc preamp, and a Hovland Sapphire amp. All audio cabling is by Hovland, as is the power cord on the Sapphire. The rest of the power cords are Carol 10x3 with Marinco connectors. All A/C outlets are Leviton commercial/hospital grade. No surge protection is used.

But how do they sound, Steve?

Well, the first thing I noticed when I fired them up was the high frequency presentation…it was amazing at the outset and improved with time. Smooth and liquid yet detailed, transparent and quick. Wonderful off-axis response. A noticeable, across the board improvement over the Esotec tweeter in the 1.3’s [and I really liked, and still do like, the Esotec tweeter!]. I never would accuse the 1.3’s of being grainy sounding or limited in high-frequency [HF] detail, yet that’s how the difference came off. I quickly ascertained that the Esotar tweeter easily deserves every word of good press it receives. I know there’s a lot more to good loudspeaker design than quality drivers, and I’m sure not all the improvements in the HF were due to the better tweeter, but I think I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that the Esotar2 is quite a piece of work! I have yet to experience this combination of HF detail and ease in a loudspeaker that cost under $10k.

As good as the HF was out of the box; the mid-range and bass were less than desirable. I went through this ordeal with the 1.3’s a few years back, so I was sorta expecting it, but it was obvious that a lot of run in was necessary. The mid-range was laid back and often phasey [a hallmark of fresh caps], while the bass extension was anemic and kinda “lumpy” or “left-footed”.

It’s been my experience that with better and better gear comes longer and longer break in time[s], and the Twenty-Fives were no exception. From the upper mid-range on down, the 1.3’s did everything better than the Twenty-Fives, when the Twenty-Fives first took up residence in my rig. About 300 hours later, things had changed…

The bass is back! Like the 1.3’s, the Twenty-Fives produce amazing deep, controlled bass for such a small box. When a kick drum hits, you hear it [and feel it]…no boom or bloat, just the sound of a kick drum. Several friends have commented about how impressed they are with the bass depth and control of my speakers [both the 1.3’s, which I no longer own, and the Twenty-Fives]. They do more and better bass than many floorstanding speakers…some costing a good bit more money too! A track like Dire Straits “News” from the album “Communique” [Vertigo LP, Japan] is a good example of this. At the end of the track, there’s a section of low energy guitar interspersed with quite dynamic percussion hits. The Twenty-Fives do a wonderful job of not only tracking the drums scale, but the position and the timbre as well. Other good show off tracks for the Twenty-Fives are Mark Knopfler’s “Coyote” and “Quality Shoe” from “The Ragpickers Dream” [Warner CD]. There’s an upright bass on those tracks that’s really a treat when done right! Big, fat, and right there in the room with you.

Bass is all well and good, but I want the mid-range right. That’s why I spend my $$$ on “bookshelf” speakers instead of spending the same money on a floorstander [we all have budgets to stay within]. Typically a stand mount speaker will outperform its’ similarly priced floorstanding brethren within the frequency range of the smaller speaker. Sure, a floorstander can often produce more/deeper bass…but at what trade off? I’ve found that trade off is typically either lotsa dollars or midrange performance…for a litany of reasons. There are VERY few floorstanding speakers that I can afford that I would actually want to spend my money to obtain. I’ll step down from my soap-box now…

The mid-range performance of the Twenty-Fives is captivating. The ease and grace of the mid-woofer combine with the speed and detail of the tweeter to produce an amazingly palpable and three-dimensional soundscape. The timbre is spot on, IMO. The image is pinpoint and holographic. Even sitting at my computer, which puts me about 10’ to the outside of the left speaker and slightly behind the pair, Leo Kottke’s guitar sounds like it’s in the room [That’s what I’ve been listening to as I wrote these last few paragraphs]. His new CD “One Guitar, No Vocals” [Windham Hill CD] is a wonderful demo tool. Kottke is a virtuoso guitar player, up there with Knopfler and Atkins and the production values of this album are quite high [It’s a Doug Sax master, no wonder it sounds good]. Right down to the fingers on the strings, Kottke is as “in the room” as I’ve ever heard. It’s not a matter of suspending the sound of the guitar between the speakers, but rather the guitar itself being portrayed! This touches on an important difference between the 1.3’s and the Twenty-Fives. Not to say the 1.3 is unable to relay this sort of information, but certainly not with the impact of the Twenty-Five. The Twenty-Fives render amazing micro detail and placement of detail within the sound stage. Art Peppers “No Limit” [Contemporary LP, Japan] shows this as well. You can hear/perceive Art moving the bell of his sax side to side and up and down as he’s playing. Things like these little spatial cues many other, often bigger speakers simply gloss over [I snuck back up on the soap-box, momentarily].

The Twenty-Fives really do reproduce the “little things” quite well. Further testament to this is their ability to maintain a soundstage [and listener involvement] at very low volumes. I live in an apartment, so late night jam sessions are right out! I can happily listen to 1:00 or 2:00am without fear of waking the neighbors or disappointment at what I’m hearing. Micro dynamics in spades! Again…noticeably better than the 1.3 in this regard. I want to stay on this subject for a moment longer… It’s been my observation that one of the litmus tests that separates good gear from really good gear is it’s ability to first captivate the listener, then to retain that emotive hold as the volume goes down, even way down. The Twenty-Fives [in the context of my system as a whole] do this to amazing effect. For some, this may mean little, but for me it is A) quite important from a living environment standpoint and B) a strong indication of a product that someone took the time to get really right.

I quickly discovered that the Twenty-Fives want to be placed further from the wall behind, than the 1.3’s. Not a major difference…and, frankly, one you would expect from a speaker with a bigger woofer and port. I ended up moving them out a further ~8” into the room, as compared to the 1.3’s. For me, this was a trivial problem…I moved the speakers out into the room and the sofa back away from the speakers by a similar amount. Rear ported speakers don’t like to have a wall anywhere near their back sides…the Dyn’s are no exception. While this exercise was worth noting, it’s almost a universal truth that a speaker will sound better placed away from walls…again, the Dyn’s are no exception.

Dynaudio speakers are have the [rather meaningless to most folks] distinction of being the only brand of loudspeaker that I’ve ever wanted to buy only a few moments into my first ever demo. The Danes seem to get it just right. Some of you many have heard stories about Dynaudio speakers sounding dry or overly “hifi”. Other rumors include the need to purchase an amplifier on the order of an arc welder to properly reproduce anything more than a flea’s fart with a Dynaudio speaker [true, with a few older/discontinued models]. I heard those rumors too, and that’s why I never had any interest in hearing a Dynaudio speaker, until I happened into a demo. I really like ‘em…that, by now, should be obvious. I can only encourage you to find a pair to listen to if you’re at all in the market for a pair of speakers…you might like ‘em too.

:-)
Steve

NOTE: You may notice on my inmate system page I list my occupation as the manager/programmer at a local hifi shop. I just want to make it known that these words come from an avid audiophile and a very happy Dynaudio customer. Neither I, nor the company I work for have any sort of business relationship with Dynaudio. I just think they make cool stuff.

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Product Weakness:	see above
Product Strengths:	see above

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Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Hovland Sapphire
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Hovland HP100mc
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Sony XA7es / Denon DP59L
Speakers:	Dynaudio Special Twenty-Five
Cables/Interconnects:	Hovland Reference, Generation3, MusicGroove2
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	see above
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

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