You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone: Dynaudio Focus 140

In the Spring of 2008, I had a whole house of B&W speakers, all 600S3 series, in black ash.  They had been acquired new in 2006, and I was very pleased with them.  603S3 mains, 600 surrounds, a center, and even a B&W sub.    I was coming along to home theater very late, and had even picked up a few DVD-A discs (ELP and Yes, which I still have), and we were setting up a basement theater.  The first pair of new speakers that I ever bought myself that fit in what I would call the "high end" category was a pair of B&W DM 602S2 bookshelves (I had Klipsch KG2s in college but I was drunk most of the times I heard them, so it's tough to know about those- they were great to rock out to).  These had gone when a pair of used a/d/s/ L1290s came along, but I had always held a soft spot for the 602s.  As a result, B&W was an obvious choice when we did the new set up.  The set up sounded great, but amazingly, I have very few pictures of it.  These are from after we sold the house and the system came out of the basement theater.

We had an grossly over-priced Arcam AVR running them until that crapped out (which was in a very short period of time), followed by a less exciting but considerably more reliable Denon.  A mistake was made however, the day I bought the B&W 603S3 mains.  On a lark, I listened to a pair of Dynaudio bookshelves that were in the same room, I think while they were retrieving the B&W speakers on which I had just pulled the trigger.  For the life of me, I cannot remember what model they were, although I would not be shocked to discover they were small Contours, or maybe Focus 110s.  If they were Contours, they were an older model as they had none of the science fiction front plates later and current  models of the Contour series are sporting.  I recall asking neither what they were nor the cost.  I just remember thinking: "Wow, that's a small speaker to sound that big."  But then they wheeled the boxes for our B&Ws to the counter, and my wife was looking at her watch and away we went. 

You see where I went wrong, don't you?

I thought about those little Dynaudios quite often, even when listening to our fancy (and very good) B&W set up.  So, fast forward again to the Spring of '08, and I found myself in the listening room again, this time to hear Dynaudio speakers.  Not knowing what I had listened to before, I spent a bit of time listening to the Focus 110, which was a very impressive speaker for its size.  But when we switched to the 140, which is the next model up, I was really just blown away.  I had never heard a two-way bookshelf speaker carry a room like that.  The Focus 140 has a 1 inch Esotec + tweeter, and a 6.5 inch woofer, ported in the back and weighs about 19 lbs.  On the shelf in the store's listening room, this little speaker was KILLING my B&W 603S3.  I distinctly remember listening to a number of Peter Gabriel tracks, and the 140s handled all of his high-intensity use of percussion and bass with no trouble PLUS they had no hint of treble harshness whatsoever.  There was a visceral quality to the low end that many towers do not reproduce except at awful levels, much less bookshelves.  (or monitors, I recognize that there is a difference between the two).  They threw a wide sound stage that I really believed could be even better with proper set up.  So, without giving thought to the craziness that would ensue, I ponied up an (even for me) insane amount of $1600 and bought them in Rosewood.  

My pictures do not do the veneer finish any justice.

and here they are next to a pair of B&W DM602S2 that we acquired in the pouring rain in NYC one afternoon (which is another story altogether):

Everything was wonderful.  I didn't even really experience the tortuous break-in period I was warned about.  The 140s definitely got better with age but they never, never sounded bad.  I figured that somewhere in the collection of Sony ES gear I would find an amp that suited them ( TA-F444 ES, TA-F630 ESD, TA-F80 and 77ESD combo, STR-GX9 ES) or maybe an old NAD . . .  but what was the worst that could happen, I'd buy a new amp at some point, right?  But through no fault of their own, I wound up replacing them with a pair of Focus 220 series 1 2-way towers.  This was definitely a case of being lured in by price- $1995, new in box, shipped, thank you, Dan at Dedicated Audio.  I thought if the 140s are great, how much greater must the 220s be?  And the 220s are great. Really, really great.  They move an incredible amount of air on orchestral works and big progressive rock stuff, and they can be delicate.  They never really "disappear" though, which is something I miss in a stand mount.  Nonetheless I have had the 220s since 2010, which for me, says a lot.  And frankly, I have not really heard anything short of some Wilson Audio speakers recently that would make me give them up.  The Wilson's cost $13,000 or something ridiculous like that, mind you.

But there is something about small, stand mount speakers that I really, really dig, which is why no one should be surprised that the Excite 14s came to live here two weeks ago (see below, and more to come on this killer little guy).  As of today, I have not heard the Dynaudio Focus 160, the speaker that replaced the Focus 140.  I am telling myself that I don't like the way it looks.  

We shall see how long that lasts.  Any bets?  

    

    

Dynaudio Excite 14 and Marantz HomeTheater

The Excite 14 bookshelves are a new acquisition in our house, coming to join us after the big Audio Den clearance sale (please see below).

They are in a really beautiful walnut finish with a typically Dynaudio super high-quality cabinet.  They are beveled at the front edge in a fashion similar to the Focus series, but not tapered to the rear, like the Focus.

For new year's they were on short stands in our listening room, being run by the Yamaha A-S2000 and CD-S2000 combo. They threw a huge sound stage with clear highs and surprising bass for a speaker with a very small woofer (14 cm or about 5 1/2 inches). I typically listen to Dynaudio Focus 220 (series one) in the stereo set up, and whereas the Excites can't compete in the bass (they are not meant to) they easily equaled the treble clarity.  Plus they did that cool thing small monitors do- they "disappeared" into the sound stage while listening.  In my room, the 220s are just too big to avoid notice.  The speaker stands belong to the surrounds in our home theater though, so after the holiday, the Excites left that set up and went into the closet for a few days. Yesterday though i had an itching to hear them again, so i brought them out to our living room where they could occupy some space with our home theater, which incidentally is also made up of Dynaudio Focus series speakers.  (there is a story behind this set up, which I will share at a later date).

I do not intend to use the Excites as home theater speakers.  Frankly, I hate home theater for music.  Case in point it took me a few minutes to remember that I had to go into the Oppo BDP 93 menu and change the default SACD setting from multi to stereo before I could listen to the Excites without the rest of the set up.  Valuable listening time wasted.  At any rate, the Excites were set on small rubber feet from my old B&Ws, plopped down roughly equidistant on the cabinet and hooked up via Audioquest speaker cable to our Marantz AV 8801 pre/pro and Marantz M7055 multi channel amp.  

Interestingly, the speaker binding posts are mounted very deeply in the Excite 14 cabinet:

The upside is that the posts are very easy to access and the recess gives you something to grab when you are moving them around.  Not that that is a big problem, as these are very small speakers.  Our Focus center channel dwarfed them. I only had time to listen to tracks from four discs, which were the new Allman Brothers Idlewild South Blu-ray, the Rush Moving Pictures Blu-ray, something by Norah Jones the title of which i can't remember but can easily be found on the demo disc shelf at every Stereo store in the FREAKING UNIVERSE and the Yes Fragile DVD-A.  

Cutting to the chase, these speakers belong on ear-height stands, 12-24 inches away from the back wall, and in a room roughly 20 by 12.  Our living room afforded them none of these criteria and it showed.  they still sounded very, very good, but they were no better than our Dynaudio DM 2/7 in this arrangement.  I think that there were reflections from the cabinet that prevented the Excites from performing that magical disappearing act, especially on the Norah Jones disc and during Steve Howe's solo acoustic from Fragile.  The larger room also overwhelmed the small woofer, just not enough air could be moved on Moving Pictures.  That being said, the percussion on Midnight Rambler on Idlewild South still sounded very realistic if somewhat distant, and the treble effects in YYZ on Moving Pictures were phenomenal.  

I did not buy these speakers to use in a big home theater system, however.  I bought them (because I am clearly ill) to play great 2 channel music in our dedicated listening room, and there they sound the best. The night we bought them I played the first 3 or 4 tracks from another Yes album, the more recent "Fly From Here."  I like this disc a lot even though Jon Anderson does not provide the vocals.  It is very reminiscent of Drama, another album minus Jon Anderson (in fact I had heard that Fly From here was originally written to be a second disc on Drama.  Anyone know about this?).  Fly From Here is a very nicely recorded progressive rock album and the vocals are ideally suited to small monitors like the Excites.  The great thing is that in the smaller room you get the vocal magic plus the impact of Alan White and Chris Squire- the Excites can really rock in reasonable surroundings.  More to come.            

   

Yamaha R300 Stereo Receiver revisited

My post from a few years ago on the Yamaha R300 had over 5000 views, and was by far the most popular.  I gave the R300 away but maybe a follow up post is called for.  In the meantime I will be listening to the new Dynaudio Excite 14 bookshelves hooked up to our home theater set up, a Marantz AV8801 preamp and MM 7055 multi channel amplifier with an Oppo BDP_93 spinning the discs.

A SUPER SALE, and a new pair of Dynaudio Excite 14

. . . and  now we are back again.  Just stepped out to the restroom.  No, seriously, wrote a book (Chermpf) and stuff, started a new job, learned that I cannot drink beer without becoming ill, blah, blah, blah.  But a number of interesting stereo things happened since 2015, er, make that 2014.  So now is as good a time as any as to write poorly about any and all of it.  Where to start?  Well, just before Christmas, I received one of these in the mail:

Once in a lifetime?  How could I pass it up?  So, on a rainy Monday, my wife was kind enough to accompany me on a trip to the SUPER SALES EVENT.  Which it kinda was.  It seems that Audio Den is planning a renovation and a ton of old gear was hauled out of closets, basements, sub-cellars and small pockets of alternate realities that protrude unexpectedly and somewhat suggestively into our universe (this latter category included only old Pioneer Elite Laser Disc machines, and one non-functional portable plasma focus) in order to make room for the planned changes.  My wife picked out a pair of Paradigm Cinema series surround speakers to replace the Polk Mini Monitors I had stolen from her upstairs TV set up for my office system (more on the Polks later- they were a Goodwill find pretty much NIB), But despite all of the goodies, nothing stuck my fancy until I saw that these had been deeply marked down:

Yes, a pair of Dynaudio Excite 14 monitors in walnut finish, and as the astute reader can tell from the photo, I bought them and they now live in my listening room.  I did not get rid of the Dynaudio Focus 220s, they have just moved to the closet briefly while I have an affair with a pair of small, ultra-high quality 2-way bookshelves again.  I will be selling my DM 2/7s however:

 . . . as there is no room for them.  They are very good, but they are not really in the same league as the Excite 14s.  They neither image as well nor have as natural bass.  That being said, they were phenomenal teamed up with a DM Center in our home theater.  They're on eBay as I type, and I hope they will find a good home.  In a different house, I would keep them. I am loving the Excite 14s though.  Spooky good imaging, and terrific bass output for such a small cabinet.  Quite a bit of the Allman Brother's Idlewild South re-master (which I had just gotten for Christmas) was played loudly on New Years Eve through these very small speakers and no one complained.  They are very reminiscent of the Focus 110, which I listened to extensively before I bought the Focus 140s.  Ah, the 140s.  GREAT speaker.  Why didn't I keep them?  I need speaker stands however, as I swiped the one pair I own from the home theater the first couple of days I owned the Excite 14s, and the stands have to go back.  Speaker stands are expensive and generally unattractive, and I would like to find something that does these speakers justice both in sound and in looks.  Any suggestions?    

  

And, we're back.

After something of a hiatus, I have set aside some time to upload new pictures and write a little bit.  That, plus a lot of snow in the forecast should keep me indoors!  We have recently added a new (old) Sony CDP-X55ES and a new (new) Marantz M7055 to chat about.

Tail in the surge protector again . . .

The best cat toy ever

Well . . .  except for the box they came in.  That was better.  I do not know why, but Nova is absolutely obsessed with my DM 2/7 tweeters.  I had better order a back up pair because I have a feeling that I am going to need them.

Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggh!

You bloody bastards.


http://uk.yamaha.com/en/products/audio-visual/hifi-components/amps/a-s3000_g/?mode=model

Stars are never sleeping

Well, I don't expect that there will be a gathering of the enlightened to help evaluate the differences between the Yamaha CD-S2000 and the Sony XA-5400ES SACD players, so I promise to do it myself.  I already have some impressions, and some concerns.  I think that they are still quite closely priced in the used market, but the release of the Yamaha 3000 series (have you SEEN the amp?  They added analog meters the BASTARDS) will probably drive the 2000 series prices down.  I believe that the Sony received glowing reviews in the US audio press (all two magazines- and magazines that review video games do not count) but the Yamaha did not, in fact I am not sure it was reviewed much at all.  Fuzzy phone picture attached. 

Yamaha CD-S2000

My apologies, I have been busy with work (stupid patents) and other nonsense, so I haven't updated in a while.  many projects going on, including: http://www.Chermpf.com which I hope everyone checks out when they get a chance.  I plan to post a book chapter, and there are already some short amusing (I hope) pieces available.  But the REAL news for Bad Audio Reviews is:

Don't panic, it's a B-Stock, so not crazy expensive.  Well, that's not strictly true.  This purchase was not like the Yamaha CD-S700 that i bought for under $100, new in box.  But let's not focus on unpleasantness, shall we?  This is a brute of a CD player.  As you can see it is every bit as chunky as the matching amplifier.  It has the terrific Yamaha proprietary drawer mechanism and build quality the engineers of the Potemkin would be proud of.  So. . .  what comes next?  I am trying to arrange for some experts to come over and participate in a shoot-out, Yamaha CD-S2000 vs Sony SCD-XA5400 ES.  Only one can stay- I haven't the room and if I am going to sell the Sony now is the time while the market still bears around $900 for one in excellent condition.  Many other changes going on here- including furniture and cables.  Please stay tuned, awful review to come.

1994 Volkswagen Corrado SLC VR6

In Dragon Green, if I remember correctly.  I came across some pictures of it while clearing out boxes in the office over the snowy weekend.  Yes, there is a story and no, it does not have a happy ending.  I'll scan a few more pictures and provide the details when I have time to drink while typing.  it's the only way I'll get through it without crying. . .

 

Winter's Coming

Looks like it's here already.  If the news is to be believed, the White Walkers will be among us in no time.  Getting the mail today I half expected to see recycled Sandy bed sheets that read: "Where's FEMA?" up and down the block.  Honestly, I remember the snow that the tri-state area had in 1978, and even though I was quite a bit shorter then,  it seems to me that people have become considerably less resilient.  Doesn't bode well if something REALLY bad happens, like a run on Mallomars.  Junior at least, took things in stride and remained nonplussed in a basket near the radiator: