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Dynaudio 18s vs sub 6

radix

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Is there a difference beyond cosmetic? It seems the 18s is black only and no grills and the sub 6 is black or white, plus grills for $600 more. Did I miss anything? EDIT: I see they have different presets to pair with other Dynaudio speakers. That is not an issue for me.

I'm very interested in these, as I've been looking for a shallow depth sub for my living room. I could maybe fit a 14" or 15", but the 11" Dynaudio would make fitting it in much easier. The alternative is KEF KC92 or maybe a Neumann KH750, but I prefer the side-firing Dyn or KEF as it will look better in the space.

This is for a 2.1 stereo in the living room, likely to be matched with F226be or F228be or R11 or Aria 9xx.

Thanks for your input!

Marc
 

HooStat

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FWIW, Arendal makes a single driver and dual driver sub that fire to the side so they look better from the front. Nothing wrong with Dynaudio that I know about, but I spent some time trying to find some side firing subs and it wasn't as easy as I thought. There are a few others as well, depending on your budget and what "look" you like. Sigberg Audio has some nice options. Rythmik also makes a dual driver sub. Apologies if you have already ruled those out and just wanted feedback about the Dynaudio.
 
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radix

radix

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FWIW, Arendal makes a single driver and dual driver sub that fire to the side so they look better from the front. ... Sigberg Audio has some nice options. Rythmik also makes a dual driver sub. Apologies if you have already ruled those out and just wanted feedback about the Dynaudio.

Thank you for the suggestions. I've really only found some products because I've trolled through reams of old posts here, so getting some more suggestions here is welcome.

The main feature I'm looking for is a shallow depth. The Sigberg flat INKOGNITO (and I think focal or someone else has a flat sub) don't really reach deep bass in the -3 dB. That's what interested me the most about the Dynaudio 18s/sub6 is it's shallow but full subwoofer range. None of the Rythmik fit my desired space limits. Maybe there's something I could turn sideways.....

The Arendal has some potential, but they we narrow on the width and kept depth, which is not what I'm looking for.
 

HooStat

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OK. That makes complete sense. I really liked the Dynaudio when I was looking at a similar situation. Eventually, the sheer size got it ruled out for me. One other option would be 2 Rythmik dual 8" subs, but the orientation might not work for you depending on your room, unless you can fit them under something or behind something. If you can take advantage of two, it might allow for smoother bass. But also a hassle to wire up and hide.

The option I keep coming back to (for myself) is the Dutch & Dutch 8c which has the subs built into the speaker. The Studio version is ~$9,500 (not sure if you are in the US). Ex Machina Pulsar is similar in the sense that it is designed for deep bass (even though they have single 8" woofers they are supposedly designed with huge XMAX). Same for the Mesanovic RTM10, again designed with 10" drivers.

I like the Dynaudio design for exactly the reasons you picked it. That is probably the best option out there and it looks good. Can't go wrong with it as far as I can see.
 
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radix

radix

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I like the Dynaudio design for exactly the reasons you picked it. That is probably the best option out there and it looks good. Can't go wrong with it as far as I can see.

Thank you. Did you look at the 18s vs sub 6 in particular? I don't see any non-cosmetic differences except which presets they come with to match other dynaudio speakers, and the price.

Marc
 

HooStat

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That was my take as well. All the dimensions and specs are identical as far as I can see.
 

Count Arthur

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I have an 18s and as far as I know, other than the DSP pre-sets, the finish and the lack of grill covers, it's the same as the the Sub 6. The centre part of the box, between the baffles either end, is a textured vinyl wrap, rather than a nice painted finish, but tucked away, out of site, looks aren't an issue for me.
 

sigbergaudio

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Thank you for the suggestions. I've really only found some products because I've trolled through reams of old posts here, so getting some more suggestions here is welcome.

The main feature I'm looking for is a shallow depth. The Sigberg flat INKOGNITO (and I think focal or someone else has a flat sub) don't really reach deep bass in the -3 dB. That's what interested me the most about the Dynaudio 18s/sub6 is it's shallow but full subwoofer range. None of the Rythmik fit my desired space limits. Maybe there's something I could turn sideways.....

The Arendal has some potential, but they we narrow on the width and kept depth, which is not what I'm looking for.

Typical in-room response for Inkognito 10" is 20hz, for the 12" it's 17-18hz.

If you are looking for even deeper response than that at very high volumes for the blockbuster movies, you end up with the big boxes. For music, I'm confident you will find the Inkognitos to go plenty deep enough.

We try to be conservative with our specifications, so the specified response is what we can confidently measure outdoors. What happens inside depends on your room, but it's normal to get some room gain, at least 3-5hz. Below is the response of a lucky guy with a single Inkognito 10 and massive room gain, so his response is basically flat to 10hz. That's not a typical result, but 20hz or even somewhat lower is pretty common.

c668e186-f937-4f37-9fd7-3614749e7081-jpeg.747803
 
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radix

radix

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Typical in-room response for Inkognito 10" is 20hz, for the 12" it's 17-18hz.

If you are looking for even deeper response than that at very high volumes for the blockbuster movies, you end up with the big boxes. For music, I'm confident you will find the Inkognitos to go plenty deep enough.

We try to be conservative with our specifications, so the specified response is what we can confidently measure outdoors. What happens inside depends on your room, but it's normal to get some room gain, at least 3-5hz. Below is the response of a lucky guy with a single Inkognito 10 and massive room gain, so his response is basically flat to 10hz. That's not a typical result, but 20hz or even somewhat lower is pretty common.
Thanks for that info. I did look at the specs and I had the impression it was shallow in the bass. I'll take another look at the Inkognitos. They have a really nice form factor.
 

sigbergaudio

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Thanks for that info. I did look at the specs and I had the impression it was shallow in the bass. I'll take another look at the Inkognitos. They have a really nice form factor.

Yes, it's not easy to go by specifications alone since different manufacturers quote different numbers (some conservative, some very optimistic).

Inkognito 10 is specified at 25hz (-3dB), and Inkognito 12 at 23hz (-3dB). They both have -6dB point at 21hz. These are outdoor measurements. Indoors you will see significant room gain (and added low end extension) in most rooms, meaning flat response (-0dB) to 20hz is not unheard of.
 

net-david

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Thank you. Did you look at the 18s vs sub 6 in particular? I don't see any non-cosmetic differences except which presets they come with to match other dynaudio speakers, and the price.

Marc
I've also been looking at the 18S vs Sub 6, and it appears that the consumer presets "could" be flashed to the pro sub. I downloaded the firmware for both, they all use a file named "DYNAUDIO.bin", and the Sub 6 has 2 versions available, one for current and other for legacy products.
 

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Count Arthur

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I've also been looking at the 18S vs Sub 6, and it appears that the consumer presets "could" be flashed to the pro sub. I downloaded the firmware for both, they all use a file named "DYNAUDIO.bin", and the Sub 6 has 2 versions available, one for current and other for legacy products.
It should be noted that either the 18s or the Sub 6 will work without using the presets, you can set the crossover frequency, distance to the sub, etc. manually and there is also a 3 band parametric EQ.

Also, If you're using something like REW with a measuring microphone and DSP/room correction, the presets are going to be superfluous in any case.
 

cboshuizen

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I just noticed that the front faces have different shapes - the 18S seems to be more carefully chamfered for diffraction and dispersion control. I don't know if that is just cosmetic or has some impact. I have the Dynaudio Lyd 48 and it as similar triangular edges.
 

dfuller

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I just noticed that the front faces have different shapes - the 18S seems to be more carefully chamfered for diffraction and dispersion control. I don't know if that is just cosmetic or has some impact. I have the Dynaudio Lyd 48 and it as similar triangular edges.
Purely cosmetic at that kind of frequency.
 

Ultrasonic

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The Arendal has some potential, but they we narrow on the width and kept depth, which is not what I'm looking for.

This is a somewhat old thread so it may be a little late to reply, but if you rotate an Arendal sub 90° surely it then offers what you are/were looking for?
 
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radix

radix

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This is a somewhat old thread so it may be a little late to reply, but if you rotate an Arendal sub 90° surely it then offers what you are/were looking for?

I found the Sigberg Inkognito the best form factor for my use. It is only 16-17 cm (depending on model) depth.

The Dynaudio sub6 comes in at 27cm depth.

Arendel (e.g. 1961 SUBWOOFER 1S) is 37cm depth if turned sideways.

There's a few other "flat" subs, but I found the Sigberg measurements compelling.

Marc
 

Somafunk

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As count Arthur above I have the 18s/lyd 48 combination, I was initially hesitant as to whether the 18s was too big for my room but it has a smaller footprint overall compared to my previous KRK 10s (10" woofer) but twice the weight and produces way more bass from its two 9" woofers, quite surprising just how much "cleaner/fuller" (subjectively) the bass frequencies sound, and it's nice to watch the excursion of the woofers on full chat
 

FeddyLost

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Do anyone have information regarding real clean LF output of 18S?
I mean when comparing subwoofers, it's always useful to know measured data and there's no information for 18S.
With my suspictions it's as good as JL E112 in the best case, but most probably slightly worse.
So, I'd like to know impressions of owners of 18S to understand if it's worth money without additional connectivity (as simple subwoofer).
 

oquna

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I've also been looking at the 18S vs Sub 6, and it appears that the consumer presets "could" be flashed to the pro sub. I downloaded the firmware for both, they all use a file named "DYNAUDIO.bin", and the Sub 6 has 2 versions available, one for current and other for legacy products.
Hi, do u have firmware for sub 6? if u have can u send it to me??

Kristian
 
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