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Dynaudio LYD 5 Studio Monitor Review

amirm

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the Dynaudio LYD 5 powered studio/professional monitor (speaker). It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $499 each.

There is not much bothersome or unique about the look of the LYD 5:

Dynaudio LYD 5 Studio Powered Monitor Speaker Audio Review.jpg


The backside is perhaps more unique with slot port:

Dynaudio LYD 5 Studio Powered Monitor Speaker Rear Port Audio Review.jpg


As you see, there are a few settings. I used the following for testing and listening:

Dynaudio LYD 5 Studio Powered Monitor Speaker Test Settings.jpg


Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.

I used over 800 measurement point which was enough to compute the sound field of the speaker within 1% error.

Temperature was 77 degrees. Measurement location is at sea level so you compute the pressure.

Measurements are compliant with latest speaker research into what can predict the speaker preference and is standardized in CEA/CTA-2034 ANSI specifications. Likewise listening tests are performed per research that shows mono listening is much more revealing of differences between speakers than stereo or multichannel.

For reference point, I used the tweeter axis. The manual is confusing as it says the acoustic center is between the rim of the tweeter and woofer but the picture doesn't match the actual speaker with the overlapped drivers. Nevertheless, I also computed the response at 1.25 inches below tweeter reference to get to the rim of the woofer near it. Alas, it made essentially no difference so I went with the tweeter axis below.

Spinorama Audio Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker is and how it can be used in a room. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:

Dynaudio LYD 5 Studio Powered Monitor Speaker Spinorama CTA-2034 ANSI Frequency Response Measu...png


For a studio monitor, we want essentially flat on-axis response. Here, we kind of have it but with some deviations. The biggest one is the peaking in upper bass, then a dip around 1.64 kHz, and somewhat elevated treble energy. Listening axis solves the latter (dashed green) so perhaps you want to ignore the manual and point the speaker a few degrees above/below or left or right of your ears.

This speaker has an unusually high crossover frequency of 5.2 kHz although my measurements show that to be somewhat lower. That aside, the woofer beams a bit as indicated by the increase in directivity index (red solid line).

To see the cause of the dip around 1.6 kHz, let's measure the drivers and port very close to their center:

Dynaudio LYD 5 Studio Powered Monitor Speaker  Driver Near-field  Measurements.png


The dip seems to be a property of the woofer. So perhaps having had a crossover at the usual 1 to 2 kHz would have remedied that. While the response of the tweeter is cut off that low it appears to trend correctly. Maybe the higher crossover point was picked so that the monitor could play louder?

Anyway, back to our spinorama, early window reflections nicely sum to a smooth response showing pretty clever design:

Dynaudio LYD 5 Studio Powered Monitor Speaker Spinorama CTA-2034 ANSI Early Reflections Freque...png


So be careful in absorbing some and not the others as that can mess with this balance.

Using a hypothetical average room in far-field listening we get this response:

Dynaudio LYD 5 Studio Powered Monitor Speaker Spinorama CTA-2034 ANSI Predicted In-room  Frequ...png


Seems fairly accurate with the exception of problems noted earlier in bass.

Before I show you the directivity plots, let me post a new measurement I have not shown before which indicates at what distance the speaker acts as if it is in far field:

Dynaudio LYD 5 Studio Powered Monitor Speaker Nearfield to far field transition Measurements.png


This says that above 400 Hz, that distance is 1.5 meters (where the circles is on blue line) Lower frequencies take forever to get this way so I have excluded them. Let me know if you like to see this display for future near-field monitors.

For the following, I picked 1 meter distance as that is how far away the speakers are on my workstation:

Dynaudio LYD 5 Studio Powered Monitor Speaker Horizontal Beamwidth Measurements.png


So unlike the Genelec or Neumann speakers, we have a directivity that keeps getting narrower.

Dynaudio LYD 5 Studio Powered Monitor Speaker Horizontal Directivity Measurements.png


Dynaudio LYD 5 Studio Powered Monitor Speaker Vertical Directivity Measurements.png


Relative distortion shows what we usually see: the woofer getting unhappy as levels go up:

Dynaudio LYD 5 Studio Powered Monitor Speaker relative THD distortion  Measurements.png


But, there is some interesting design here that keeps the bass frequency distortion very much under control, perhaps with both filtering and compression:

Dynaudio LYD 5 Studio Powered Monitor Speaker THD distortion  Measurements.png


On some budget speaker the distortion actually shoots above the fundamental itself (over 100% THD+N). Not so here thankfully. On not so good news front, distortion in bass exceeds my threshold of 50 dB up to 1 kHz so best to play the LYD 5 at lower levels than 96 dBSPL @ 1 meter.

Finally the waterfall:

Dynaudio LYD 5 Studio Powered Monitor Speaker CSD waterfall  Measurements.png


Monitor Listening Tests
I placed the LYD 5 to the left of my monitor at around 1 meter to my ear and pointed at them. Comparing them to JBL LSR305 MK II, there was just no deep bass. And what was there was a bit tubby. As a result, the sound was rather flat in a rather unattractive way. The tubbiness is mild mind you, but when it is there, combined with lack of deeper bass it stands out.

I swapped out the JBL for Neumann KH80 DSP and the differential remained. Despite its small woofer, the KH80 maned to produce clean and natural bass.

On the positive front, the LYD 5 took my "speaker killer" tracks and spit them out! No amount of deep, deep bass would upset it and as a result, it could play very loud without getting distorted or fall apart.

Please note that I am being very picky here as the application for a studio monitor is in a picky environment. On a more relaxed basis, the sound was good.

And oh, there is tweeter hiss that is a bit lower than JBL LSR305. Like that, I could not hear it from my seating location and certainly during music playback. Once sensitized though and in a more quiet space, you may hear and be bothered by it.

Conclusions
Objectively, the Dynaudio LYD 5 does well with near flat frequency response, good directivity and great control of low frequency distortion. Where it misses is in lower bass energy which it attempts to make up for by boosting the upper bass. This is a fine trick in low end budget speakers but for a monitor, I don't think it is a good trade off. I would be interested to test its larger brothers to see how well they do with their increased bass response.

Overall, the LYD 5 is a good attempt. It just doesn't fit what I am looking for however and my preference for a studio monitor would be that of JBL LSR305P MKII or Neumann KH80 DSP.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Before I started ASR, I thought it would be a great get rich quick scheme. I make up a bunch of fancy graphs, add some technical buzzwords and you all would throw thousands of dollars at me per day. Well, it has not worked out this way. My hopes and dreams of private jets and islands have gone out the window. Still, I hope you support me by donating what you can using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
 

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MZKM

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It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $499.
Each, ~$1000/pair.
Would that change your panther rating?


Let me know if you like to see this display for future near-field monitors.
Very much so. Maybe even all speakers :p.

Also, what’s with the vertical directivity graph?
 
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amirm

amirm

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Each, ~$1000/pair.
Would that change your panther rating?
Thanks. I added clarification to the text. No, it won't change anything as that is what I assumed the cost was.
 

dfuller

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I wonder if the crossover is a leftover from the 3-way LYD48? It certainly seems more where a mid/tweeter crossover would be rather than a mid-bass/tweeter crossover would be.
 

tktran303

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Amir,

How come you don’t listen or take measurements, with the switches adjusted to better meet your needs eg. More bass extension, Dark
and see how they measure/sound in your own room/preferences.

I do like the flexibility those active monitors have that passive speakers lack. It would be nice to view what they do.
 

tktran303

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I wonder if the crossover is a leftover from the 3-way LYD48? It certainly seems more where a mid/tweeter crossover would be rather than a mid-bass/tweeter crossover would be.

No. Dynaudio has always chosen high crossover points.

I have their AIR series, the previous top-tier series, which are about 15 years old, and they always use high crossover points.
 

tktran303

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The dip seems to be a property of the woofer.

There‘a another way to confirm this - close/block off the port with eg. A foam plug or sock and measure the woofer.
 
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AnalogSteph

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How come you don’t listen or take measurements, with the switches adjusted to better meet your needs eg. More bass extension, Dark
and see how they measure/sound in your own room/preferences.
Good point - setting bass extension to -10 Hz would definitely have been worth a shot here.

I wonder if the crossover is a leftover from the 3-way LYD48? It certainly seems more where a mid/tweeter crossover would be rather than a mid-bass/tweeter crossover would be.
This is just how things were before waveguides. And honestly, the dispersion in this is probably about as good as it's ever going to get on a non-waveguide 2-way. The larger models are also doing quite well according to dispersion given in spec sheets, the LYD48 looks kinda like a dog's breakfast to me though.

Pretty solid monitor overall. $998/pair solid, well, not really. Genelec 8030C and KH120A both cost less than 1/3 more and have much better woofers for one.
 

spacevector

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@amirm thanks for the review.

Can you please elaborate on the far field distance graph?

Is it a driver integration graph?

What does 'N' mean?
 

MZKM

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stunta

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Love the far field graph, assuming it is what I think it is. Is this similar to what Genelec publishes in that the recommended listening distance for this speaker is 1.5m or less? If yes, please keep it for future measurements if possible. Since this is for a single speaker, would it be roughly double that when listening to a pair?

Thank you for yet another review that improves on priors.
 

LTig

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Before I show you the directivity plots, let me post a new measurement I have not shown before which indicates at what distance the speaker acts as if it is in far field:

View attachment 82719

This says that above 400 Hz, that distance is 1.5 meters (where the circles is on blue line) Lower frequencies take forever to get this way so I have excluded them. Let me know if you like to see this display for future near-field monitors.
Yes please.
Relative distortion shows what we usually see: the woofer getting unhappy as levels go up: [..]

But, there is some interesting design here that keeps the bass frequency distortion very much under control, perhaps with both filtering and compression:

View attachment 82725
I think there is a sharp high pass to protect the woofer from those low frequencies it couldn't handle anyway. Any good active speaker should have this. Here the high pass is configurable with +/- 10 Hz cutoff frequency.
Monitor Listening Tests
I placed the LYD 5 to the left of my monitor at around 1 meter to my ear and pointed at them. Comparing them to JBL LSR305 MK II, there was just no deep bass. And what was there was a bit tubby. As a result, the sound was rather flat in a rather unattractive way. The tubbiness is mild mind you, but when it is there, combined with lack of deeper bass it stands out.
This is no wonder. In the 0 Hz switch position the -6dB cutoff is at 60 Hz, which is higher than the KH80. It may make sense to remeasure THD at the -10 Hz position and listen again.
 

tktran303

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Linearity is just outstanding.

Form 200Hz onwards it’s more or less +/- 1dB in the listening window.Why do I say 200Hz? Because below 200Hz the room really does dictates the bass response flatness and smoothness.

I’m sure Jupiter was used in the design of these...
 

ROOSKIE

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Nice speakers.
Harman scored as solo systems right around the Revel M105 and the ELAC DBR-62, two highly rated systems here. $500 less than the Revel M105 and these have their amp covered.
Harman score with sub is one of the highest here.
I think due to the white these might work better in a living room for some folks vs other "studio" active systems.
I see the $1k price as very, very competitive.
A pair of these active high passed to two stereo subs wold be excellent. (I'd prolly buy the Neumann's though)

Just seems like a great measuring system.
Very much hoping to see some more Dynaudio tests.
 

ROOSKIE

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I wonder if the crossover is a leftover from the 3-way LYD48? It certainly seems more where a mid/tweeter crossover would be rather than a mid-bass/tweeter crossover would be.

Quote from soundonsound, "Dynaudio say that the primary motivation is to get the crossover frequency, with its potential response discontinuities and phase changes, out of the region where the human ear is at its most sensitive. "
 
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