Dynaudio X14 Speaker Review

[amirm]

Amir, did you measure impedance? JA's measurements show low sensitivity but a friendly high impedance with low phase angles.

Gosh, I am getting so forgetful. Yes, and just added it to the review.

 

[Matias]

The tiny step around the tweeter is the waveguide according to Dynaudio.

 

[amirm]

I suppose it does narrow the directivity a bit but clearly not enough.

 

[okok]

is 4349 good?

 

[theyellowspecial]

With such an amazing testing facility:

Not sure if they're testing speakers or attempting to open a portal to another dimension but it sure does look impressive.

 

[pavuol]

If someone interested if Americans don't pay too much for import from EU, I checked my local e-shop price monitor:
In my area they started selling for 990 € back in 2016 and in late 2018 the price went to 799 € (not at all shops for sure).

Anyway, I've always liked the scandinavian "minimal" design esthetics.

Btw. Amir, did you perform the personal listening test in the right chair and angle?

Datasheet trivia, they made an active version X14A as well.

 

[amirm]

Btw. Amir, did you perform the personal listening test in the right chair and angle?

That looks like Ekornes chair which we used to have. I didn't find it comfortable despite its reputation otherwise.

 

[Matias]

This chair looks like Charles Eames, and they are not very comfortable indeed. My Ekornes Stressless is a lot better IMO.

 

[pavuol]

The tiny step around the tweeter is the waveguide according to Dynaudio.

View attachment 93844

They moved forward and now they feel confident confidence about it, calling the new tech "DDC (Dynaudio Directivity Control)"

 

[Maz1]

I got a lightly used pair of Excite X38's for about $1900 and honestly found nothing under $4k that even remotely compared to the sound of these. I like my bass, and the twin 18cm drivers seem to go pretty flat all the way down to 35hz. It gives my Canton Vento 896 DC a run for its money. I always found Dyn's sound signature likeable, never too bright and at least with the larger 3 way speakers, very good sub bass and a massive sense of scale. Also, before my Hypex NC252MP amp came, I drove the X38's with a 40WPC Infineon amp and honestly they sounded pretty loud and decent even with that.

X14's can be found very cheap, and would be considered their cheapest home audio speaker at that time (2015?). I've heard good things about the emit line (would be great to have a review of those).

 

[Matias]

They moved forward and now they feel confident confidence about it, calling the new tech "DDC (Dynaudio Directivity Control)"

Indeed the step is gone and now they have a mix of wide horizontal and narrow vertical dispersion using this futuristic looking waveguide.

 

[Pearljam5000]

I only heard the BM5 MKIII and actually liked them. In the same store i listened to the PMC twotwo. 6 and hated the tweeter.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

The tiny step around the tweeter is the waveguide according to Dynaudio.

View attachment 93844

Wow, I guess the titanium domes in my 30 year old JBLs have a "waveguide" too!

 

[Tks]

This chair looks like Charles Eames, and they are not very comfortable indeed. My Ekornes Stressless is a lot better IMO.

Herman Miller couldn't mistake it even if I were blind.

 

[SineWave]

This chair looks like Charles Eames, and they are not very comfortable indeed. My Ekornes Stressless is a lot better IMO.

Yeah, that is definitely not Ekornes (Stressless). More likely an Eames (or nockoff).

I was at a hifi shop and waited to get my car stereo installed while watching a movie in front of a big screen they had on display. About an hour into the movie, I said to myself: "Wow, I just noticed that I've been sitting here, reclined with my feet up and my arms crossed and I haven't even moved a muscle. This has never happened to me before. I am so comfortable right now". And then within minutes a sales guy comes up as if he read my mind and asks me: "Did you know there's a sale on these chairs?" I had no idea that they were even for sale! A few weeks later I came back and sat in at least 14 different Ekornes chairs without looking at the price tags. Fortunately for me, the least expensive one (about 3X less) was the one most comfortable. I think around $800. This was back in 2003/4. Normal price was 1400. 3 years ago I got on sale their 2 seater with double ottoman. So super comfy!

 

[Dennis Murphy]

This certainly comports with my reactions to the less expensive Dyn's. And it's not difficult to see why. They make excellent drivers--it was a real downer to the DIY community when they cut off sales to third parties. But once those superior and expensive drivers were placed in a black box, there wasn't a lot of $ left for crossover engineering if the target retail price was to be met. That goes not just for the discontinued Excite series, but also for the current Emit M10 ($800/pr on Amazon). i had a pair of those in for repair, and while the sound is certainly decent, it's a bargain-basement unit in terms of the crossover, which consists of a very cheap cap and a tiny iron core (not even steel laminate) inductor that had fused after some kind of mistreatment by the owner.

 

[Matias]

Herman Miller couldn't mistake it even if I were blind.

Designed by Charles Eames in 1956 and became so iconic that everyone copied after the patents expired.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eames_Lounge_Chair

 

[Robbo99999]

I'm thinking the relatively low distortion at high SPL is the best thing about this speaker. It looks easily EQ'able from the spin at first glance, but the directivity error probably puts a bit of a spanner in the works on that front. Expensive for what it is given all that......not a bad speaker, but not good for the price.

 

[ctrl]

Sorry, off-topic mayhem!

Indeed the step is gone and now they have a mix of wide horizontal and narrow vertical dispersion using this futuristic looking waveguide.

This is interesting - thanks for sharing!
It would be nice if Amir would receive a loudspeaker with this DDC Lens technology in the future.

Had a similar approach to controlling directivity a few years ago - had called it X-Front - although it may have been done before
You could say it is some kind of the Neanderthal version of the DDC Lens technique

The results in the horizontal directivity were not bad at all. The X-front in combination with the Seas DXT (tweeter with small waveguide) was not bad:

You can find many X-Front measurements here (unfortunately in german language) and also the reason why it failed in my case.

 

[pavuol]

You could say it is some kind of the Neanderthal version of the DDC Lens technique

why?