Focus - new active Dynaudio speakers

[uwotm8]

Active floorstander speaker with DSP and Dirac

Frequency response (±3dB @ 85dB):	20Hz-22kHz
Frequency response (-6dB dynamic):	18Hz-36kHz

Beat that.

Unfair. This thing has bass (and overall thicc sweet sound I believe).
KEF spent decades developing boring-sounding nobass speakers.
Audiophools almost believed that it's "the right sound"...

 

[Flak]

New Dynaudio Focus speakers at step 10 here:

 

[metasharp]

Thinking about getting some Focus 50

 

[Descartes]

Unfair. This thing has bass (and overall thicc sweet sound I believe).
KEF spent decades developing boring-sounding nobass speakers.
Audiophools almost believed that it's "the right sound"...

I have the new KEF LS50W II and they have plenty of bass at listening levels

 

[JiiPee]

Unless I have mistaken something, it appears that these wireless speaker setups from KEF, Dynaudio etc... with integrated streaming capabilities have no provision for headphones connection. Also, I'm not aware of any WISA-compatible headphoneamplifiers. What do You think would be the best solution for someone who likes wireless speakers, but also needs to have headphones connectivity? A separate streamer plus headphoneamp with dac? or...

 

[Flak]

Another review here:

Dynaudio Focus 10 Active Loudspeaker Review

In October 2017 I visited Dynaudio's headquarters in Skanderborg, Denmark, to see how the company designs, manufacturers, and measures its loudspeakers. The experience was unforgettable for a number of reasons, including the wonderful people, but the one thing I think about most often is Dynaudio...

audiophilestyle.com

 

[Darwin]

No HDMI and BT 4.2 are puzzling misses especially for the price. Makes you look at Ken instead but I had the first version and they were very unreliable with pretty much no support from Kef.

 

[stevenswall]

OP: Could you put photos and the info in the first post please? The Dynaudio website is going on two minutes to load and everything else is working fine. Presents better if people can see what they clicked on at the first click.

 

[sweetmusic]

A review just came out in Stereophile, with measurements.

Dynaudio Focus 10 active loudspeaker

Almost five years after I submitted my review of Dynaudio's Focus 200 XD class-D active bookshelf loudspeakermy first product review for Stereophileword of its imminent successor, the digital Focus 10 class-D active bookshelf loudspeaker ($5500/pair), and its two larger siblings arrived via Mike...

www.stereophile.com

Can someone with experience and knowledge with speaker measurements comment?

I really wish John Atkinson measured distortion. I'd like to compare the low end performance to the smaller KEF LS50s. For me, I'd be adding a sub and chopping off the low end anyway, but still.

Also, I'm perplexed by the step response. Dynaudio usually has first order crossovers. Their older active Focus line had a classic first order shape, which should be easy to do. Yet seems like they chose not to with the 10s. I wonder why? People say it doesn't really matter, but I have always imagined that it should, and it's nice to see the smooth shape on the KEF actives.

The horizontal and vertical directivity seem pretty good for a classic two way configuration.

 

[Marc v E]

A review just came out in Stereophile, with measurements.

Dynaudio Focus 10 active loudspeaker

Almost five years after I submitted my review of Dynaudio's Focus 200 XD class-D active bookshelf loudspeakermy first product review for Stereophileword of its imminent successor, the digital Focus 10 class-D active bookshelf loudspeaker ($5500/pair), and its two larger siblings arrived via Mike...

www.stereophile.com

Can someone with experience and knowledge with speaker measurements comment?

I really wish John Atkinson measured distortion. I'd like to compare the low end performance to the smaller KEF LS50s. For me, I'd be adding a sub and chopping off the low end anyway, but still.

Also, I'm perplexed by the step response. Dynaudio usually has first order crossovers. Their older active Focus line had a classic first order shape, which should be easy to do. Yet seems like they chose not to with the 10s. I wonder why? People say it doesn't really matter, but I have always imagined that it should, and it's nice to see the smooth shape on the KEF actives.

The horizontal and vertical directivity seem pretty good for a classic two way configuration.

With the caveat that I'm not an expert, they seem expensive to me for what they are. They do have quite a nice frequency response. But ime the tweeter not having a waveguide will have a negative effect.

If I were searching in their price range I would try out Neumann and Genelec, if imaging and clarity are your main priorities. If you like a more full range sound, playing everything effortlessly with pleasing tonality, I would choose a demo or second hand Beolab 20.

If you don't have access to or want to try these "outsider" brands, I would try kef ls50 meta wireless with a sub.

 

[sweetmusic]

They do have a wave guide, iiuc, which partly explains the good measurements.

No substitute for sending a pair to @amirm of course and getting the full spins and comparison.

 

[racingpht]

A review just came out in Stereophile, with measurements.

Dynaudio Focus 10 active loudspeaker

Almost five years after I submitted my review of Dynaudio's Focus 200 XD class-D active bookshelf loudspeakermy first product review for Stereophileword of its imminent successor, the digital Focus 10 class-D active bookshelf loudspeaker ($5500/pair), and its two larger siblings arrived via Mike...

www.stereophile.com

Can someone with experience and knowledge with speaker measurements comment?

I really wish John Atkinson measured distortion. I'd like to compare the low end performance to the smaller KEF LS50s. For me, I'd be adding a sub and chopping off the low end anyway, but still.

Also, I'm perplexed by the step response. Dynaudio usually has first order crossovers. Their older active Focus line had a classic first order shape, which should be easy to do. Yet seems like they chose not to with the 10s. I wonder why? People say it doesn't really matter, but I have always imagined that it should, and it's nice to see the smooth shape on the KEF actives.

The horizontal and vertical directivity seem pretty good for a classic two way configuration.

All things being equal, a sealed box speaker will have higher distortion than bass-reflex ones around tuning frequency. So, LS50 will have less distortion around 50hz or so, but will have higher distortion far below that. Since you plan to use a sub, this difference wouldn't matter too much. Both should perform similarly above 80hz. The LS50 meta's woofer seems slightly better with shorting ring in woofer's motor, but with a smaller cone area.

The step response is interesting. But I can understand their design choice. First of all, the old Focus active is not "first order" as their passive speakers(which is not really first order acoustically, probably only electrically), but rather a "minimum phase" crossover which requires FIR filter for phase correction. One problem of FIR filter is that, for a different sampling rate, a different data set is needed. To support multiple sampling rate(to perhaps reduce SRC)with a simple DSP structure, they seems drop the FIR phase correction in their newer active designs.

 

[Ecksbocks]

Unfair. This thing has bass (and overall thicc sweet sound I believe).
KEF spent decades developing boring-sounding nobass speakers.
Audiophools almost believed that it's "the right sound"...

I love boring speakers - listening to music rather than speakers.

I actually owned the first Focus from Dynaudio I believe, called 140. It was nice on some music, never harsh, but sometimes the music is supposed to be harsh or thin.

 

[uwotm8]

It was nice on some music

The point is, KEF is never nice on any music (rather joking, don't take it too seriously).
It's that kind of so-called "neutrality" (so-called because it's not even close to Genelec or Neumann) when good music sound boring.
Dynaudio Focus - passive, not hew ones - have their own "warm" signature which, while obviously isn't neutral, is much pleasing to my ears.

 

[DSJR]

I didn't know this thread was here - Subjectivity follows, so be warned -

A few months ago, I heard the 10 and the 50 in a presentation by the UK Dynaudio distributors. The 10 sounds like a pleasant small box to me, but a small box it is (I like big-uns better and always have). I'm probably doing it a huge injustice though!

The next room had a pair of 50's playing and my gawd, I was in heaven. No idea how these measure, but there was air, space, to me PROPER reproduction of venue/room/studio acoustic and reverb and the ability to feel you could walk into and back out of the acoustic on a proper live recording brought back memories of the very fist actives I ever heard. The sound was less 'stark and hard' as their top passive Confidence 60's can sound and I was hooked! the dealer doing these dems has been hesitant as they're wireless actives, so no 'upgrade path to pretty much nowhere' as in their main amplifier brand and maybe the UK domestic market isn't ready for this yet away from the likes of us. A dealer pal told me that he never ever gets asked about 'active' speakers and in all honesty, he'd rather sell a nice amp to drive his selected range of passive speakers as that seems to be what his market likes.

I kind of got into trouble the other day after saying how dead/dry and not-well-integrated I found some passive ATC 40's over their active counterparts and that was after hearing them in the very same room on similar music via a fancy digital source claimed to 'repair' a digital file (you know the make) and 'volume' just a few weeks after being blown away by the Dynaudios, which I'd love to hear again. My vintage Crown/Harbeth based system has much of the 'air,' but it's amorphous in comparison, a bit like a slightly hazy or cloudy window looking into the venue where the Focus 50's are more like an open doorway given a suitable track.

 

[metasharp]

As you can see in my signature I have a pair of Focus 50.... I don't know how they measure but they blast you with a wall of sound.
And believe me no need for any subwoofer. It's already able to make my whole building vibrate upon the blasts.
Got them new for a little less than 10000euros (dynaudio refuses most discount requests) after searching a lot.

 

[jonfitch]

It's interesting Dynaudio is still pairing 1" tweeters with 6" woofers and no waveguide. Somehow their flagship bookshelf (Confidence 20) is a 1" tweeter with a 7.1" woofer and still no waveguide, but they decided on giving the floorstander a waveguide on the tweeter. Odd.

 

[tktran303]

What's odd?

No waveguide between lower directivity / wider dispersion. Waveguide means directivity matching at the crossover frequency at the expense of narrow dispersion.

eg. Two speakers with the same midwoofer.

Exhibit A: speaker with a waveguide-

relatively smooth around the crossover region. However, dispersion at high frequencies it relatively low- at 10Khz between the on axis at 70 degrees off axis the difference is 17dB.

Exhibit B: speaker with no waveguide: some directivity mismatch around the crossover region, but dispersion in high frequencies remains high- the difference between the on axis and 70 degrees off axis at 10Khz is 10dB better!

Design trade-offs.

 

[VintageFlanker]

I don't know how they measure

Mostly great, with excellent bass extension. There's no secret. Good speakers measure good.

DYNAUDIO Focus 50

Aktywne zespoły głośnikowe nowej serii Focus nie są pionierskim, ale już kolejnym krokiem Dynaudio w tym kierunku. Są znacznie nowocześniejsze ...

audio.com.pl

I also auditioned the Focus 50 several months back and really, really liked them.

Not sure I would pick a pair for 10k, tho (I would rather spend a bit more for 8Cs at this point).

For 5k€, I found the Focus 10 to be somewhat overpriced against my Buchardt A500 Signature, costing the same. Certainly good lifestyle bookshelves for the size, tho.

 

[subframe]

It seems everybody who looks at these tries the 10 or the 50. Anyone listened to the 30?