Did you get to go and listen to them? Also perhaps they didn’t have the right amp or had something wrong lol
Not yet. Tomorrow evening I’m going to check them out. Had to contact the shop owner to ask him to keep it held for me.
Yeah maybe. I was also thinking might have to do with break-in. Heard that these speakers need quite a bit. And in this case, demo unit so no break-in needed haha. I’m curious to check out the tweeter to see if it’s in good condition (I imagine it is, as this is a pretty high end shop - they mainly sell Dynaudio’s Contour and Confidence line, along with Higher end options from Focal, Piega, etc. - speaking of which, anyone ever heard Piegas? I have a friend that works there so I was thinking maybe I might go shake a tree 
)
I’ve heard the master line source, all I have to say is wow with those speakers lol, but I would be assuming you are still looking for bookshelf’s (and something a tad more affordable)
The only bookshelf I have heard from them is the coax 311, and that was very good, but I actually preferred other speakers in that price range
Well, this is from Dynaudio site.
“A newly unpacked Dynaudio loudspeaker therefore requires several weeks running/ playing to reach its optimum performance capability. After that period, a couple of minutes before every listening session will be helpful to “warm up” the loudspeakers.”
My special 40’s did take some time to sound their best, but I don’t know about the warming up loudspeakers every time lol, might make sense in theory but idk. I had to wait anyway because the kte has to warm up to sound it’s best (I have confirmed that one)
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I’ve heard them all three in the same room.
First of all the much better esotar tweeter of the 40s is noticeable. The 40s has less low frequency but better impact. She also feels more dynamic and controlled. The 40 is more of a neutral speaker with superior transparency and the Evoke is more of a fun machine that doesn’t lose its naturalness.
In any case it should be noted that the 40s is much more demanding on the amplifier and needs more power and good damping. It draws much more current and therefore needs high quality power supplies in the amplifier. And only with a really high-quality amplifier can the 40s surpass the Evoke. With a cheap amplifier you can easily get the impression that the Evoke is better speaker.
I don’t know it but I think it alludes to the pleasant listening experience, the excellent slightly raised midrange and the transparency. But the Harbeth should be more neutral than the Evoke.
The cheaper Cerotar tweeter of the Evoke does not withstand as much power as the better ones. Therefore they had to raise the crossover frequency, because thei thought the Evoke 20 customers will hear really loud sometimes. Nevertheless 3000 is still relatively low and some manufactures go up to 5000. Also note that a dynaudio uses a 6db crossovers and not a normal 12db one.
Dynaudios need a relatively long breakintime and you can hear the difference clearly. I’ve never really thought about whether loudspeakers are warming up and I think this refers more to the amplifier. With my amplifiers I can hear clearly when they are cold. Especially my Rega needs to warm up for at least an hour for maximum detail, but no music needs to be played.
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Heh. This sounds pretty bad. “i’ll just turn up my gear and listen music after hour has passed”.
I’m more in the “ready in a minute” after starting everything up and sitting down.
So!
I’ve bought myself a Dynaudio Evoke 20!
I was pretty impressed by what I heard at the shop (they’re not even fully broken in yet - he said it’s had like 40-50 hours of use so far) and made an impulse decision to get it. Now having it on my desk, I still like it a lot, however it’s not as impressive as it was in the shop. This tells me that I have a number of factors to consider to make them sound better. Obviously my amplifier needs to be replaced, as I’m just rocking a Sony DH-790 145W receiver at the moment. And beyond that, the bigger issue will end up being placement and positioning as these are way more sensitive to that than my Q150.
At the moment I was comparing it to my Q150 very mildly back and forth in a similar position and I was surprised by how close they sound to each other oddly enough. This may well be because I haven’t given them enough time, but still. I really hope I can make these somehow shine as they did in the shop. But they were using a Naim streamer and an ACT power amp on this so a bit of another level.
So it begins…
Beyond this, I want to thank everyone who helped me pick a speaker out! I hadn’t even heard of Dynaudio before and here I am with one in hand! Haha! Thanks again y’all.
If y’all have any advice for me, please let me know. I’m all ears!
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Also have you worked on your placement of the speakers? Getting them properly placed and toed in on a desk can really help the sound. Also the amp is something you can upgrade for sure
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That’s what I’m working on. Previously I had the Q150’s on a pair of Desktop Speaker Stands and with some ISO Puck Mini’s between the stand and speakers to decouple them. They were for sure toed in. With the Dyn’s I’m having to test a bunch more configurations because they’re taller and more importantly the tweeter is above the woofer so it’s no longer at ear level. So far, the best solution has been to put it on a pair of angled acoustic foam pads that allow the tweeters to point at my ears. This seems to be good for the height/tweeter problem, but I think it may not be optimal for decoupling as this eliminated the stand and the ISO pucks.
Also, I gotta say…this wood is amazing 
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Yeah same. Tbh this is the main reason why I could probably not get into tube amps. Tube’s at least make sense, but even then, the practicality of it is completely lost and therefore, probably not for me.
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Turn them upside down so the tweeter is on the bottom.
Congrats! I’d love to hear what you think about them after you have broken them in a little bit. Did you get to compare them against the Special 40s?
Ah, the notorious dilemma of getting speakers to sound like they did in the store…LOL, what i went thru trying to get myFalcon LS3/5a’s to reproduce what i heard in the store…Now the fun begins, i learned a few valuable lessons, the biggest being synergy between different pieces of electronic equipment. Finding the synergy between pieces in your environment takes time, luck and research. Congratulations and good listening!
Thanks! No, unfortunately not. Reason he had this deal is because he was severing his relationship with Dynaudio so he’s getting rid of all his stock so he didn’t have any stock left of Special 40’s.
This unfortunately didn’t work well for me.
And did you succeed? What was your biggest sacrifice in making it happen?
I know I can’t reach the same level as the shop because I inherently have a different use case (on a desk with 1 meter distance and 2 feet away from wall rather than on stands with 2 meters apart and 2 meters distance to speakers), but I’m just hoping I can get it somehow closer to the unique traits I heard. Right now it just sounds like a fuller Q150, that’s never sibilant (this impressed the hell out of me actually. I played a track that I know is sibilant as hell and this speaker/headphone is the first time I ever heard that not being the case on the track. That’s awesome!)
Thanks!!!
I’ll report back as things progress =D
I’m really stuck about this right now. Whether to find a decent Class AB amp with enough power, or to get something like the Hypex 252mp based Class D that measures extremely well and also has plenty of power (it is 250W @4 and the Evoke 20’s are 6 so that’s going to be somewhere in the ballpark of 200W - which by the way, the spec of the speaker is maximum power 180W…should I be concerned with more powerful amps?)? Fortunately my current receiver is rated to do 145@6 so it’s safe at least for now. I suppose that marantz comes to mind now.
Hmmm, what common amp brands are available to you, and are you still looking for the 700 limit on the amp? The dynaudios really benefit from high quality amps and sources
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I think I mentioned this before when you asked:
Yeah I think so for now. It’s either that or I gotta wait to sell some stuff first before I can increase that budget. I hadn’t intended on buying those Dynaudios just yet, but at that price point it was either an in the moment decision or wait and lose out on a massive price cut for basically new speakers (he only had them open for a couple months, and barely used them as he mostly sells floorstanders).
Does the site MusicDirect ship to you? I saw some pretty good specials and Open Box items, in particular, some NADs
I personally don’t know if I would recommend modern NAD’s for the dynaudios
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Congratulations!
You dont´t need to decouple Dynaudios… they have a dead chassis.
Coupeling them to mass will improve the lower frequencies. I would stick them with Blu Tack on stands that sit on the floor behind the desk… I wouldn’t tilt the speakers and place them in a way that the tweeters are slightly above your ear. For experimentation you can use bricks to find the perfect hight. You can also experiment with the portplugs if the bass becomes too much. Every centimeter the speakers move away from the wall will improve the sound.
I think I was misunderstood. I just wanted to point out that I can clearly hear that tansistor amplifiers have about 70% of their potential when switched on. After 5 minutes it is already 90% and after 15 minutes it is 95%. After one hour it is probably 100%. But this varies from amplifier to amplifier.
look at my previous post
Dynaudios seem to not like this
Not at all! The more power the amplifier has the better it is for the speaker.
sounds terribel … I tried lol
About the amplifier:
You need a lot of current!
Watts are not so important but at least 100 @4…
Next, the amplifier must be permanently stable under heavy load. e.g. regas overheat because dynaudio draw too much current.
Next we should also use a very good damping factor with Dynaudio, which is more likely to be Class AB or very high quality Class D.
I still recomand the Atoll IN100 … You could look for a good deal on a discontinued IN100SE.
Creek 50
used Audionet
used Leema
maybe Cambridge Audio CXA 61 … but very bright and slow bass - not for everybody
maybe Marantz … the old ones didn´t work with Dyns at all, but the newer ones ore better
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