The articles and reviews are in, now I need some real world opinions. How well do these handle high power and volume(on occasion), how crucial is placement, and what would you all consider the strong and weak points of these speakers?
I can try them at home, but for that I must be 75% convinced.
The Classe will drive them without issue, I need to be sure of clarity, midrange delivery(vocals, both genders) and multi-octave piano, as well as Rock and Roll.
These are quite expensive here in the Great White North $3600list, not much discount. The pair to try at home have limited hours on them, like 100 or less. How much difference will I work into as the time goes by, and in which respects?
Worth trying at home! Their only weakness, if you can call it that, is that they can be a bit big in the bass if not properly setup.
they're beautifully made, nicely finished, have very good power handling (as with all Dynaudios). They prefer to be sited closer together than most speakers (6 feet is a good starting point) and do not toe them in (important) at first. If you get no image then toe-in should be so small you can barely see it, and the image will just snap into focus. They need a minimum of 18 inches from the back wall and free up considerably when they're far enough from the wall, otherwise their sound goes 'into the speakers' or becomes 'speaker bound'. Good speakers in my view, people either love 'em or hate 'em...
Frank, thank you for your response, I was hoping to hear fom you. I have the 220's here for a trial(2+ hrs drive) and my dealer was*as always) happy to let me take them home in blankets.
First the visit. My friends there had no problem whatsoever with putting the 140's into a room, So me and my BIL ran through John Mellencamp's Uh Huh, track 2-4 powered by a (unknown to me) kit of cdp and integrated. The name was unisource or something. The 140's were outstanding. An absolute resource of the original, I played the samw JCM'pink houses' through the kit, and found the speakers to be worthy, and then some.
If, in the future, I feel the need for top drawer, standmounts, these Dyn 140's woll be near the top, Paradigm Studio 20vr4's yet to come.
However, back to the 220's. This may come as a shock to some, or a pleasant surprise to others. The Stratus Silver's beat out the 220's. Ouch. I ran Mellencamp again, with the 220's, and A'B with the Psb's. Silver wins. The 220's are supposed to be 90db or so. Either the 220's are glass full or the Silver's are glass empty, the Psb's rang the walls on volume response, hands down. DSOTM, the litmus test for all of speakerdome. I call it a draw, untill I switched to 'The wall'
Now the cards are drawn one on one. The test tune will be 'run like hell'. The Dyn's just love this tune. Solid, well timed response, with a little"gimme a goose' impetus.
The Silvers are content, giving in response to requests, little more. These speakers are showing the goods, do not get me wrong, just happy.
Now the acid test. The volume knob gets a twist on 'Best days of our lives', Floyd again. The Psb's give up at 35 on the digital knob, the Dyn's are raring to go. In fact, the Classe volume knob saw scary-territory, the Dyn's were happy with the first click of overdrive, not so happy with another.
In short, the Dynaudio 220's are power monsters. If you can pony up enough current to max these out, you are a better man than me.
Bottom line, rich kids toy, not usefull for regular guy's stereo.
But if you run a solid 300w/channel, hang on tight. Little Pink Houses...
David, you are killing me, man! The amp is the part that I am happy with! D'oh!
The placement is as Frank suggested for now. 7' apart, 22" to rear wall, no side walls, no toe, but a 7' listening depth, kind of forced into the short side of the room.
Most noticeably, these Dyn's seem to have a slowish bass roll-off, which surprises me. The snare snap is reasonably sharp, compared directly to the drum kit in the far end of the room. The kick, however, seems to roll off a bit slowly, like needing a muffler in the drum. I double muffle my kicks, the Dyn's do not reproduce the effect. The bass would not show up with any square edges on a scope, to be sure.
I will place the speakers today, and open up the collection a bit, perhaps a lively Verdi. As always, there will be a super-fit when everything works to a 'T', but can anyone live with a one-dimensional set-up?
As much as it pains me, some new country music will run as well. I am not a fan, but some recent recordings seem to be rather dynamic. After she leaves me, my dog dies and my beer goes flat, of course.
Yeah, T, these actually have 200 on them, a gut in the store liked them and ran em hard for another100 or so. As delivered, they are over 200, with some hard hours as well.
I considered that when I picked them up, Chad at the store implied that they were, run in, more so than my OP.
I am not running the 220's down at all, my perception is that the Stratus Sivers(and i) are very capable comparisons.
Please continue the thread, Bomb, more opinions are welcomed!
The silver series is very capable,with the Dynes system matching means a bunch,being synergistic is what will make them perform their best,they may one of the most sensitive speakers when it comes to this.
Try them closer together if possible. 6' or maybe even less. It mnay congest a bit but it may just coalesce better.
I've played with them a bit and I must say I get different results with different kit. I played with ours on a nice system on Saturday and I wasn't blown away, just enjoyed them for what they do well. Then again I had a bass problem too, but the opposite of you if anything, undefined deep bass.
Normally, 70 watts is more than enough to drive them. I used a (big) 60 watter on Saturday with no drive issues. provided the amp is happy to drive 4-ohm loads there shouldn't be an issue.
Thanks , Frank. I still have them until tomorrow, I ran them again last night, I got the same return. The more I listen to the Psb's, the more I relize their qualities. It is going to take a great product to replace them any time soon, the Velodyne DSP12 sub fills everything in, and I have found a vein of music that the speakers really cook on, and I dig it.
Rav, thanks. How did you figgur the Stratus Silver's to fare so well?
I do not want to appear more insightful than I actually am.
My experience with floorstanding speakers has been that to get a floorstanding speaker that ticks all the boxes, almost invariably costs an arm and a leg.
So I figured the 220s would be better than the PSBs in some areas, and the PSBs would be better in others. Also the PSB's probably rate higher on the value for money scale since they are not imports.
Also I am not a fan of 2 and 1/2 way designs. I think if your are gonna do a floorstander, make it a full 3 way design, that way you get dedicated mid range driver, which is optimised for vocal/mid-range frequencies.
But a true 3-way, with a suitably high quality crossover, and a resonance-free floorstanding cabinet is quite a feat of engineering, so that means the cost is stratospheric!!!