Dynaudio Debuts Evidence $85,000 State-Of-The-Speaker-Art Bows

Dynaudio officially launched its newest loudspeaker masterpiece, the Evidence at HiFi í99, The Home Theater and Specialty Audio Show, which took place in May. For the last 15 years, the Consequence has served as Dynaudio's flagship loudspeaker. While many experts still regard the Consequence as one of the finest audio products in the world, Dynaudio was determined to set a new standard in the Evidence. While many high quality loudspeaker systems depend on Dynaudio components, Dynaudio's own finished loudspeaker systems boast drivers even more advanced than those they sell to the speaker industry. The company says that every bit of the engineering and production experience that Dynaudio has accumulated over the last 25 years has gone into the Evidence. For the Evidence, Dynaudio didn't merely manufacture new drivers; everything was done in house - from the development and production of the drivers and the design of the complete system to the finished cabinetwork. The company says that because everything is designed in one R&D center, Dynaudio is capable of exploiting its technology in ways denied to companies that simply purchase OEM drivers and assemble them into stock boxes. Dynaudio develops the drivers and the technology needed for each project. With the Evidence, everything was designed from scratch. The starting point was a blank slate - the goal was to build a speaker system with: -No dynamic limitations -Truthful, detailed, high resolution performance-Freedom from coloration and/or ""speaker"" characteristics-Minimal room dependency -Attractive, elegant design and high tech appeal -Upgradability, simplifying future expandability and improvements According to the company, all of Dynaudioís vast experience in driver design and construction, as well as full loudspeaker system development and production, was involved in the creation of the Evidence. Every part of every driver was engineered and hand-built to Dynaudioís most exacting standards. Each driver is built to exact tolerances by a select group of engineers in the R&D laboratory. All of the Evidenceís drivers are either completely new designs or substantial refinements upon existing drivers - all are used exclusively for the Evidence. The Evidence consists of three separate modules - two bass modules flanking a midrange/high frequency module. The modules are mounted on a custom built heavy steel plinth with an integrated adjustable spike design. They connect to one another with precision aluminum locking mechanisms similar to the bayonet mount on high quality camera lenses. Dynaudio chose precision cut solid cone-block aluminum for stability, reliability, and mechanical inertness. The tweeters and midrange drivers lock into the mid/high module's 6-cm thick, solid aliminum baffle, minimizing the effects of mechanical resonances. The baffle's face is contoured to avoid reflections. The moduleís rear panel houses the crossover, an open-architecture modular design. The woofer modules are constructed of 1.5-inch thick HDF in a multi-layered sandwich configuration that incorporates massive amounts of cross bracing Extensive measurement of cabinet-related vibrations allows Dynaudio to further tune the enclosure with precise placement of bitumen damping compounds. The bass modules are clad in select grades of matching real-wood veneers. Each bass module has two specially designed 8-inch woofers with 3-inch voice coils and dual neodymium magnets. This configuration offers fast, tight, extended well-controlled bass response with low distortion, even at high output levels. Each mid/high frequency module has two Ferrofluid cooled tweeters with neodymium magnets and two 6-inch cone midrange drivers with proprietary hybrid magnetic circuits. The paired tweeters work in unison to a certain frequency where the lower one is then feathered out, leaving the rest of the HF response to its mate--the same is true for the pair of midrange drivers, as well as the four 8-inch woofers. The symmetrical driver configuration provides the speaker a radiation pattern designed for real-world conditions. Drivers radiate acoustic energy equally in all directions, which causes diffuse ceiling and floor reflections. Through the clever use of a symmetrical layout, the Evidence controls the vertical angle of radiation, focusing the sound where it's needed - toward the listener's ears. The crossover is mounted behind the mid/high enclosure on a modular multi-layer circuit board with separate plug-in cards for each frequency divider network. This easy access system offers flexibility for different options or future upgrades. Speaker terminal connectors are custom-built WBT binding posts. The crossover is an advanced shallow slope configuration, utilizing innovative and extensively tested phase and impedance control techniques. Components are the highest quality available: fast-pulse metal film poly caps, large gauge multi-wire litz inductors--all hand wound to tolerances less than 1 percent - as well as low inductance, low capacitance wire-wound resistors with high heat stability. Component connections are point-to-point wired with silver-plated copper bars. The connections from the circuit boards are routed through special, high quality wiring to custom-made WBT locking connectors. The whole assembly then makes contact to the wiring running to the separate drivers via custom made WBT connectors. These connectors feature over-sized contact areas and pressure locking male and female gold plated copper hardware that insures excellent contact with low internal resistance. The specially designed one-piece aluminum baffle, the cabinet's interlocking mechanism, the track system for the removable crossover cards, and the adjustable floor spikes are all made of high-grade cone block aluminum and are individually precision cut on a CNC machine. The driver configuration, the construction of the drivers themselves, and the highly evolved crossover design all help control the dispersion of the Evidence's soundfield. This, says the company, makes the speaker less room dependent and allows the listener to experience more of the original ambient information from each recording. The Evidenceís independence from listening room acoustics is said to yield amazing sound staging, layering, imaging, and ambience. The Evidence is available in Rosewood and Birdís Eye Maple at $85,000/pair (custom finishes are available by special order). Dimensions: 9.6-inch wide by 82-inch high by 22.1-inch deep. For more information, contact Mike Manousselis at Dynaudio North America,630 238 4200.