DynAudio Audience 52

By Michael Jones

February 2007

DynAudio Audience 52 bookshelf speaker. $2200.

DynAudio Audience 52 (click for larger image)

Phil McIsaac from Auckland’s Smiths Sound was absolutely fizzing when I popped into his store. The reason for all the enthusiasm? A small DynAudio loudspeaker. Listening to the speaker in Phil’s store, I could see why. A quick phone call to the distributor and I had a pair at home for a listen.

There’s good reason for Phil’s enthusiasm, as these are very good loudspeakers. While the American press has recently been going ga-ga over the top-end, and very big, DynAudio models, this modest loudspeaker is worthy of plenty of ga-ga itself. Particularly if you live with the real world constraints of a small to medium-sized room.

So what is a DynAudio Audience 52? A small (bookshelf) speaker, the Audience 52 stands a mere 330mm high (that’s just over a foot in the old currency), 256mm deep and a mere 204mm wide. Yes, that is a small speaker but, as I’ll outline later, the DynAudio certainly doesn’t sound it.

The 6.9kg weight suggests that there’s some substance to these speakers. A decent cabinet is internally lined with bitumen to reduce cabinet colouration, while the substantial drivers add to the overall weight. The “rap test” on the cabinet suggests that there will be little audible cabinet colouration.

Regular readers may note some similarities in drive units between this speaker and the recently reviewed Image 412. DynAudio drivers and the Morel drivers used by Image have some shared DNA. A two-way loudspeaker, the Audience 52 uses a 170mm mid-woofer with a large, 75mm aluminium voice coil. The tweeter is a 28mm dome. The speaker is vented at the rear.

Some other specs to take into account: the rated sensitivity is 86dB (a little under normal these days) and the nominal impedance is 4 Ohms. This suggests that the DynAudio is best served by a decent amplifier. Weedy AV receivers – no matter what their power rating – should be avoided.

As with many bookshelf speakers the Audience 52 sounds best with a bit of space around them. They sounded most convincing in my normal free space location (with the front of the speakers around 900mm from the rear wall and substantially more from the side walls). DynAudio supply a foam bung for the port if the speaker booms too much in the room. I tried the 52 close to the wall both with and without the bung, with the bung certainly helping the overall balance.

I used the 52s on 500mm high Sound Creations MW (medium weight) stands, spiked at the bottom with Blutak between stand and speaker. They were driven by my Plinius 8150, sourced from a Meridian 508 and VPI Scout/OC9.

Listening

This is a classy and confident speaker, which shows the benefit of moving up the price range from speakers below $1500.

The most astonishing aspect of the 52’s performance is the bass. The solidity and power from this small 170mm woofer is astonishing. I suspect that DynAudio spent a lot of time voicing the bass in this speaker, as it manages to be weighty while retaining superb articulation and timing. It’s the bass that allows this speaker to fill a bigger room than you’d imagine.

The rest of the frequency range is also superb. The dynamics and openness allows the music to emerge free from the speakers. My regular listening panel were very impressed with the Audience 52 – “absolutely gobsmacked” was one comment.

Looking at the performance of the Audience 52 in relation to some recently reviewed speakers is illuminating. Matthew Masters reviewed the next model up the range, the Audience 62, in June 2006. Both Matthew and I found that the smaller 52 is by far the better speaker than its bigger, floorstanding brother. This is not unusual, as the bottom floorstanding model in many speaker ranges is often not as strong a performer as its bookshelf brethren.

Another recent review, again by Matthew, was the locally made Image 412. Again, I’d choose the more expensive Audience 52. The biggest difference was in the tonal balance. The 412 dives surprisingly deep in the bass for a smallish floorstander, but the whole bass region is depressed in level compared to the mids and tops, making the 412 sound lean. In contrast, the Audience 52 has a lot more meat on the bones, even though it is a small bookshelf speaker. The 52’s sound is what I was expecting from the Image 412.

The Audience 52 is a speaker that deserves to be heard. So give it your attention.

For your nearest DynAudio dealer

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