BUILT TO BE ACTIVE

Among connoisseurs of higher end speakers there’s a perception that if you were choosing between active studio monitors and passive speakers paired with separate amplifiers, the latter combination would be the best way to go. There’s logic to those claims: a separate amplifier doesn’t interfere with the spatial design of the box, an onboard Class D amplifier couldn’t possibly outperform a Class AB Bryston, and so on. But these days it’s harder to blindly stand by those arguments, given that active monitors are a tightly designed system of box, speaker, DSP and amplifier. If Dynaudio was to make a passive version of its Core series, everything about the driver construction would be different.

The Core series uses Class D amplifiers from Pascal, and a 64-bit DSP chip from Analog Devices. The drivers and enclosures are all designed and manufactured from the ground up by Dynaudio, allowing control of the entire response of the system – from optimising the driver’s suspension, voice coil and magnet structure to suit the enclosure and amplification, right through to final DSP tweaks. Dynaudio also built a new testing facility, dubbed Jupiter, which allows the R&D teams to measure and improve their prototypes quicker and more often.

FOR AIRHEADS

While a lot of digital processing is going on, it seems that – in contrast to the Air series – Dynaudio is downplaying Core’s onboard DSP. It’s still there, but you access it via rear panel switches rather than front panel LCDs, and the settings are typically wide-band rather than phase-mashing minute corrections.

On the way in, you can opt for analogue or AES digital connections, both on XLR connectors. If you opt for digital, you simply flip a switch to decide which channel of the stereo data stream the speaker should play – Left or Right. There’s no sample rate conversion onboard: the Core series supports native resolutions at all the major stops between 32k and 192k. If you switch the sample rates of your playback material, the system will automatically detect the change, mute the speakers and come back to life half a second later at the new rate. There’s also a BNC Word Clock input to keep everything in sync.

Unlike the AIR series with their front panel LCD screens, the only front panel indicator on the Core series is a single LED. In normal operation, it’s green. At amplifier clip it goes red, input clipping detection sends it to orange, and thermal protection is signified by a pulsing red followed by a 6dB reduction in level. It also pulses green when Word Clock and AES lose sync, before shutting off.

There are three frequency ‘taste’ settings, called Sound Balance, to slightly tailor your sound: Dark, Natural and Bright. This tilts the entire spectrum by 1.5dB at either end, using a minimal phase filter to either brighten or darken the overall response without introducing any phase anomalies. It’s a great control to have. Rather than getting caught in a rabbit warren of separately adjusting bass, middle and low frequencies, Dynaudio is essentially saying ‘we’ve got it right, but if your room is excessively bright or dark, try this.’ It’s not a huge difference, but a nice way of adding tonal variation while limiting the need to get too tweaky.

The rest of the rear panel switches include placement options for Free, Wall and Corner, and the rule of thumb here is 50cm. Within 50cm of a wall? Go with Wall. Within 50cm of a corner? Go with Corner. Beyond that, keep it on Free. There are three more placement considerations labelled Anechoic, Desk and Soffit. Desk is self-explanatory. Anechoic isn’t a setting for anechoic chambers but for well-treated studios, and Soffit is for when the speaker is mounted in a wall cavity.

UP FRONT ABOUT SOUND

The Core series speakers all use bass reflex enclosures with front-facing ports that extend almost the width of the cabinet (with the exception of the sub, which uses a sealed enclosure). The reflex portion of the Core 7 seems to work well. Low end is always problematic in less than ideal environments, but I couldn’t get them to show any detectable port noise. As you’d expect of a bass reflex design, taking a peek behind the driver assembly doesn’t show a whole lot. There’s a slight divide in the cabinet between the woofer and tweeter sections with some high-density foam lining the cavity. Looking inside most speaker boxes is fairly underwhelming unless you’re privy to the countless hours of modelling to get to that point. Beauty in simplicity.

I’ve come to appreciate front-ported designs more as time goes on, especially for untreated or moderately-treated spaces, mainly because you know what you’re getting. Rear porting seems to change the response of the speaker more depending on the environment it’s placed in – changing anything about the speaker’s position or the surrounding surfaces can significantly alter the response of the system. They’re also just less flexible in placement. Front-ported monitors like the Core series are very happy to sit against a wall, which is handy in smaller spaces (accompanying acoustic issues aside). Also, with the modelling available to designers these days, low end extension can be achieved without having too much of a resonant bump.

The Core 7’s frequency response goes from 45Hz to 27kHz (±3dB). For those wondering how low that goes in terms of music, using a sub synth I found that the tone starts to drop off at G, two octaves below Middle C. The F# is still relatively prominent, and gradually tapers off until you hear no low tone at C (three octaves down). A lot of smaller speakers can reach a similar low frequency but it can sound artificially supported by the port, creating high points and deader spots throughout that last octave. The low end response will also usually fall off a cliff beyond that point. The Core 7 holds it together well, right down to where it tails off gently. It seems quite accurate and happy to live down low. 

UNDER COVER OF DOMENESS

The dome tweeter is an impressive beast, offering great accuracy and an effortless natural tone. Dynaudio has always done a great job of presenting the critical vocal range, and the crossovers never get in the way. On the Core 7 the crossover point is pushed up to around 2.3kHz. There’s no masking of high frequencies, delay tails are all there, and discerning between layered percussion is made simple.

CONCLUSION

The Core 7’s feel great to listen to and mix on. The imaging is spot-on, there’s a super wide sweet spot, and they’re really consistent off-axis.

There’s a bit of competition around this price point but, rest assured, you can’t get this level of sound quality at the moment without leaping into that price territory. If you want to hear the reality of your mix, there’s a cost to getting that detail.

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Dynaudio is adding two new models to the Core reference series, introduced at the 2019 NAMM show. Core 47 is a compact three-way monitor with a 7-inch woofer, a dedicated 4-inch midrange driver and the new 28mm Esotar Pro tweeter. Core Sub is a powered subwoofer with four 9-inch long-throw woofers and 2x 500 watts of power.

Core is the most revealing reference monitor series in Dynaudio history: breathtaking accuracy for when every single detail must be heard in order to make wise mixing decisions. It introduces new technologies in all areas that focus entirely on reproducing the most accurate sound possible – everything producers need to hear.

THE MONITOR THAT MAKES STUDIO LIFE EASIER

“Core 47 fills the gap between the Core 7 and Core 59 models,” says Dynaudio Pro product manager Rune Jacobsen.

“Its footprint is comparable to Core 7, but it’s a three-way design with a dedicated midrange driver for the absolute highest degree of detail when reproducing sound in this critical frequency area. It features the same DSP options as the rest of the Core monitors and packs power to deliver SPL that will meet the needs of any producer or sound engineer. 

Core Sub is tailored to be the ideal low-frequency partner to any Core-based set-up. With four long-throw woofers and 1000W of power it delivers powerful and reliable low-frequency reproduction regardless of whether it’s part of a master stack, or a surround sound or immersive speaker setup with height and overhead channels.”

Prototypes of Core 47’s sister speakers, Core 7 and Core 59, were put through their paces in an active recording environment in the Dynaudio Unheard studio at Denmark’s Smukfest music festival in 2018, as well as during NAMM 2019. Lessons learned from those real-world tests, in combination with painstaking measurement in Dynaudio’s Jupiter test facility, were invaluable in creating the final products.

Core 47 and Core Sub have digital inputs (AES3) and support up to 24-bit/192 kHz signals, and the internal DSP (digital signal processor) operates at the same high level when using the analogue inputs.

The series is also designed for flexible positioning. Depending on the studio environment, monitors might need to be placed sideways or upside down, which might mean less-than-perfect contact with the surface area. Core solves this issue with four indentations on each side and a set of special pads to fit them. Dynaudio has also designed a bracket for Core 47 for wall or ceiling installation. With the appropriate adapter it can also double as a desk-stand. 

Core 47 and Core Sub features state-of-the-art Pascal class-D amplifiers chosen after a series of intensive listening tests. Their high-frequency smoothness, unlimited power resources and stellar dynamics made the difference.

The two additions to the Core range couple extreme accuracy with astonishing consistency. When measured precisely, all Core speakers are tuned to match perfectly within a very narrow 0.2 dB tolerance.

HIGH-PERFORMANCE TESTING

All Dynaudio monitors are developed, designed, tested and made in Skanderborg, Denmark – and key components, including drivers and tweeters, are made by hand in Skanderborg as well. 

The Core series is the first Dynaudio Pro range to have been fully developed in the company’s advanced new R&D centre, Dynaudio Labs. Jupiter, its 13 x 13 x 13 metre measuring room, is a state-of-the-art facility, and is especially beneficial when developing active speakers. Measuring both on- and off-axis performance can now be done in minutes rather than days – letting engineers get on with the work of prototyping and listening rather than waiting for numbers to crunch.