Price Paid:  $2000.00 from store

Summary:
No Speaker is Better than Dynaudio, not ribbon speakers, not even planar magnetic, Dynaudio speakers sound real not overy and unrealistically sharp like planar's but like music and voices actually sound in real life...imageing is first rate, highs are perfect, mids are perfect and bass is perfect...not bloated but realistic and true to the sourse. These speakers will let you know exactly what your weak link is, change a cable, change a amp or anything up stream and you can hear the difference. You will need a very good amp with power to bring out the truth in these speakers and if your other components arent up to par you wont be doing them justice either. Point is the better components you have [amp,pre-amp,cd player, wires] the better sound you will get...I can truely see these speakers holding their gound with any speaker given quality sources with the right synergy.

Strengths:
EVERYTHING!!!!!!!

Weaknesses:
EVERYTHING THEY ARE CONNECTED TOO

Similar Products Used:
Magnapan, Klipsch, Theil, etc.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I am writing this review a year after I bought these speakers. I just needed a break since I spent almost a year trying to find a speaker under $2500 that'd be worth it. I tried a lot: * B&W 600 series - Really really bad as an entry level speaker line from a respected brand. * B&W CDM 7NT - Good highs, light bass, boxy sound that is not present in Nautilus series. * B&W N804 - I liked them a lot. Bass a bit weak maybe. Great speakers tough. Only if they weren't $3500. * Meadowlark Kestrel - Might be good for audiophile stuff (jazz vocals etc.) but not good enough for regular music (soft rock, pop etc.) * Paradigm Monitor series - Don't buy them. Get Polk Audio instead. * Paradigm Studio 100 - Best Paradigm speaker, good, but not good enough. * PSB Gold-i - nice overall sound, great bass, lacks detail in high and mid. freq. Altough they're good, I can't call them high and after missing all the detail. * Revel M20 - Wow. Good bass for a monitor; but not a full-range speaker. Better than N805. * Thiel 1.2 - Might have good detail but * * Revel M20 is way better at a similar price. * Klipsch RF-3 - Nice sound, highs are definitely not accurate and detail is missing. But the best overall sound under $800. How about Dynaudio Audience 80? Audience series is the cheapest line of Dynaudio; so I didn't expect them to sound this good; after wittnesing that entry level of B&W (600 series) has nothing in common in sound with the more expensive models (CDM and Nautilus series). I see that Dynaudio did not compramise in sound and quality even at their cheapest line; they are still Dynaudios with similar tweeters and midrange drivers in structure, as the ones in Contour and Evidence series. Sound is very detailed, bass is tight. It has the 'nice' sound over all freq. range like the PSB Gold along with the detail of Nautilus N804. Simply amazing. One other thing is the nice build quality. Grills are not plastic, the whole cabinet is mounted on a base with 4 feet, and the base has 4 spike feet. Grills can be attached at the back, when not in use. Altough not real wood, finish is wonderful; and I am more than willing to trade the looks for built and sound quality. This is THE speaker with the highest value, one that comes with great sound and built quality at the lowest price possible. Sorry to say this, but none of the above speakers I mentioned except B&W N804 is worth to keep; they can't even compete with my Sennheiser HD600 headphones; well Audience 80 and N804 can.

Strengths:
Sound is detailed and covers all freq. range. Very detailed and strong highs, detailed midrange, very tight base. Built quaility is superb. Built on a base stand. Grill can be attached at the back.

Weaknesses:
Absolutely none for the price.

Similar Products Used:
Extensively auditoned all above.

Price Paid:  $2400.00

Summary:
THe best...damn near I have heard a lot of speakers, I have no idea what the some of the people below thought, the best the speaker deserves to be in a different class, this speaker competes with speakers costing $5,000 + easy. The midrange is so revealing, I orget I am listening to a speaker. That is impressive! The bass is very natural not over bearing and can play loud if needed...very very loud. Excellent don't be fooled by speakers costing more these speakers will spank them!

Strengths:
Everything!!!

Weaknesses:
Nothing, except that the finish is not real wood but only you will know.

Similar Products Used:
B&W, Matin Logan, Thiel, Alon, Genesis, Energy, harbeth

Summary:
Recently, I have been in search for a speaker set. I was trying to look for the best overall speaker for both music listening and home theater and at the best possible value. I have read many reviews about many different speakers here in audioreview.com. And now that I have finally purchased a new set of speakers, I feel that I must contribute something to audioreview.com. Please keep in mind that these are strictly my opinion. Please trust your ear (and watch your pocket) before you buy.
There are many speakers (perhaps too many speakers) out there and all of them seem to claim that theirs are the best. My old pair of speakers are American made (Infinity). So this time, I want something different. This time, I looked at European speakers, primarily British made. This is not to say that the American made is not good. But for the same given set of speakers, I can get better value for British speakers, at least in the country where I live.

In the last four or five months that I have been in search of a speaker set, I have auditioned different speakers at different price levels. This includes B&W CDM 7SE, Mission 753F, KEF Reference Model 2, NHT 2.5I, Boston Acoustics VR760, Dynaudio Audience 80, Dynaudio Contour 1.8MkII, Vienna Acoustics Mozart, Vienna Acoustics Haydn

A lot of people have said about how wonderful Dynaudio drivers are. I myself have a set of Dynaudio speakers in my car. And I must say, it is worth every praise. Every components of Dynaudio spekaers are manufactured in-house. The company claims that it used the best component available. This seems to be the case with the drivers.

The Audience 80 performs impressively with both music and H/T environments. The music characteristic is typical of the Dynaudio line: Clean, dynamic, detailed, and are very enjoyable to listen to. The sonic quality is inferior the the Contour Series though.

The built of the Audience is another story. At this price, I would expect a real wood finish. Instead, it is vinyl finish, which I dislike. But if you don't mind the built and care for sound regardless of price-value. This speaker really is a good choice for music and H/T.

Summary:
I have the Dynaudio Audience 9, a three way floor standing full range transducerThe first thing I should say is that Dynaudio products need power to fully bloom. The associated equiptment is Adcom CD player, Adcom Pre-amp, Hafler Amp and all cables are Kimber. Out of the box they sounded good, a little tight but still good, so I left the house with them playing some break in tunes. When I returned some 9hrs later I thought someone was in the house! There was talking on the CD and it sounded so real, but my anxiety quickly turned into a smile when I recongized the CD and hurried downstairs to listen. The sound blew me away, even though they were still not close to being completely broken in and during the next week all the weaknesses in my system showed up. These speakers are TRUE to the source, they reveal everything in a system and yes even if you change the outlets to a hospital grade outlet as I have done they will reveal that too. Needless to say I have found that my other equiptment is not worthy of such a speaker so I have upgraded to a Crown Studio Ref. amp 555watts/per and a Manley Labs Puriest tube Pre-amp. and JL Labs interconnects. I have found that professional products really deliver the goods, if not more over consumer gear. So now I am in audio heaven. Dynaudio RULES!