Soundstage,midrange,room placement, oooooooh that bass!!!

vinyl cover,run in period

In my opinion easily the best speaker in this price bracket
(so there What HiFi!). I so much wanted to like the LInn Keilidh's , they are beatifully made and get 5 stars for
WAF factor,but I found vocals to be somewhat shut in.I had
already auditioned the Audience 60's by this time and considered purchasing them and adding a sub at a later stage, to satisfy my craving for more low end power, but the 70's solved this problem, and saved the hassle of explaining/positioning the 'black box'. The 70's are a very
neutral speaker and do not colour music in any way. They also do not seem too fussy about room placement, but will take approx 100 hours of running in so audition a pair with lots of hours on them.
The best of the lot in my opinion......



System
Musical Fidelity A3 CD
Musical Fidelity A3 integrated amp
QED Genesis silver spiral interconnects
Supra PLY 3.4 speaker cable

Similar Products Used:

Epos ES22 , Linn Keilidh , various Proac's, Studio Monitor
20 SE's etc........

Sound and price

Can be harsh on some tracks

I Listened to these at the first store I tried. We worked up from the 50s, 60s and then the 70's. I knew right away I liked these the 70s the best because of the extra bass. The 80's though bigger, have a different crossover frequency and did not sound as good in the Bass. Also the 70s go to 27k and the 80s only go to 23k or 24k, something like that, so the sizzle I crave was not as pronounced.

Went shoping for B&W, paradigm and others who I can't remember. Everytime I would drive back to the original store with the thought I couldn't have liked them that much, and everytime I was instantly smittten with them again. I tried the contour 1.3, it is the same configuration as the 70 in the contour line. Though they sounded great, just like the 70, just a little more dynamic, a little faster, a little more controlled. The little bit of improvement was not worth the extra money to me.

Before now, the only speaker I really loved was the Maggies 1.6, but was always put off by how big and far out in the room they needed to sit, how much power they power they needed to sound right. The Dynaudio is the only box speaker I have heard that gives me almost all the imaging and spaciousness of the Maggies and I can drive them with just a good receiver. I tried them with a $1,800 stereo amp, and on most songs they sounded just through the receiver. So I would say they are forgiving of what you play them through with the exception of my comments are their brightness below.

To critique them a little bit. They sound better with simpler music, then with really complex music. On some tracks something in the upper mid-range sounds a little "choked" sometimes. I am really reaching here, since one of the things I like about the Dynaudion in general is smooth the sound moves from bass, to mid to highs. They are fairly forgiving of poorly recorded music. Better than some, worse than others in that respect. Over all a very balanced, easy to like speaker, with no glaring faults.

They can sound a little bright on some horns, female vocal parts etc. I was just careful to pick other components that were a little more musical, like the Onkyo receiver over the Yamaha, and a Cambridge CD player over a NAK and a Yamaha, and now I never think they are too bright.

What sealed it for me is that I get goose bumps listening to speakers more than any other speaker I tried.

I was in another store where a guy was getting ready to close on some B&W (much more expensive) and I convinced him to go try the Dynaudios, which were just down the street. He ended up getting the Audience 80's.

5 stars because it is my favorite speakers under $3k, that I have heard (and only $1,600) but I give them 4 because there is always something better.

Similar Products Used:

Anything I could find between $1k and $3k a pair

Dynamics, smooth highs, low end slam and nice build.

Require powerful amplification to perform their best. Not biwireable should this matter to some.

After months of searching and a couple of mistakes along the way, I ended up purchasing the A-70s which impressed me at the start of the entire ordeal.

The Danes are powerful and smooth performers with very satisfying bass output for what is a medium sized floorstander. Without question, these speakers employ high internal quality components and much better than those found in many competing products at their price and much higher, IMO.

I also was impressed with the external build quality of the A-70s. The vinyl covering is of high quality and the 1/4" aluminum fascia which is tapered towards the bottom, is quite impressive in my view. Overall, it is apparent that these speakers where constructed with quality materials and attention to the details.

Highs are always smooth and totally lack the grain and harshness that I found in many other speakers, specially certain models employing metal dome tweets. The speakers provide little if any color to recordings and find their dynamics well, addictive. Combine the smooth highs with the powerful and tight low end slam provided by the twin 6.5" drivers and the speakers are simply a delight to listen to on most types music. Speaking of music, I listen to everything with the exception of rap.

I will say that the Danes will require powerful amplification to sound their best. I initially powered the A-70s with an upper tier Harman/Kardon receiver capable of driving 4 ohm loads and that was okay. I felt the speakers were definitely being held back, specially in the bass region. In comes a Madrigal/Citation 7.1 which delivers 240W @ 4 ohms with all four channels driven and viola. The A-70s totally opened up with much more air, definition and dimension to instruments. Low end slam improved to the point where it felt I had added a quality small sub to my system.

In conclusion, I have absolutely no regrets having purchased these outsatanding speakers. I suggest they be placed on the short, short auditioning list for those looking to purchase floorstanders in this price range and above.

Thanks Dynaudio!

Similar Products Used:

a/d/s/, Monitor Audio and auditioned much in this price range and $1K or so above..

Clarity, uniform frequency response through out, nature and honest reproduction of music. Very well build, the best speakers for music under $5000. And the best speakers for HT under $2000. For one word, it is the element in your system to make you forget of your system and enjoy the music.

narrow space between the two binding post. who would mind to use pair of connected bananas on these speakers anyway? wish to get Contour style binding posts.

The speakers to keep!

Similar Products Used:

B&W, Paradigm, Polk, NHT

Musical, Dynamic & Neutral.

Low sensitivity.

I have used the A70 for about a year and still find it an amazing pair of speakers for its price.

When shopping for a pair of new main speakers last year, I auditioned a few pair of speakers such as AR S50, AR S40, B&W 603S2, Aaron ATS4, Aaron ATS5 and a few other floor standers in the US500.00 price range but I didn't like anyone of them in particular. However I found the AR S40 to be really good at its price. Just before I put my money on the S40, I went into another shop and auditioned a few more speakers in this price range without any "statisfaction". The sales person then suggested me to listen to Dynaudio A70, but at US1,100.00 per piece I refused straight away, saying it was out of my budget. However he still demo'ed the speakers to me and WHALLA! Istant love at first audition! It just make music, I mean MUSIC. Music just sounds "right" on these speakers while the other just seemed to have weak points here and there. Not this one! So I coughed up the extra US600 without any hesitatation and bought the thing.

I have recently auditioned its new brother A72. The A72 is good and sounds very similar to A70 but somehow it is not as musical as A70 IMO - may be due to different equipment used and not enough running in, kinda restraint in its sound, albeit very slightly.

Anyway, excellent speakers at an excellent price.

Associated equipment:
Dynaudio Audience 70
Musical Fidelity A3CR Power Amp
Denon AVR-2801 Receiver
Yamaha DVD-S510 DVD Player
Klotz LaGrange Interconnect
TaraLabs Speaker Cable

Similar Products Used:

Krix Lyrix (Australian made).

High level of detail, liquid mids and tight low end performance. Small foot print.

For the most part, receivers need not apply. These guys require clean 4ohm power to sing.

The Dynaudios are exceptional speakers and truly live up to their billing while many others simply do not, IMO. The 70s have a combination of high level of detail(compliments of the excellent D28/2 tweeter), accuracy, liquid mids & tight low end performance which is truly exceptional for such a small speaker in this price range. These guys tell it how it is and as a result, do an excellent job at not coloring the musical performance.

In my view, the 70s do an exceptional job with just about any type of music I've thrown at them. Many other speakers I auditioned excelled with cetain music while lacking with others. The kicker for these speakers is their abundance of high level detail they deliver, assuming the front end is of good quality, while never fatiguing the listener over a long listening sessions.

I also found it reassuring purchasing a speaker from a manufacturer in which one knows exactly what components are being used. Head over to the web site, and there one finds much info on the construction of the cabinets, x-overs, drivers, tweeters and the manufacturing process. The company's line is that Danes don't lie. I would like to add that they certainly don't hyde much either.:) The Danes appear to be very well built with an obvious attention to the details.

All in all, excellent all around performers which offer a comparatively inexpensive ticket to high level music reproduction. Accuracy, detail, coherence throughout the frequency range and tight slam at a resonable cost, is a difficult combination to beat.

Happy Holidays.

Similar Products Used:

Spent quite of bit of time auditioning just about everything out there in the $1 to $3k range.

beautiful music reproduction

to sound at their considerable very best requires deep power resources

I've passed the year mark on these speakers now and thought I'd report back that the initial bloom hasn't faded. Check out Tech Talk and see how many of us don't respect our 'best ever' speakers after just a little while. The Audience 70's are a remarkable value at the price and after a year I have not listened to anything comparable that has come along since then that I like as well. My extreme thanks to the folks on this site who originally persuaded me to go audtion these speakers!!! Again, if you like your music to sound the way it was recorded (sometimes not good!)with no added coloring or gimmicks, give these or the new 72's a listen.

Similar Products Used:

see earlier review

I bought the Audience 70s about two months ago after listening to every speaker I could find in the Washington D.C. area in the 1K to 2K range (B&W CDM7, JM Lab Cobalt 815, Magnepan 12, Vandersteen 2CE, PSB Stratus Silver etc). The Audience 70s were the clear winners in my subjective evalution. These are great speakers! They have amazing resolution with a very balanced sound that works with a wide variety of music. They simply blow away the Def-Tech BP-8s I used to own. While they are foremost a music speaker, check-out the recent review in HT Review. There are 3 caveats concerning these speakers. First, Dynaudios require a long time to break-in, so make sure you audition a pair that has extensive use. Oherwise they may sound bright and somewhat thin. Second, they are very revealing of deficiencies in your electronics. Third, they require a lot of power to open up. I am currently using a Parasound 1500A (205/ch 8 ohms).
Overall, I am extemely happy with these speakers. They may look plain with their vinyl finish, but they deliver the goods where it counts. Definitly 5 stars!

The Audience 70 are great speakers, well defined bass and midrange. But you got to connect them to really good equipment, else they will sound thin and hard. But if you have a good cd and a good amp, these speakers will sound big and detailed.Five stars!

I recently had the oppourtunity to audition these speakers at the local dealer and I was amazed. These speakers produce a clear, full sound which I found to be completely satisfying for the types of music I listen to - mainly modern hard rock, but also music like Ani Difranco and Sarah McLachlan. From the female vocalist CDs which I took along to listen to, I sensed an emotional component of the music which I had never before experienced. And no, I'm not selling a pair of these and I don't work for Dynaudio. I listened to both a Sony XA20ES, and a Cal Audio CL-10. The signal was running through a Denon PMA2000 integrated amp. I don't know what the interconnects were, and the speaker cable was cheapo no name. You might be able to get the dealer to knock 10% or so off list, but that's about it from my experience.