Last november 7th, the designteam of DAUDIO Dipole loudspeakers and the Native DSD artistic & technical team tested the performance of the Daudio W1 Dipole loudspeaker in both Stereo and Multichannel setups.
Suspended design
The W1 is 3-way loudspeaker system. The high frequency unit consist of an Airmotion transformer originating from Mundorf. The eye-cathing Dipole unit is suspended in free air with 4 cables to the speaker at ear-height while listening . Above the HF unit is a 18 cm midrange unit originating from Audio-Technology. It is a design from their C-Quenze series. The bass range is performed by a pair of Seas 25 cm membranes. The construction of the Heil transformer based HF unit is very special. It hovers free to accentuate the designers wish to decouple the unit from any baffle of some kind. In this way the Dipole can emit its energy uninterrupted. Dipole designs are best imagined as a figure 8 where the energy in both front and the back is equally emitted. As a perfect doublet perpendicular to the speaker enclosure. This addresses the design outset of freely emitting high frequency energy.
Sourced from a MacBook, .dsf audio files were available in both 2.0 stereo and 5.0 multichannel formats from NativeDSD.com. The control, crossovers, and poweramps are also by Daudio design. We also used Daudio designed loudspeaker cables. Per loudspeaker 2 poweramps were employed. XLO Ultra 2S interlinks provided connection beween control unit and crossover/main amps.
More information over at http://daudio.nl/en/products/
Listening in stereo 2.0
We started with the Just Listen recording: 8 Ensembles in 1 Bit. This very atmospheric 256fs DSD recording utilised the W1 strengths very well. A natural balance in direct sound field and ambiance is presented without any obvious highlighting in the overall representation. Ivan Fisher’s BFO Mahler 9 went from strength to strength and was handled by the Daudio setup very handsomely. The various instruments in this orchestral recording were easy to spot aurally. The Bolivian musical spell of harmonics and rhythms were transferred convincingly.
The multichannel playback experience
The results were immediately obvious: greater 3D sound field transparency, more dynamic control with refined contrast. A more layered presentation also means greater inner detail in musical interrelationships. Add less coloration to enhance the resolving power. Another important advantage is the much lowered influence of room acoustics on the listening experience.
The result of these speakers was very satisfying. The people in the room that were experiencing the 5.0 playback for the first time were astonished by the increased tangibility of the performance. We look forward to working with Daudio in the future!
Technical information
Frequency range: 20 – 22.000 Hz
Crossover frequencies: 150 Hz and 2350 Hz
Efficiency: 87 dB / 2,83 V / 1 m
The passively filtered mid-high combination can be driven at full power by a (tube) amplifier that can deliver 30W to 6 ohms. The impedance curve of the mid-high combination shows a very friendly course, no impedance correction is needed.
Dimensions wxdxh: 30,6 x 30,6 x 100 cm
More information over at http://daudio.nl/en/products/
DAC’s used for the session
For the test we used an exaSound e28, a Roma 69DC and a Leema Accoustics Libra DAC.
(more details about the differences when using these will be pasted here shortly).
Amps
The Daudio ASP/AMP is a 2 channel high quality amplifier with integrated active filter, specifically designed to let the speaker show what it is capable of. It gets the very best out of the loudspeaker and no additional power amplifier is required. You can put your own high end amplifier on the mid/high section, if you already own one and if you would like to continue to use it. For this application the Daudio ASP/AMP could be configured to drive only the bass and in this case each of the 2 woofers in the loudspeaker will have their own amplifier. The ASP/AMP is supplied in an elegant and compact housing of only 24cm wide and 5cm high.
Technical information for the amp:
ASP principle of operation: analog active filtering and equalizing
Input impedance: 100kΩ
Crossover frequency: 150Hz
AMP principle of operation: UcD (Universal class D amplifier)
Output power per amplifier module: 250W/4Ω, 180W/8Ω
Distortion (0 – 20kHz): 0,02% (0,002% at 1W/4Ω and 0,001% at 1W/8Ω)
Dimensions hxbxd: 5,0 x 23,6 x 29,0 cm
