Mad as a box of frogs.

[Neilb]

It's a strange thing that in the UK specialist highend audio outlets are hard to find but in HCM another one seems to open every month. I counted 6 last month and all within a square kilometer. We are not talking the cheap stuff here either.

I went into the latest place on Saturday evening. Plinius, Hovland, Tannoy westimisters and Kingdom's (pretty cool those I have to say), Cary, Pass X1000 mono's, Top of the range Thiels and the Brand New Luxman stuff which is pretty nice looking stuff anda major departure, designwise, from their previous stuff.

The product which really poked my eyes out though were the Dynaudio Confidence C1 standmounts. It's funny how different things are in the flesh compared to their photo's. These go back about 50 cm's!!!!! Have to be the deepest standmounts I have ever seen! Has anybody heard these?? They are way too rich for me coming in at an eyewatering 8500 US dollars!! The dedicated black chrome stands sure were dandy though. I just wandered if the radical baffles actually did anything.

[Neilb]

The other product which really shocked me was the Dynaudio Special 25. Like an old contour but we are talking MASSIVE!!! So much bigger than I expected. Does anybody use these?? I hear many swear by them. Again very expensive. 6000 dollars I seem to recall. I thought,'that can't be right surely'. These really are big. Woppers! I had no idea from the photo's.It's a pity they don't do the exotic finishes anymore as the standard finish I saw (blond maple) looked a bit pedestrian for the money. I know they are for listening not looking at but still. Would love to hear these though. I do like meaty standmounts.

[JCL]

Ummm....

Those Confidence C1's are a right pile of lifestyle shite. Serious money for drive units that are smaller than the ones in my crappy car. The 25's look a better but you still need 500w to get the best out of them.

Sod that.

[JANDL100]

I've heard the larger Confidence speakers at Shows several times in quite decent seming rooms - the last time were C4's (I think?) driven by a humungous Plinius amp.

......



(I'm not a Dynaudio fan )

[Neilb]

There were some Humungous Plinius amps in the room I saw them in. They were actually using a Plinius Pre and it was that big I thought it was a power amp!!!

Plinius stuff isn't cheaper here like most other stuff though. If anything it's more expensive!I walked out with tears welling in my eye's after thy told me the price! A Damn shame as it looks like very nice stuff indeed.

I have to say the C1's were sounding quite nice but it was hard to judge as they were playing Hotel California by The Eagles. FFS!! what is it with High end dealers and their shit music???!!!!!

[JANDL100]

Neilb wrote:

I have to say the C1's were sounding quite nice but it was hard to judge as they were playing Hotel California by The Eagles. FFS!! what is it with High end dealers and their shit music???!!!!!

And what, pray, is wrong with Hotel California?

Great song, that.

[Neilb]

JANDL100 wrote:

Neilb wrote:

I have to say the C1's were sounding quite nice but it was hard to judge as they were playing Hotel California by The Eagles. FFS!! what is it with High end dealers and their shit music???!!!!!

And what, pray, is wrong with Hotel California?

Great song, that.

For some reason every country has it's own unofficial working class anthem. Here it's Hotel California. Every time you get in a cab or mini bus here the drivers just can't wait to play itfor you at top volume whilst turning towards you grinning to give you the thumbs up.

Makes me feel like kicking the woofers in every time I hear it now!!

To all the cab drivers of Vietnam. Get another fucking cd!!!!

[padi89]

This bloke has them in his closet , looks like a moon amp too

[Neilb]

padi89 wrote:

This bloke has them in his closet , looks like a moon amp too

Now theres a picture to place next to the word 'overkill' in the dictionaryHarry Potters wet dream.

Still, whatever makes you happy.

[anubisgrau]

neither i like dyna's (had C1.4 less than a month before i sold it long time ago) however C1 is an excellent speaker, heard it with a moon amp and it left me very surprised with an overall quality. it doesn't sound like a 2-way at all.

[Jezzer]

padi89 wrote:

This bloke has them in his closet , looks like a moon amp too

Outrageous!

[padi89]

"I now have a young daughter and my wife took away my office and converted it in to a guest room :-( Luckily for me, I am a master debater and was able to successfully negotiate for access to the two hallway closets downstairs"

I would have ditched the wife.

There's a Bel Canto DAC 3 in there too



http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr...amp;zzdynaudio

[meninblack]

LOL, I thought the system on my 'pooter was silly (Rotel Michi pre/power driving Tannoy Autograph minis) but this bloke should get some knid of award!

Dyn/Plinius not a good pairing IME, much better with Moon. I'd have the special 25s over the C1s myself... ;)

[Q]

I have heard the C1's sound truly amazing, but like most Dynaudios, they do like a rather large amount of current feeding them. C1s can show up some shortcomings in much larger speakers, given an amp capable of driving them correctly. Some say it's a design flaw in modern speakers demanding so much power... me, I just take em for what they are and what they can do.

Yes, I live with the 25s (in a not particularly large room) and the only thing I would move away from them to would be the C4s or better- yes, they are that good.

Jezzer - if you are refering to the Brizzle show some years ago the Plinius was feeding a pair of C2s and along with the room - wasn't anywhere near as good as they can actually sound.

I find the C2 / C4 imaging a little hard to get on with till accustomed for a song or two - then you realise that height can actually do a lot!

No getting away from it though - 25s and a juicy amp are truly stunning.

All just my own opinion etc...

[Neilb]

I was reading stereophile last night and they were reviewing the latest usher standmount. Quite an expensive one. He thought the C1 was a pretty special speaker refered to it as his standmount reference. He thought it was worth every penny.

Would love to try a pair of the special 25's. I like speakers with those kind of dimensions. large standmounts. Big enough but small enough at the same time. Big enough to do serious bass and scale but can still work in a smaller room.

[Markus]

The Special 25 is excellent but hard to get right. The C1 is even better but much easier to get right; very expensive to get right, though, because it tells you an awful lot about what it's fed with. Neither is a spreaker for fans of Kans or Kytes.