A real Dynaudio for a measly €600? No way! I thought. But the next evolutionary step of the Emit series that’s been on sale since october 2015 set me straight.
The Emit series comprises a floor-standing speaker, two bookshelf versions and a center speaker. The line paves the way to all sorts of possible uses, ranging from home theaters to a high-end second system. Even the M10, a speaker not much bigger than a shoebox, will immediately strike you as a dyed-in-the-wool Dynaudio . Clear forms, elegant finishes, a woofer membrane made of magnesiumsilicate polymer (MSP) and a fine soft-dome tweeter have been the hallmarks of the company’s higherend speaker series and a key to their success as well. When I first saw the speakers, I couldn’t believe just how much speaker you could get on a student’s budget.
And before the smallest Dane in the family left home, its sisters shared a few secrets with it. The back of the speaker includes a large ventilation port that delivers the volume you need in the lower end. Those who think this may be too much of a good thing can close the opening by using the enclosed plugs. The reward: a crisper kick bass. The secret to the M10’s bass volume is the location you choose for the speakers. When you put the Emit on a stand and locate it a short distance from a wall, it sounds a little thin in the fundamental range. But I was taken at once by the transparentairy reproduction on the upper end. The type of amplifier I chose from my collection to connect to the speaker hardly mattered at all. As broad-minded as it is, the tiny speaker handles just about every single amp at an amplifier-friendly nominal impedance of six ohms. The M10 doesn’t care much whether transistors or tubes are used to generate the power, as long as 25 watts are available.
The small speakers really entered a world of their own once they were moved into the dining room. There, I set them up at ear height on a nicely filled Expedit shelf. I plugged the reflex opening and then connected the speakers to a Yamaha Pianocraft compact system. The M10 proceeded to shame the original Yamaha speakers, in spite of their subwoofer support, into the very last winding of their voice coils. With back-up support from the shelf itself, the reproduction of Cecilia . Bartoli’s “St. Petersburg” was more than ample, given the cost of this system. In the evening, Joe Bonamassa’s “Burning Hell” was called on to put Dynaudio’s real bass abilities to the test. The first beat simply has to explode at exactly the right point here. OK, you can’t exactly rock the house to its very foundations with the M10.
But it was enough for my partner to ask just why somebody needed to invest a fortune in a music room when you can get such good sound from such a “cute little guy.” As usual, she just might be onto something.