Veeren, thank you for the information. I'm having X18 for a week, and as my ears are accustomed to it, I like it more. Well, much more. I think it IS a very well designed small speaker. Driven by Hypex, they sound very refined and clean. I applied very small amount of EQ based on the quick measurement in the room, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary. I'll try active crossover next year, something like Focus 20 XD. It is the best way for me to correct time/phase alignment. I'll report about it.
Regarding the units, I think you're correct. They are different. They call X18 woofer/tweeter Esotec+, which is probably something between Esotec and Esotar.
Anyway, what I don't understand is, why Dynaudio keeps releasing so many different small speakers. Those small speakers share very similar units and enclosures. Look at ATC, they only sell ONE for each size at a time, and they do not frequently update it, while Dynaudio is selling many different same sized speakers at a time, and they update (just change names?) their speakers almost every year. I prefer ATC way.
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I have them too. They need serious burn in time, at least 100 hours. At first they sound congested and after some time they open up and show what can really do. So, be patient
In case anyone is wondering Dynaudio was in fact acquired by Goertek in 2014. Goertek is a large Chinese acoustics company.
Goertek - Wikipedia
Goertek - Wikipedia
I tested active crossover with 2 Hypex amps.
X18's original crossover is 2nd order@2.5K, and has typical consumer speaker's frequency response, BBC dip and 10K boost. Film capacitors for tweeter and pipolars for woofer, nothing fancy but nothing wrong.
I set up active crossover at various frequency points and slope (1st and 2nd), but the difference is rather subtle. The obvious thing that is clearly measured and audible is a time alignment. Adding 0.2ms delay to the tweeter not only makes X18 sounds a lot clearer, but also makes its frequency more flat around 2k. Woofer has as a resonance at 3.5k, so it should be removed for flatter response.
I went back to the original crossover because the reason I got this pair is I just wanted to have a "conventional" sounding monitor speaker. I already have several multi amp driven accurate studio monitors here, so making X18 another accurate monitor was not my intention. In case someone wants to make X18 a little flatter, try high shelf 2dB@1.2k and -5dB@5k. It does not fix the time alignment, but it will make X18 a little more clearer (= more tiring).
I think X18 is a fine sounding speaker and I will keep using them as it is, no mod.
PS: Do not remove the speaker cloth from X18. It actually makes frequency response flatter, it is a part of the voicing.
X18's original crossover is 2nd order@2.5K, and has typical consumer speaker's frequency response, BBC dip and 10K boost. Film capacitors for tweeter and pipolars for woofer, nothing fancy but nothing wrong.
I set up active crossover at various frequency points and slope (1st and 2nd), but the difference is rather subtle. The obvious thing that is clearly measured and audible is a time alignment. Adding 0.2ms delay to the tweeter not only makes X18 sounds a lot clearer, but also makes its frequency more flat around 2k. Woofer has as a resonance at 3.5k, so it should be removed for flatter response.
I went back to the original crossover because the reason I got this pair is I just wanted to have a "conventional" sounding monitor speaker. I already have several multi amp driven accurate studio monitors here, so making X18 another accurate monitor was not my intention. In case someone wants to make X18 a little flatter, try high shelf 2dB@1.2k and -5dB@5k. It does not fix the time alignment, but it will make X18 a little more clearer (= more tiring).
I think X18 is a fine sounding speaker and I will keep using them as it is, no mod.
PS: Do not remove the speaker cloth from X18. It actually makes frequency response flatter, it is a part of the voicing.
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I have many dynaudio's and if anything find their HF response to be slightly exaggerated. Sometimes there is a small dip around 2.5khz.
If the tweeter dome has been damaged ie someone, usually small children has poked the dome the response will change, depending on the level of damage this can be noticeable or not.
If the tweeter dome has been damaged ie someone, usually small children has poked the dome the response will change, depending on the level of damage this can be noticeable or not.
It's not Dynaudio's special own character. This has been the standard frequency response of majority of consumer speakers we can buy, and nothing wrong with it because the majority of the commercial recordings are mastered for consumer speakers. Today's Studio Monitors are different, but some of them have a switch that can change between flat mode and consumer mode.
Agreed. Not sure what the op is not happy about.
Generally Dynaudios at any price point performs well. The more expensive they get one can usually play louder with lower distortion, more clarity and definition but freq response is similar.
One can get some of this by just upgrading the series cap and resistor to the tweeter and get a lower resistance air coil to the woofer plus better cabinet damping.
On the 2.5khz dip try parallelling a 0.47uF-2uF on the tweeter cap and to bring down the top increase the series resistor slightly.
Fwiw I have found that the in room listening position freq response typically gives a flatter response with the filter values as is (obviously depends on the room etc).
With all their different versions my view is they tend to hype their technology advances and trickle down some of the features in lower end versions with the same selling pitch as for the high end stuff but at a lower price and as long as people go for I guess they keep doing it.
Generally Dynaudios at any price point performs well. The more expensive they get one can usually play louder with lower distortion, more clarity and definition but freq response is similar.
One can get some of this by just upgrading the series cap and resistor to the tweeter and get a lower resistance air coil to the woofer plus better cabinet damping.
On the 2.5khz dip try parallelling a 0.47uF-2uF on the tweeter cap and to bring down the top increase the series resistor slightly.
Fwiw I have found that the in room listening position freq response typically gives a flatter response with the filter values as is (obviously depends on the room etc).
With all their different versions my view is they tend to hype their technology advances and trickle down some of the features in lower end versions with the same selling pitch as for the high end stuff but at a lower price and as long as people go for I guess they keep doing it.
I have been using X18 with multi amp configuration applying compensation EQ and time alignment to make it flat as possible. It does not sound like typical Dynaudio any more, but it sounds fine to me. Port noise is the obvious issue, so I attached foam filled box behind the speakers and I only hear very little noise now.