What is it about Denmark? Hamlet's homeland surely has more speaker manufacturers, proportionate to its population, than any other nation. Maybe it's geography: Denmark is dark much of the year, so listening to music must be an attractive option. Maybe it's the weather: It rains a lot there, so people stay indoors — listening to music. Maybe it's the diet: The Danes eat a lot of fish, and everyone knows that eating fish makes you smart, and smart people undoubtedly make better speakers. (Americans don't eat much fish — a fact from which I draw no conclusions.)

Whatever the case, the intelligent, affable Danes (absent the occasional parricide) count among their national treasures really good speakers, including those from Dynaudio. (Though manufactured in Denmark, Dynaudio's offices are actually in Germany, just across the Danish border.) Dynaudio has long focused on the high-ticket, audiophile end of the speaker biz, but its latest Excite line is its most affordable one to date. This reached us in the form of the compact 5.1-channel system reviewed here. All four of the Dynaudio models in the system — the X16 front/left speakers, the X22 center, the X12 surrounds, and the Sub 250 subwoofer — are perfectly conventional in appearance but have quality materials and construction throughout. Two highlights are their unusual metal-finish baffles and the meticulously executed, lacquer-filled real-wood veneers (black, cherry, maple, and rosewood finishes are all available).

SETUP

I put the X16s on my usual stands, which yielded a tweeter height of about 39 inches — pretty much ideal in my layout. The X22 center arrives with a simple bolt-up metal stand that angles the speaker upward for under-screen installations. The small X12 surrounds went on my usual high sidewall shelves angled toward the rear wall, and I placed the Sub 250 in my proven location left of and behind the left front speaker. All of the Excites have single pairs of high-grade multiway binding posts (from WBT). Apparently Dynaudio doesn't believe in biwiring since none of its models, including the most expensive, have multiple-access input terminals. Interesting.

The Excite X16s quickly demonstrated that they do not like being close to a wall. Trying them about two feet from the back wall (measured to the front baffle) produced disappointingly indistinct mids and lumpy bass. Pulling them out another couple of feet revealed an entirely different pair of speakers — the ones I'll be describing below. Anyone planning to pair the Excites with a wall-mounted TV should take note.

MUSIC & MOVIE PERFORMANCE

As always, I began by listening to the front pair full-range (no subwoofer) using stereo recordings. What I noticed first was the X16s' thoroughly beguiling treble, which sounded airy, light, and open. Next, I noted the clean, musical content in the bottom octaves, going down to maybe 40 or 50 Hz — although a shadow of the upper-bass warmth that had overpowered their sound when closer to the wall remained.

Heard over the Excite speakers, the vocal regions impressed me as natural and highly articulate, with a very slightly distant quality that somehow seemed to accentuate tonal and spatial details. For example, on the ballad "Cry Me a River" from Bonnie Bramlett's I'm Still the Same, the Dynaudios conveyed the singer's fulsome contralto with genuine power, while also highlighting her considerable skill in wielding breathy nuance and occasional grit. Bass was ample for this sort of small-combo setting: pleasant, but not overly warm. And that treble! The subtle details of the drummer's hi-hat work, though well in the background, were beautifully revealed by the X16s.

When I was 17, I worshipped guitarist Larry Coryell and did my best to play just like him. Now his kids are older than that, and they play better'n I ever did. Sigh. "Zimbabwe," from Larry and sons' The Coryells presents three acoustic guitars, a slappy bass, and busy hand percussion — a veritable orgy of transient attacks. The Dynaudios truly excelled with this recording (by the ever reliable David Chesky), with its rich room ambience actually extending slightly beyond the speakers and well out into the room. Even at lifelike levels, the X16s maintained startling clarity, most memorably on the tambourine "ching" that sounds on the second and fourth beats throughout the cut. (I found both of these tracks, among others, at hdtracks.com. I'm happy to plug any service promoting good — or at least better — sound.)

The X16s didn't produce instrument locations with the pinpoint accuracy other speakers do, sounding a bit more spatially diffuse. Nor did they produce much sound over the bottom octave-plus — unsurprising in a compact "bookshelf" speaker. About midway through my listening, I added the foam "bungs" Dynaudio supplies with each speaker to block the X16 ports for a quasi-sealed alignment (less ultimate bass output, more gradual rolloff). This tightened up the midbass, which I liked, but it didn't have much impact on the overall weight of deep bass. I went back and listened again to these tracks and others once I'd thoroughly dialed in the Sub 250, and I was rewarded by real low-frequency underpinnings with no meaningful sacrifice of the X16s' impressive detail.

Moving on to multichannel, I found that the X22 center performed quite competently. It was a fairly close tonal match to the X16s — closer than I'd expected given their different-size woofers — and held its balance very well over a moderate side-to-side listening angle. (Low-treble "bite" fell off quickly beyond about 30° off-axis, but this listening range will be adequate for most setups.) The smaller X12 Excites proved perfectly adequate in the surround positions. I prefer dipoles, especially for film sound (particularly at these prices!), but I can't say the Dynaudios ever revealed prominent surround failings.

With all 5.1 channels suitably tweaked, I cued up The Bourne Ultimatum DVD. (Bourne is one of those HD DVD orphans not yet out on Blu-ray Disc.) The bantamweight Danes did a very workmanlike job with this two-hour chase sequence; I enjoyed the wide array of ambience in the many crowd scenes, which were all convincingly presented. I also heard smooth quick-pans on the many fast-moving scenes, like the motorbike (Bultaco?) chase through the souks of Tangiers. These scenes frankly sounded smoother than I expected given the design differences between the X16 mains and the X22 center speaker.

All five Dynaudios played extremely loud without objection, using power from my 5 x 200-watt amp to reach truly cinema-like levels with no sign of complaint or serious dynamic restriction. Ultimatum'sclimax has a lot of glass breaking at high volume levels, but even this sequence didn't sound harsh or painful.

Dynaudio's little Sub 250 was a bit of an exception, though it certainly exceeded my visual expectations. It's tiny and can't play terribly loud, but it had plenty of grunt for the ominous (if clichéd) low synth notes in the Ultimatum score. As it approached reference levels, the sub sounded less solid and a bit "flappier," and it stumbled audibly on a couple of big-bass transients. This was mostly masked by other sound-effects mayhem, but it was perfectly audible if you knew what to listen for — which I did, having already exposed the sub by playing it solo.

I also found that the Sub 250's unfiltered response (through its LFE input) had a substantial peak at around 200 Hz — some 10 dB above its average bass output. This effectively negated much of my surround processor's electronic sub-output crossover, and it made high-bass and even midrange content sound far too strong and noticeable. The less-than-ideal solution here was to use the Sub 250's Sat/Sub input with its low-pass filter in the circuit, setting the dial at about noon. The Sub 250 is a competent small sub for small rooms or modest peak-level demands, but there's no question that the system could benefit from a more substantial subwoofer.

TEST BENCH

Frequency response (at 2 meters)
front left/right (red): 83 Hz to 15.4 kHz ±2.9 dB
center (blue): 101 Hz to 18.2 kHz ±2.5 dB
surround (green): 82 Hz to 13.1 kHz ±3.1 dB
subwoofer (black): 31 Hz to 124 Hz ±2.4 dB

Sensitivity (SPL at 1 meter with 2.8 volts of pink-noise input)
front left/right: 88 dB
center: 89 dB
surround: 86 dB

Impedance (minimum/nominal)
front left/right: 5.1/8 ohms
center: 3.9/9 ohms
surround: 5.2/10 ohms

Bass limits (lowest frequency and maximum SPL with limit of 10% distortion at 2 meters in a large room)
front left/right: 62 Hz at 80 dB
center: 80 Hz at 83 dB
surround: 80 Hz at 88 dB
subwoofer: 32 Hz at 63 dB SPL

83 dB average SPL from 32 to 62 Hz
97 dB maximum SPL at 62 Hz

All of the curves in the frequency-response graph are weighted to reflect how sound arrives at a listener's ears with normal speaker placement. The curve for the left/right front channels reflects response of the X16 averaged over a ±30˚ window. The center-channel curve reflects response of the X22 averaged over ±45˚, with double weight directly on-axis of the primary listener. The surround-channel curve shows the response of the X12 averaged over ±60˚. All three were measured on a 6-foot stand which gives anechoic results to approximately 200 Hz. All speaker measurements (subwoofer excepted) are taken at a full 2 meters, which emulates a typical listening distance, allows larger speakers to fully integrate acoustically, and, unlike near-field measurements, fully includes front panel reflections and cabinet diffraction.

Each speaker displayed quite irregular frequency response deviations over increasing radiating angles — something that is poorly represented by our averaged measurement technique. In other words, response varied much more dramatically than what you're seeing in the graph. The X16 has limited low frequency dynamic capabilities (its port contributes very little) and ragged response irregularities especially above 2 kHz. The X22 center speaker actually has a 12 dB narrow dip directly on-axis at 4 kHz which falls in frequency, widens, and becomes extreme by ±45˚. The X12 surround speaker has a deep, narrow 28-dB dip directly on axis at 3.8 kHz accompanied by fairly radical irregularities that vary considerably with radiating angle.

The SUB 250 subwoofer's bass limits were measured with it set to maximum bandwidth and placed in the optimal corner of a 7,500-cubic-foot room. In a smaller room, users can expect 2 to 3 Hz deeper extension and up to 3 dB higher sound-pressure level (SPL). The subwoofer has severely limited low frequency dynamics, with response falling off at approximately 30 dB per octave below 62 Hz. Nearly all the crossover frequency variation occurs in the upper half of its dial rotation. Although the dial is marked from 50 to 150 Hz, its total frequency range only covers 65-124 Hz and there is an approximately –4-dB level interaction in the bottom half of its rotation.

— Tom Nousaine