WOW 3
$7,000/pair (stands extra)
dynaudio.com
Now, before you lose your shit about a $7,000 pair of small speakers, consider this.
The cheapest I was able to find a bottle of Macallan’s “Red Collection” 60-year-old whiskey was roughly 50 thousand dollars. Let that sink in for a minute. That’s $2,950 for a single shot, out of the bottle. The last time I visited Balthazar in NYC a couple of years ago, I asked the bartender how much a shot would be (since I saw it languishing up on the shelf, about half full, so someone’s drinking it), and he smugly replied, “ten k.”
Putting this further in perspective, even if you’re being thrifty and drinking Macallan 60 at home, a couple of shots will set you back a pair of speakers. And you’re only renting that whisky. On the other hand, you could have a pair of Dynaudio Legends in your bedroom, have a quick shot of Macallan 12, and still dance the night away. I know what I’d rather do. Best of all, the Legends will still be there in the morning.
So that’s where the listening begins with Van Halen’s “Dance the Night Away,” from Van Halen II. The Dynaudio Legend speakers are full of the good stuff that makes their flagship speakers what they are – and for me, that’s the Esotar 3 tweeter. Yeah, I’m a fan. This tweeter, refined by decades of manufacturing expertise at Dynaudio’s Skanborg facility, is highly resolving, yet tonally natural in its delivery. Rocking enough to blast your fave metal tracks, smooth enough to play Miles Davis. Which will probably go further towards any romantic encounter than playing Van Halen. But you never know.
Next up, another controversial choice – Miles Davis’ Tutu. Full of Marcus Miller’s mega bass grooves, this record illustrates not only how much low-frequency drive these speakers can deliver, but also the levels of texture present. In addition to the funkiness of this record, it features a wide stereo image, with a lot of “pinpoint imaging” to challenge your system. Maybe later we’ll do Kind of Blue, but for now, let’s keep it funkier.
As I’ve been fond of saying on social media lately, #itsnotjustaboutbassbruh. Yes, the Legends deliver the goods with the quality and quantity of bass available; there’s so much tone, texture, and ambiance everywhere. I can’t imagine wanting a different speaker in a small room. Forget about all those British speakers you were gonna buy. Get a pair of these, you won’t regret it.
If you’ve ever wanted the excitement and sheer resolving power of a pair of massive Dynaudio speakers but only have a small room, you can live it up with the Legends. Forget about whisky, think about what a pair of premium headphones costs these days. And a headphone amplifier to go with.
The Dynaudio website says, “they’ll sound impressive on a shelf or sideboard – put them upside down or even on their sides.” So that’s exactly what I did. In the context of my 11 x 14 foot back office in the house, with the Legends in an Ikea bookcase, the sound quality is over-the-moon good.
Because high SPLs aren’t required in this room, the Western Electric 91E integrated amplifier, which is my reference, has more than enough power to drive the Legends. While Dynaudio claims a sensitivity spec of 83 dB/1 watt, like every other Dynaudio speaker I’ve used or owned, they are easy to drive, especially with tubes. Later, out in the living room, they are placed on a proper pair of Dynaudio dedicated stands and set up with audiophile sensibilities. Even in a 13 x 18-foot room, I never felt that I really needed a sub for these lovely speakers.
The nuts and bolts
These tiny cabinets use Dynaudio’s top 28mm (1.1 inch) Esotar 3 soft-dome tweeter and their 15cm (5.9 inch) MSP woofer – straight from their top-line speakers. A 2nd-order crossover at 3,500 Hz weaves them together in a ported design that can be plugged with the supplied foam plugs should you need to place them really close to the wall, or in a sealed bookshelf.
Only 12 1/4 inches tall, 7 1/3 inches wide, and 10 2/3rds inches deep, there are precious few places the Legends won’t fit. Dynaudio supplied us with a pair of their Stand 20s, which are easy to assemble and can be filled with shot or sand for additional mass. As with every other small monitor we’ve ever used, this step is highly suggested and has two benefits. First, the additional mass in the stands makes for a more solid bass response and makes the entire speaker/stand assembly less prone to peril.
You can tell that as you unpack the Legends, they feel special. The attention to fine detail and execution in every way is so nicely done, it’s a sensual experience. Looking closely at the way the joints come together, you know these speakers were built by Danish craftspeople, not done on an assembly line in China somewhere.
As mentioned earlier, the sensitivity of the Legends is 83 dB/1 watt, and Dynaudio claims a nominal impedance of 6 ohms. If you have a tube power amplifier, try both taps (as you should anyway) to see which provides the best power transfer and the tightest bass response. With the Western Electric amplifier, we had the 8-ohm output transformers in for best effect, while the PrimaLuna EVO 400 amplifier delivered the best bass and bass to mid transition with the 4-ohm tap.
Unbox and set up
The Legends work well in my 13-foot-wide living room, a little closer to the walls than the Dynaudio Confidence 20s, which have more low-frequency output. If you are installing them in a small-ish room, start with the tweeter dome about 36 inches from the side wall, and the same to the rear wall. Work your way out from there.
Of course, you’ll need to do some fine-tuning in your room, but this will get you started. The living room system made use of the 60-watt per channel Canor I2 integrated, the 100-watt per channel Soul Note A3, and the 200-watt per channel HiFi Rose RS580 integrated amplifier. Tubes, class-AB solid-state, and class-D. All delivered excellent results.
More listening
These speakers have an undeniable resemblance to the Heritage Special – limited to 2500 pairs. However, this is a different speaker, with different parameters. And, Dynaudio has said they will stay in regular production. I know what I want for Christmas. No excuses from the guy in red (not the Whisky guy) that they won’t fit in the big sack or down the chimney. Get on it Santa, I’ve been really good this year so far.
Pat Metheny’s collab with Gary Burton and Chick Corea, Question and Answer, is a good place to start listening to acoustic music, offering some solid reference points. I’m sure you have your faves that help you make similar evaluations. The combination of drums, bass, piano, and vibes over Metheny’s always enthusiastic playing is a somewhat dense recording, yet it really comes alive through the mini Dynaudios.
A big part of the unique, signature sound of these speakers comes from drivers that normally make up Dynaudio’s most expensive speakers, in a small, precisely built cabinet. Every other aspect – cabinet execution and crossover design are all top shelf. These are not budget/entry-level speakers by any stretch of the definition. It’s like getting two shots of Macallan 60 instead of a liter of Macallan 12.
I suspect these will be speakers you cherish for a lifetime, or really regret selling them, should you be an audio enthusiast who tends to cycle things on a regular basis.
Regardless of the music chosen, there is such an incredibly high level of refinement in the Legends that when you are playing them at moderate levels in a smaller room, you’d swear you are listening to a 50-100k pair of speakers. As someone who used the $125k pair of Dynaudio Evidence Platinum speakers as a reference for two and a half years, I don’t make this statement lightly or with hyperbole. Now, if you want to crank Slayer really loud in a 16 x 20-foot room, you’ll have to choose a different speaker.
But what makes these speakers so special is that you can achieve such a high level of musical resolution and refinement in a compact pair of speakers, making them ideal for building a system in a small room. Used within their limits, these little speakers will impress you regularly.
Award winning
The Dynaudio Legends are so awesome (at least to me) that we’re launching a new award for them. The TONE WOW 3 award. I could be as snooty as the bartender at Balthazar and say, ” It’s for products that are better than ‘wow, just wow.” Seriously, this award will come to represent something considerably beyond what’s expected from a component period, not just a price point. So, in that case, a Product of the Year or an Exceptional Value award just doesn’t express enough excitement.
I’m happy to give the Dynaudio Legends our first one. I hope I’ve described these mighty speakers well enough to get you to seek out a pair for audition if they are in your range of parameters.
Otherwise, I’ll see you at the liquor store.
