The Sound
Contents
We have been playing with this Giant from the Emit series for a couple of weeks and have to admit that our living room of five meters deep is actually a bit on the tight side for this powerhouse. The Alpha Audio listening room goes a whole lot better in that respect (10 x 4.5 and acoustically treated).
We were able to place the Dynaudio’s in the living room at about 60cm from the wall (before it became really impractical). But actually they need to be a bit further from the wall, we notice. But for your information: from about 60cm the image begins to loosen and resonances in the bass area are much better under control.
In the Alpha Audio listening room we put them 90cm from the back wall and have no problems with resonances, or excessive bass pressure.
Music!
Let’s get down to business. We put on Woodkid – Baltimore’s fireflies. The efficiency of the Dynaudio is just fine at 86 dB, but our recent guests: the AE109 and our own Wharfedales are higher at 89dB. In short: we need to open up the Rega a bit more. And given that the Rega Brio is not a gigantic powerhouse, we miss some dynamics and balance at lower volumes. However, if we turn it up a little, it gets body and we can get our feet on the floor. This is true for any genre, by the way.
Logically, this is not the case on the Pass Labs X150.8 and the Primare A35.8. These power amplifiers have absolutely no problem with the Dynaudio’s. Now, we don’t really see the consumer for this Emit 50 shopping in that class of amplifier, but it does indicate that some power is desired. We would look at a Yamaha A-S1200 or perhaps something below: the Arcam SA20 or ’30’. Those are nice partners for these Emit 50’s.
Woodkid makes room for nostalgia and energy. The Prodigy – Diesel Power from the album The Fat of the Land streaming. Insane track! Volume is now set to ‘switch the mind off and ignore the neighbours’. This is the point where your author stops listening for a moment and starts enjoying. Off the couch and going wild! This is where the power of these speakers lies. Rhythmic, energetic, but on the other hand also a relaxed engaging.
And with that in mind, we move on to some other genres: Radiohead, Portishead, TOOL and, for example, Everything but the Girl… we do love a nice musical cocktail. The Dynaudio lets it pass without effort. The bass is indeed solid (even in the Alpha Audio listening room), but it remains under control with the right amplifier and space. It’s round, but not woolly and overpowered. As a result, the midrange also stays nicely upright and we can follow what’s going on excellently. That, in turn, is the advantage of a larger three-way speaker; if screwed together properly. But we can leave that to Dynaudio.
Movie time
To conclude our session with the Dynaudio Emit 50, we put on a movie. An action/comedy. “The Hitmans Wife’s Bodyguard.” Yes, we know: it’s not a pièce de résistance, but yes: sometimes a hamburger is just delicious too. And this movie offers more than enough action to mentally “warp” us to the Cinema for a while. And the Emit 50 certainly helps there!
Voice intelligibility is good due to the dedicated midrange and they are also placed nicely at screen height (partly due to the height of the speaeker). Bang in the middle. Bullets fly around our ears and cars, mopeds and planes tear past. The action also gets plenty of thrust from the hefty double woofers. Yes… for an evening of movie watching you don’t have to leave the house anymore!
