http://www.dynaudioacoustics.com/Default.asp?Id=280

While some of these comments are more about the 5A's, I've included this mini-review here because it also included the 6A's. And, because, I know many people are interested in the difference between the 5A's and the 6A's.

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I just took a drive recently to a studio. I brought some different pairs of monitors with me. The studio is looking to upgrade from Behringer Truth monitors. Here's some comments by the studio owner:

http://www.vsplanet.com/ubb/ultimat...c;f=16;t=016750

quote:

posted by "GawsDigitalUnderground" at vsplanet.com

Dan Richards was nice enough to offer to ride down to my studio today with a Jeepload of Monitors..Actually he brought the Mackie HR824's, Dynaudio BM5A's, and the 6's..We also compared them against my Behringer Truth's.

This is just my personal opinion of what I heard today..Take it for what it's worth comming from me!

The Behringers vs the Mackies..There was a difference. I won't say that the Truth's were better, but I can't say they were that much worse either..Dan and I both pretty much agreed that if you factor in the price difference, we didn't hear that much improvement to warrant paying $1,200 for the Mackies, vs, the $400 for the Truths...Now if money isn't a concern, I wouldn't hesitate buying the Mackies over the Truths. The Mackies seemed to have more low end, and were abit clearer. But $800 worth? I don't know. Seems like a good Eq between the recorder and the Truth's, and you'd have the Mackies..But that's just my 2 cents.

Now, the Mackie HR 824's vs the Dynaudio..Well, what can I say, not really in the same ball park to my ears..The Dynaudio BM5A's just rocked..Tight focused bass, not muddy. Crystal clear high's, etc, etc. I was really impressed. We ran some of my mixes through each and with the Dynaudio's, you could hear clearly the reverb trails, the sizzle in the cymbals, and everything. Things that I couldn't hear with the Truth's, and the Mackies were right up there in the BM5's. What can I say, I'm buying the Dynaudio BM5's..

It would have been great to get to spend a couple of weeks with both sets of monitors, and got to do some actual tracking, and mixing with them, but for a short days listen, the Dynaudio's seemed like the clear winner of my moolah..

What we auditioned:

Behringer Truth
Mackie HR824
Dynaudio BM5A's
Dynaudio BM6A's

I agree pretty much with the studio owner [ if you read his comments at the link. ] I thought the Truth's sounded like they were muffled. I didn't hear any real improvement when comparing the Truth's to the Mackie's. The Mackie's had more low-end - and a little better separation of instruments, but not by much. And I couldn't justify the $1200+ cost of the Mackie's over the $399 cost of the Truth's.

Next were the BM5A's. Immediately there was a noticable difference. With the 5A's I could easily hear details of the program material that were not at all evident on the Truths or the Mackie's. With the 5A's I could hear all the reverb tails, the top of the snare and cymbals, and overall clear separation of instruments. The bass was tighter but still full.

I think the model numbers Dynaudio gave the 5A's and 6A's is a little confusing – and some people might think the 6A's have 6" woofers and the 5A's would have 5" woofers. Not so. The BM5A's and BM6A's both have 6.89" woofers. 5A's have 50W amps on tweeter and woofer. 6A's have 100W amps. The 6A's have the BM series styling. The 5A's have the AIR series styling.

The 6A's sounded near to the 5A's until we turned up the 6A's louder. That's when the 100W amps showed the 6A's to have more horsepower. But for the small size control room the 5A's more than do the job.

In the end, we thought the 5A's [ also considering price ] were the best tool for the job. At under $900 the 5A's kicked the $1200+ Mackie's to the curb. The owner is buying the 5A's.

One of my pairs of personal monitors are Dynaudio AIR 15's with a Benchmark DAC1. So, I'm used to that $3000+ monitor sound on a daily basis. The 5A's deliver the same type of sound [ clarity, imagery, depth, no ear fatigue ] in a smaller package.

An interesting monitor shootout that's been on the web for many years, since 2001, is ProRec's Rip Rowan's BM6A review along with quite a few other monitors. In his review he chose the 6A's for overall sound quality, but took off some points for the, then, $2500/pr price tag. But he did write, "These were one of the most expensive speakers in our lineup - and also my favorite. The Dynaudio BM6As were just lovely." A typical price for the 6A's today in 2005 is around $1699 – and a really deal would be $1499 including shipping – so look around. The Mackie HR824, which was priced as approx $1600 a pair can now be found for closer to $1300/pr. Also the HR824's in his review were made in the US. The current HR824's – and the one's in our mini-review – are made in China.

Well, things do change – don't they. I guess since price isn't the issue it was over four years ago, now Rip can finally have the 6A monitors he really wanted all along. : )

My Christmas present to me this year is a pair of BM6A's. With a renowned lack of will-power, I opened them early. OK, I ripped them open immediately. OK, OK, so maybe some new land speed records were set.

I'm probably your typical gear addicted home recordist. I started in a lousy box of an untreated room recording on headphones (Sony 7506's). As I got more serious, I started stacking things in the room to control sound and bought a pair of Yamaha MSP5's.

For a beginner, the Yamaha's are a great monitor. They're weak in the low end, but otherwise helped create some very well balanced mixes. We learned to work well together.

This fall, I finished my new studio room with fine tuned sound control. When I put the MSP5's on their new stands and cranked them up, I was blown away. Lows, mids, highs were all much more detailed and balanced. The lows really seemed tight and punchy. I could hear kick pedal squeaks, reverb tails and over-all spatial depth that I'd never heard before. I popped in 2 of my favorite reference CD's: Joshua Judges Ruth and Knopfler's Ragpicker's Dream. Both sounded incredible. I kept thinking things like, "Oh, that's how the amp sounded in the studio." The Yammies started to seem like really expensive speakers.

Next up on my long list of improvements was better D/A conversion. Why change monitors? How could it make that that much difference? But, other voices (Dot, Dirty, get your asses out here!) kept saying, "Get new monitors!" "You really need new monitors!" Who am I to ignore the voices? I don’t any other time! So here come the new monitors.

I've been breaking in the BM6A's for about a week now. For a home recordist, I believe I may have found a new religion. The difference was, at first, overwhelming. Part of that is because I'm still getting used to the new room. But, side-by-side, the dyno’s make the Yammies seem like a toy. And that's hard to do. The Yammies are not a cheap toy.

Rip Rowan's description is right, these things sound beautiful. I don't agree that they're hyped in the highs. What I'm experiencing is a very balanced presentation until I get to super lows. Then, my mind wants to keep hearing the same quality only lower still. Its because I now know what could be that I have a problem. I can understand why these monitors might make you want a sub.

The thing to realize is that the BM6A's have an great low end. I picked the 6's over the 5's because they're rated down to 41hz (and with the same woofer as the 5‘s, I believe that more power behind them will make a difference). I'm hearing bass and synth notes that I never heard in the Yammies. I've had kick drums reach out and punch me. To be fair, the low lows seem a little flubby, but I'm still babying them. I don't know what breaking them in and/or cranking them up will do to that perception.

What I am getting with these monitors is extraordinary realism. I'm hearing details I've never heard. Its much like what I hear in the headphones when I track, except more full. The details are eye popping. I'm hearing little inhales and lip smacks before vocal phrases. I'm hearing pick attack. Things sound like they’re right here in the studio live. Well, except I think I'm starting to hear EQ cuts and boosts for helping tracks fit in the mix. Then again, I could BS ing myself there.

At this point, I can't imagine how I ever did mixes without these monitors. But I did, and they were decent mixes. Now I'm spoiled and won't be able to listen to stuff on lesser systems. I can’t give a comparison to comparable or higher end systems. Not enough experience to be believable. I can say, without any doubt, that everyone should be capable of making incredible mixes with these monitors. Of course, the same is true for the Yammies. But I worked hard to learn to use the Yammies. I’d have to work really hard to make it hard to work with the BM6A’s.

great post Shorty

congrats on your new toys! (you lucky dog)



T

I moved to BM6as this year too. I had almost exactly the same experience as Shorty....It's been 5 months and I still love them.

Then I went to AES and became friends with the K&H 300s.

It's a vicious vortex of NEED!!!

Dan

I just recently stumbled across, and read a great post (at the Planet) where you and Terry (Gaws) checked out the Dynaudio 5a’s and 6a’s at his place. I’ve been investigating active speakers lately myself and I might have saved myself some time and aggravation if I would have found that post sooner.

Anyway, I’ve already auditioned the Mackie HR824’s and the Behringer TRUTH B2031A’s, and found them to be less than satisfactory to what I’m looking for, both to my ears and for my room. I pretty much came to similar conclusions as you guys did. I’m plan to audition the KRK V8 Series 2 and the M-Audio Studiophile BX8a's soon, and I’d be grateful and very interested in anything you (or anyone else here), might have to say about either of these speakers.

And after reading about the Dynaudio 5a’s and 6a’s, my interest in them has been peaked. I’m not sure if all of this has just made my search for a good quality set of speakers a little easier, or a lot harder. I really would like to exhaust all of my options before I settle on something. I don’t want to be unhappy or disappointed with my choice down the road as I get used to and settled into the sound of the speakers.

And no, I’m not interested in Adam’s. I can think of plenty of other things to spend $30,000 on!

Thanks…