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Did I find nothing to criticize? Objectively speaking not really. Even so this speaker’s presentation is a bit removed from conventional 3-way bass-reflex fare. It won’t be to everyone’s taste. For one that’s due to its combination of tonality and high dynamics. Some may wish for even more opulence in the bass, for comforting midrange warmth or for less treble energy. More Gemütlichkeit in short. Wrong movie. Very quick and taut is the game here. Tonally the 8.12 is neutral, wiry and fat free - immediate and fully committed rather than leisurely casual. Most audiophiles of course profess to wanting dynamics. But I doubt they'd all be prepared for this level of demonstrativeness. I noted for example how I accomplished less casual listening while at work. I simply couldn’t concentrate. I had to decide between either moving into the hot seat or turning the music off. The 8.12 is a shameless attention grabber – or positively put, extremely involving.


Secondly, being special and thus another matter of taste ought to be its particular type of soundstaging. Let’s take the usual categories—height, width, depth, localization focus, tonal plasticity—and attempt to generate a score card. Recording permitting the recreated acoustic was very large particularly on width and height. Depth layering was respectable but my Ascendo lights up a recorded venue rather more for example. Localization focus was fine but nothing for sharpshooters. Tonal plasticity was perfectly fine again but here too others will sculpt with more finesse (again like my Ascendo). One could thus add up a big stage with pleasantly precise sorting but not call any of it a special forté. Done. Except it still fails quite miserably to explain just why the illusion of feeling confronted so directly by the musicians was of such rare intensity. This didn’t require a hard-nosed hifi editor to sniff out. I parked my girlfriend in the hot seat and 10 seconds later she commented "They’re here!" And so they bloody were.


Truth be told, I’m not certain exactly how this shockingly real presence of musician in the room was generated. I tried to call it a byproduct of high resolution and accelerated dynamics. High resolution serves to unveil the most subliminal hall sounds and decay particles which indirectly map, measure and parlay the recorded acoustic. It was quite spooky on Zappa’s Yellow Shark. Its well-mastered live cuts have captured so much ‘real space’. Expanded dynamic contrast in this case went beyond simple quiet/loud differentiation however. The stage per se as well as individual sounds did ‘breathe’. They expanded with higher levels and shrunk again in the collapse. This was nicely appreciated with winds, brass and concert pianos. But even a strongly ripped e-guitar could ‘stick out its neck’ from the thicket as it were and a mighty crash cymbal hit would shoot forward and up with explosive energy. That one has to delight in. The soundstage of these speakers thus was unusually expressive and twitchy in the dynamic domain. It leaves many another speaker stiff by comparison - better sorted and layered perhaps, more finely separated or endowed with more air between the stage actors but also more exhausted, restrained and less alive. It must be admitted then that to reach this conclusion requires acclimation to the DynamiKKs! sound. Which, at least for an exploratory audition, is indeed highly recommended.

Conclusion. You will have noted that I didn’t successfully maintain a truly objective distance with this assignment. The DynamiKKs! Monitor 8.12 hit all my hot buttons. But even attempting objectivity as much as possible, Ulf Moning’s ‘small’ monitor has a lot to offer. There is tonally neutral truly full-range coverage—16Hz organ pipes excepted—which is coupled to very high resolution and exceptional dynamic agility across the entire bandwidth. To this add whisper-session qualities and SPL stability into bleeding-ear capitulation. Because the Monitor 8.12 combines so many virtues, I consider it quite cost effective. It remains an investment no doubt but the sonic payback is very high.


Part and parcel of the direct-sales concept is not being able to hear Moning’s speakers at the corner shoppe. You’ll have to trek to Birkenau or arrange for an audition in your own four walls. That’s the disadvantage of buying direct. On the other hand, listening in your own home isn’t the worst of ideas. In your acoustics with your own gear really is the best basis to make an informed decision. Apropos electronics, those shouldn’t play too bright, hard or cold. The DynamiKKs! arrive without any cuddly layer of fat. Those with a foible for (flat-chested) valve amps can live it up with these sensitives.

Psych profile:
  • Full-range speaker which extends all the way to the bottom and top. The overall assessment is fully neutral. Those insisting on any tendency will call it more wiry than fulsome.
  • The bass is purely positive – low, powerful, exceptionally agile and highly differentiated into the farthest reaches, taut and controlled. Added to this (which is rare) is a feathery fleetfootedness which refuses to get thick or effortful.
  • The mid- and treble bands exhibit very high resolution for sonic textures, complete decays and the smallest of nuances. A minimum distance of 3 meters is recommended to avoid (contingent on taste) an emphasized treble. Wall proximity is expressively allowed, thus experiment.
  • The speakers casts a grand stage particularly on width and height. Depth layering is fine but not that highly developed. Localization focus and tonal body are good. A special trait are dynamically breathing sounds and a very high live presence of musicians in the room.
  • Macro and microdynamics are amongst the very best this price class has on offer. This entails a certain transient hardness which might not be to everyone’s liking.

Facts:

  • Concept: Passive 3-way bass reflex
  • Dimensions and weight: 104.5 x 40 x 50cm (HxWxD), 55kg/ea.
  • Finish: To order
  • Sensitivity: 93dB/1W/1m
  • Nominal impedance: 6 ohms
  • Warranty: 5 years
  • Website
redaktion @ fairaudio.de