This review page is supported in part by the sponsors whose ad banners are displayed below

Due to special phase/response adjustments in the filter network, the new Excite series contrary to the first is said to radiate slightly upward toward the listener's ear to thus minimize floor reflections. Related claims are better imaging, openness and three-dimensionality particularly for the floorstanders. This has real practical merit. More on that anon.


Unpack, set up, fire up. Manhandling these 23kg speakers is a safe one-person job. Dynaudio protect the exposed tweeter with a triangular hard plastic barrier which is removable without tools. Even careless hands won't kill this membrane during setup. The very thin grills pack separately and mount with concealed magnets. That's both practical and cosmetically attractive. On my loaners both grills showed little domes around where the magnets pressed into the gray fabric. These weren't evident with a comparison model to suggest a temporary production error. Should your own pair still exhibit this, I'm certain Dynaudio would swap out its grills without fuss.


Each carton includes four footers. Two bolts each mount those securely to the speaker's bottom. This not only looks tidy, it crosses off EU legislation for stability by increasing the footprint. Floor coupling options demonstrate user friendliness again. Upon delivery short metal spikes are completely recessed inside the footers whose integral rubber rings protect hardwood floors. Should your flooring be uneven, covered by carpet or you in possession of protective shoes, the spikes are accessible from above with a hex key. Again without help each speaker is easily leveled out.

Sonix. My loaners showed their true colors already with my Linn Majik DSM streamer's integrated power stage. Nothing nerved or blistered, everything was pleasant without undue excitement – exactly as I remembered my first encounter. Nouveau dynamics my arse? Patience. Some run-in first. This too was the advice of a friendly Dynaudio employee whom I met a few days after delivery at the Braunschweig broadcast exhibition. There he'd manned an impressive dem with the X38 and NAD's big M2 true digital integrated. "Run 'em in well!" The man's sterling demo not only had me bloody keen to hear my reluctant loaners warm up to the task, he was right on the Danish kronar too. 24/7 membrane massage for a week passed until I dared to get serious and check in on what these slim towers had to offer me.

This kicked off where my usual Linn Majik 140 had just left the building, i.e. roughly 30cm from the front wall, two meters apart and minimally toed in. That's where the fully active Linns work splendidly with full pressurization, precision and a deep soundstage well through the wall even though lateral extension and height spread is clearly limited. After some musical chairs the Dynaudios decided on an additional 20cm wall distance and somewhat steeper toe-in. In the Linns' exact spot the bass got too thick even with the included port plugs. A bit more free space from the wall and tonal balance locked in. Soundstaging too progressed from just nice to oh yeah. Driven from the €3'500 Majik DSM integrated/streamer for a real-world mate, the difference from cold outa the box to warmed up included shedding the former fuzziness for a clearly freer, looser and quicker reading. Bass separated out far better from the rest and no longer obscured the midband. Time coherence improved and the dreaded falling apart into different frequency bands which often parallels an increase in crossover points wasn't evident. Good thing too. Nothing interferes with relaxed but attentive listening as much as noting individual drivers at work rather than collaborative musicians playing together.