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With my Jadis JA15 tube monos in residence, it only made sense to verify Dynaudio's claim of friendlier drive for its new mainstream contenders. At 40 watts each the Frenchies aren't exactly wall flowers but even so, I'd never attempted valves + Dynaudio a few years ago. But it worked. [Octave Audio tube amps routinely show with top Dynaudios to combat exactly that perception and show that these German pentode amps really are made of sterner stuff – Ed]. The Jadis exhibited noticeably more midband bloom and warmth as though to apologize for getting a bit looser down low and just a tad soft on top. "Hey, never mind sizzle and boom. Check out the colourful vocals instead!" Okay.


Back to the Majik DSM. Far more realistic on price, what this all-in-one streamer lacked in bloom it more than made up for with improved image specificity and bass control. Diffuse staging isn't in the X38's vocabulary at all even if the X38 couldn't best my in this discipline first-rate fully active Linn Majik 140. Alela Diane's The Pirate's Gospel kicks off with acoustic guitar, gnarly bass and palmas between two. Then the lead vocal appears center stage and clearly distinct. Despite due microphone distance, Mrs. Diane issues quite prominently charged sibilants. These the Dynaudios captured without extra pepper. What's more, these plosives remained clearly associated with her lips. They didn't betray the actual tweeters as origins. I was pleased also to hear the clear slowing down of the beat without the band sounding at all as though lagging behind. This again tipped me off to the X38's excellent timing as an important ingredient to easeful listening.


Built upon very extended never droning bass that veered more into the buxom than lean yet was endowed with sufficient punch and control was a midband that felt transparent and uncolored without discernable character. If anything I'd call this region minimally soft and silky. It's another factor which promotes relaxed auditions without rose-coloured glasses to obscure detail. I nearly felt reminded of Avalon speakers which excel here. As spectacularly unspectacular as the vocal band might be, it was still topped by the textile tweeter. In this price class I couldn't point at another speaker whose top end comes off this silky and free of hardness but well integrated. With extremely good microdynamic response to tease out the smallest sonic veining, there was no excess airiness to move into the foreground. There was just continuity with the lower bands. In 2011 young New Yorker Nicolas Jaar was my favorite new electronica find with his album Space is only noise. Particularly the first three cuts veritably beg to be used as hifi test material. The Danes delivered unbelievable transparency and directness, precision and resolution. Like the proverbial apples, the table tennis balls on "Colomb" didn't fall far from the tree. The profoundly low bass during its bridge spread out through my room with control and power though despite playing very well, the Danes couldn't fully dish out what clearly costlier speakers can.

The sharp separation of individual sounds and complex passages happened at the very top of the class without turning vivisectionist. Besides tonal neutrality, this resolving power and associated transparency should be the prime attractions of the X38. Detail remained keen without spotlighting as was the case for earlier Focal or Triangle. It occurred 'in passing' and one tends to realize only in retrospect that one has heard more than usual. Hence these Danes are about benign analysis to get us closer to the music without sacrificing their fundamentally slightly soft approach as the #1 priority.

But they still go loud – louder in fact than I could fully exploit. Fortunately the radio broadcast trade show demo in Braunschweig had already confirmed that the X38 knew how to stretch these legs. It really impressed me how this slim speaker drove a full symphonic orchestra at high SPL on Danse Macabre. I noticed no real compression even during massive tutti and the big kettle drums too remained believable. Naturally speakers groomed for macrodynamics like Klipsch and JBL go even further but often such specialists in speed and dynamics lack balance. The X38 are plenty quick without showing off. Sonic events remain intact rather than fall apart into high frequencies and 'the rest'.