'D' for divergent. Let's call a shovel a spade. Box speakers occupy 99.78% of audio's commercial real estate. Amongst that dominant majority, ported bass occupies its own 85%. That means a deep sonic imprint on the general populace. Having never heard otherwise, familiarity becomes synonymous with correctness. To invoke a Teutonic proverb, what a farmer don't recognize, he won't eat. So remove ubiquitous box talk, port bloat and their attendant timing blur. Quelle surprise; or horreur? Hello challenge. Whatever differs from the norm has its work cut out. We must first relinquish our familiar sonic reference to open up to a different gestalt. Once the old is forgotten even if just temporarily; once the new has become our status quo—returning to the old could well seem – old. Worn out. Passé. To be sure, if dipole dispersion were the silver bullet, we'd all listen to it. That we're not becomes the unstoppable counter argument for most dipole dissenters. That full-range dipoles can look like room hence opinion dividers is one reason. The built-in price/perception ceiling of mounting drivers on a plank no matter its makeup or shape must be another. If we want to sell expensive speakers, we should first create a real problem—trap air to declare high-pressure warfare on the enclosure—then solve it with heroic constructions that weigh far more than a full-size stack of washing machine and dryer. With driver backs and filter parts hidden from view, none are any wiser that they're no different from premium dipoles. We can simply charge a lot more. Of course dipoles aren't ideal wall huggers either. That can conflict with minimum-space domestic décor demands. There are certainly reasons why dipoles don't dominate. If we're sound-first clients though, today's simple question must be, are these still legit reasons? Once we add the undeniable shrinkage and sleek dress code which the M1 concept adds to the visual equation, it pulls out the rug from under many dissenters. Now we're down to purely sonic arguments. Now 'D' could stand for: Daudio M1. Dipoles. Domesticated. It's where my intro ends and listening begins.

But first, a quick reality check on what ~30Hz bandwidth from a full-range dipole entails with Daudio's dual 15" MOB model [above right]. How petite today's M1 is by contrast the black pair against the wall demonstrates. Add its subwoofer mate and hit 20Hz with a threesome that's physically rather less imposing. What we lose is free room tuning from figure-8 cancellation down into the 1st octave. The M1 sub produces omnipolar dispersion like all other box bass. That interacts equally with all our room boundaries. Whilst we get more bandwidth and loudness from smaller woofers in a box, we lose dipole dispersion's advantageous reduction of late-arriving room gain for superior timing. 'Something for nothing' isn't in the cards. If it were, Daudio wouldn't need their bigger models. They're for punters who want dipole bass. That's where 'D' stands for a decisive difference we're not getting today. For that you'll want Dawid's review. To cover the OB gamut, I should still mention brands like Clayton Shaw, Diesis, Emerald Physic, Kyron, sound|kaos and Spatial. None of them though offer anything as petite as Daudio's M1. That might just be the host with the most when it comes to lowering the barrier of OB entry. If so, it could become the breed's most convincing preacher. For that it simply must start making the rounds beyond Holland's borders. "We supply the M1 monitor in combination with a passive tweeter/midwoofer filter and an active analog high-pass (ASP for analog signal processor) which includes dipole EQ functions. We can supply the M1 with DSP—usually a Lyngdorf 3400 so the client has a nice compact system—but our ASP reaches a higher level and applying a nice DAC makes more sense. Right now we are putting finishing touches on a new ASP to include volume control and phono. Component delivery times have been quite unpredictable but we expect it to be done in ~1½ to 2 months. We can then ship you a white setup. The small black box you saw in a photo at the end of the M1 speaker cable is the passive 2-way filter. That can either reside in the box; or build into the plinth which then grows from 18mm to 40mm high to house the large top-quality caps and coils. The sub has its own built-in lowpass and is driven by a mono line-out from the ASP box. With Dutch clients we can visit, measure and build active room-correction notch filters into their ASP. International customers will do their own room correction in Roon or HQPlayer-type DSP as we also do at shows for its real-time flexibility. Our filter slopes arrive at a 4th-order acoustic function whilst the standard M1 baffle is painted HDF though can be made with other materials on request. Likewise for the sub. We've already done versions in solid oak. The bass amp is Ncore NC252MP [400-watt/4Ω mono – Ed.]. Digital latency is zero since here too our filter is analog." To underscore an important detail of Daudio's execution is their rare passive/active filter approach also championed in a yet different format by Siltech and Sphinx. Removing any LF from even presenting at a mid/woofer's voice coil reduces its excursion demands by a factor of four for each octave eliminated; and lowers coil-temp increases which otherwise lead to raised resistance hence reduced dynamic linearity. Classic 3-ways simply execute their midrange high-pass with passive parts. The M1 modular 3-way's goes active for superior phase behaviour and non-reactance; compensates for an OB's 6dB/oct. acoustic roll-off in the active domain; and finally activates its separate bass system with a purist analog lowpass. Whilst it might look like just another sat/sub 3-piece proposition, closer inspection reveals decisive differences.

A 2019 Dutch review described the then DSP/amp as a beautifully bevelled bead-blasted solid aluminium housing with recessed rear connections and oval blue display containing 100wpc Ncore for the tweeter, 125wpc Ncore for the mid/woofers and 250wpc for the sub, with XLR analog inputs, AES/EBU, coax, Toslink and USB plus SpeakOn outputs for the monitors and sub. To condense its sonic comments, "the M1 managed to achieve fundamentally different replay from many speakers I hosted over the years. Whilst it sounded free and balanced, many others did, too. What differed was the degree of freedom. Thanks to the open baffle, the M1 created 3D holography with calm coherence and brilliant integration that sounded as good at pianissimo as it did at fortissimo. The stereo image was beautifully wide, its boundaries neatly extending past the monitors with beautifully layered depth of field. On dynamic expression, the M1 played not as exuberant as certain expressive box or horn speakers but certainly not as timid as certain electrostats or low-efficiency types to give very little to criticize. It is great that this small system can play so very grand and mature and even managed to fill the enormous ballroom of the Audio Show Alkmaar 2019 with remarkable ease." Playing at verbal sleuthing, 'degree of freedom' could well point at our perception's unfamiliar recognition of lack of typical box talk. Noticing it is easy. Describing it clearly to someone who's never heard it is far from. A typical detour into familiar terrain is to articulate a dipole's benefits on soundstage precision and image localization because those are common noticing points. In my experience, there's simply more to it though 'freedom' is a great if somewhat vague start. "We abandoned the fully active version written up by that Dutch review some time ago. In the end, limiting ourselves to Ncore for the M1 monitor wasn't the way to go. We have clients with their own tube or solid-state amps though a few of them do use our Purifi-based P1000 amplifier option. Because the sub remains active, you only provide your power amp of choice to drive the monitors."

To see what the pink people of HifiPig had in their 2025 Dutch show report, "they were playing the MOB3 when we went in. These are bigger than the MOB2.5 we recently reviewed and gave our Editor's Choice award to. It was a good few years ago that I first heard this brand's speakers and I loved them then—and my mind hasn't changed one bit. There is something very natural-sounding about these that even in this less-than-ideal environment seemed to get a really organic sound… We then had a listen to the smaller M1 stand mounters which are also OB but much smaller and supported by a Daudio sub… You'd not guess you were listening to such small speakers and I confess to being a tad sceptical before they started playing tunes. That scepticism lasted about two bars into the music. Worth noting, though they aren't on the website, the electronics in the room were also by the company." Clearly Daudio still have work to do on their documentation and English pages. Then again, Hans explained why their global roll-out has been slow. Their domestic sales approach has been very hands-on with their clients. That extra service isn't replicable outside The Netherlands unless value-added dealers get involved; or clients take responsibility for their own setup and fine-tuning. For a pictorial walk down Dipole Avenue with its various side alleys, here are some shapes super-imposed on the W1.

… to be continued…