As the newest member of the Audio T family, It’s not every day that I get to listen to speakers costing just over £24K, so it was with a sense of excitement that we took delivery of a demo pair of Dynaudio Confidence 50 at Audio T Portsmouth.

Arriving in wooden crates weighing around 80kg apiece it was clear that these were something pretty special. No cardboard here, thank you very much.

Unscrewing the crates and lifting tops off revealed glossy, 5ft long monoliths of impeccably lacquered Raven Wood (also available in Midnight High Gloss, Blonde Wood, Ruby Wood High Gloss and Smoke High Gloss) housing the trademark composite baffle fitted to Dynaudio Confidence range comprising the 20, 30, 50 and 60 models.

Sans crates the Confidence 50 weigh in at a relatively modest 50kg, nonetheless moving them out and standing them up is still a two-person job.

As with most floor standing speakers, the Confidence 50 are supplied with rubber feet for hard surfaces and substantial spikes for carpeted floors. Using the spikes in our recently carpeted demo room, we achieved a rock-solid stance for the big Dynaudio pair.

It started with a tweeter…

Bill Livingston, the UK Dynaudio Sales Manager, talked us through the design process for the Confidence and their 28mm Esotar3 tweeter. It was developed from scratch and its multi-component construction shows Dynaudio’s obsession with research and development.

“The design of the Confidence range began with the design of the tweeter. We knew if we got that right then the rest of the speaker design would follow,” said Bill.

Where it all began… Esotar3 soft-dome tweeter

The tweeter is set into a proprietary Dynaudio Directivity Control (DDC) lens which was developed, along with the tweeter and the rest of the drive units, using the company’s bespoke acoustic test facility, named Jupiter, which is based at their HQ in Skanderborg, Denmark.

The DCC is designed to reduce sonic reflections from the ceiling, floor and furniture. Its shape means that it can do this while preserving the width of the soundstage (more of which later).

The tweeter and its DCC lens sit in the middle of twin mid-range units and woofers, all featuring single-piece magnesium silicate polymer (MSP) cones driven by robust yet light weight motor assemblies. These sit in the acoustically-sculpted composite baffle which is set into the beautifully finished cabinets which taper towards the rear, rather like the leading edge of an aircraft wing.

Let the listening begin…

None of the technical preamble quite prepares you for the sound that these speakers can produce. We had them hooked up to our demo Naim NSC 222 streaming pre-amp, a Naim NAP 250 power amp and a Naim NPX 300 power supply.

The first thing that hits you is the scale of the presentation. Of course, you’d expect any large three-way floor stander worth its salt to give you convincing musical scale. But the Dynaudio Confidence 50 give you full throttle Albert Hall meets Red Rocks Amphitheatre scale when the music demands it. Width is matched by depth and height.

Treble, midrange and bass (there is no shortage of low bass in these speakers, thanks in part to the downward-firing bass ports) are, individually, beautifully presented. But it is their combined effect that contributes to the Confidence 50 party piece – as realistic a musical presentation as I have personally ever heard.

While good speakers can deliver detail and micro dynamics in spades, the Dynaudio 50 take this to a new level. Whether reproducing a live symphony recording or a close-mic’d studio track, the Dynaudio Confidence 50 deliver levels of fidelity and insight that make the music sound immediate, present and organic. They convey a real sense of the musical intentions, techniques and emotions of the artists along with the nuances and imperfections of their recording environments.

Our Naim system worked brilliantly with the Confidence 50 but, as the Dynaudio cost more than all three Naim boxes combined, it makes me wonder how these speakers will sound with the new Naim 300 series pre and power amplifier being launched soon. It also leaves me wondering exactly how the bigger, pricier Dynaudio Confidence 60 manage to top their performance.

The good news is that we’ll have the Dynaudio Confidence 50 on demonstration for a while yet in the Audio T Portsmouth demo room and we’d be delighted to welcome you to drop in and have a listen for yourself.

Thanks for reading.

Alan, Luke and Stephen - Audio T Portsmouth

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