Dynaudio Confidence 60 Review
Dynaudio’s brand new “New Confidence” series has launched a total of four speakers, three of which are floor-standing speakers, and one is a bookshelf speaker. From the big to the small one, they are Dynaudio Confidence 60 floor-standing speaker, Confidence 50, Confidence 30, and Confidence 20. New Confidence can be said as the most significant change in history. Except for the design of the front baffle, the other aspects of the speaker unit, cabinet, crossover are all different from the old model.
The key technologies of the Confidence series are all inherited from the new series. Still, the innovation is to break through the traditional limitations and use new methods to design New Confidence.
So, where is the traditional feature of Confidence 60? Dynaudio is proud of its silk soft dome tweeter, MSP mid-bass single diaphragm, DDC sound wave direction control, and unique front baffle design. Dynaudio has been applied these to the Confidence series for more than ten years. But technology is continually improving。
This time, Dynaudio Confidence 60 continued the existing Dynaudio technology, but they started from the essential precision measurement again. In the mature current technology, they found out the subtleties that can be improved and integrated the technical advancement of each tiny area. It is the significant facelift of New Confidence.
The Dynaudio Jupiter Measuring Lab
This story starts with Dynaudio’s newly established Jupiter Acoustics Laboratory. The Danish company made a considerable effort to build the largest silent room in Europe. It strengthened Dynaudio’s research and development capabilities and has a new super-large testing room.
This substantial acoustic space with a length, width, and height equal to 13 meters is used exclusively for equipment measurement. Inside the laboratory is a giant semicircular acoustic robot. There are 31 microphones, and a mechanical arm can control the steel frame to achieve 180° rotation.
During the measurement, the speaker is raised to the center of the space, and 31 microphones collect the frequency response information. In addition, during the measurement, the semicircular steel frame can be rotated 360° as required. Therefore, the sound signals around the speaker can be collected in all directions without dead angles.
Dynaudio can measure the size of the loudspeaker at home and compare the changes of various parts repeatedly to find the best configuration, which speeds up the pace of research and development.
The Esotar3 Tweeter
Before the launch of New Confidence, at the 40th anniversary of Dynaudio, the original factory launched the Special 40 commemorative speaker, equipping with the Esotar3 silk soft-dome tweeter for the first time.
The tweeter used in the Confidence series is the latest Esotar3. In fact, by just looking at it, I definitely can’t see what Esotar3 has changed. The appearance is similar to other Dynaudio’s silky soft hemispheric tweeters because the changes are hidden in the monomer.
The cavity behind the Esotar3 unit is larger than the previous Esotar2 to eliminate the back wave resonance of the unit. Initially, Esotar2 has a felt ring as damping to absorb the extra high-frequency back wave.
The new series removes it and replaces it with a new structure called “Hexis,” which adds a concave “Hexis” membrane behind the soft hemispherical diaphragm to achieve the same back wave resonance damping effect the felt ring.
After removing the subtle resonance of the back wave of the tweeter, “Hexis” works in conjunction with the soft hemispherical diaphragm, which can effectively improve the time accuracy, sound imaging, details, and music dynamics.
Compared with the new generation Esotar3, the superiority of Esotar2 lies in the results of repeated experiments by Dynaudio’s acoustic engineers in Jupiter’s laboratory. Dynaudio claims that Esotar3 is their current best-performing tweeter.
Newly Designed DDC Lens
Esotar3, which first appeared in Dynaudio’s 40th-anniversary speakers, can be said to be the first step in improving the Confidence series. The next step is the complex project of leading the whole world, the evolutionary version of DDC Lens.
DDC (Dynaudio Directivity Control) is a technology used by Dynaudio since the Evidence Mast…er more than 20 years ago. It relies on the configuration of two tweeter units and a complex crossover design to control the vertical diffusion angle of the treble sound wave and reduce the impact of the reflected sound from the ceiling and the floor. This design improves the space adaptability of the speaker and reduces the sound interference of the space.
In the New Confidence series, a new generation of technology is called DDC Lens. The purpose is to control the high-frequency vertical diffusion angle and reduce the negative impact of spatial reflections. But the design orientation is entirely different.
First of all, the tweeter is using an Esotar3. The front baffle initially used MDF. Now it is replaced with a complex baffle of composite material, and a unique shape is designed on the front baffle to control the vertical diffusion angle.
The process of developing DDC Lens begins with the computer-aid model building and iteratively calculates the parameters of different shapes to find out several possible best solutions. Then the engineers use the 3D printing mechanism to make several optimized front baffle prototypes. They then go to the Jupiter laboratory and install it on the prototype speaker box for testing.
During the measurement, the prototype speaker was hung at a height of 6 meters. Then, the ring-shaped microphone array was used to repeatedly measure the sound wave diffusion effect at all angles to find out the final appearance of the front baffle of the Confidence 60.
From DDC to DDC Lens, Dynaudio’s design manages complexity, simplifying the tweeter to a single Esotar3, which can simplify the complexity of the crossover and reduce the power requirements. Through computer simulation, try to make a 3D printing model, test repeatedly, design a new Complex baffle.
Also, they use a unique shape to control the vertical diffusion angle of the sound wave, which can also simplify the crossover. Therefore, Confidence 60 looks like an MTM standard single arrangement, but the technology of DDC Lens is Dynaudio’s unique skill.
The Woofer
From Dynaudio’s current strongest Esotar3 tweeter to the evolution of DDC Lens, coupled with the Horizon suspension midrange and the new NeoTec woofer, the combination simplifies the crossover structure Confidence 60 and no longer requires many modifications. Moreover, using the compensated passive components with relatively simple second-order and third-order designs, the whole frequency range can be smoothly connected.
Finally, take a look at the speaker cabinet of the Dynaudio Confidence 60 speaker. From a traditional square cabinet, it has become a waterdrop arc shape that is retracted backward. It is similar to the Contour series, but the lines are more beautiful.
But you can’t see the bass reflection hole. Is it a closed design? Of course not. Confidence 60 is still a bass-reflex design, but the reflection hole is facing downwards, hidden at the bottom, and the opening is large. Dynaudio has designed a splitter at the bottom to accelerate the airflow and improve the low-frequency response speed.
Sound Performance
Listen to Julia Fisher’s “Sarasate Zigeunerweisen”. The piano has a considerable sense of weight, the recording has a moderate sound, and the position of the piano is slightly receded. However, the protagonist’s position is immediately highlighted, standing in the center of the sound field cohesively and massively.
Confidence 60 presents a strong high pitch, clear and bright but not tight when playing in the high frequency. The thickness of the music shows a beautiful richness, and the contrast of clear, colorful, and rich notes strengthens the musical mood of “Song of the Wanderer”.
I followed the violin notes, enjoying the deep emotions of the adagio, sometimes whispering and sometimes excited.
If you are a fan of heavy rock music, listen to Dire Strait’s classic album “Money For Nothing”. Before that, I set the volume of Reference 6 preamplifiers to maintain a comfortable listening level, about 30~40.
Now I want to turn on the volume, see how powerful the low frequency of Confidence 60 is. Tuning the volume to 50, the music of “Money For Nothing” changes from weak to strong, the drum beats gradually increase, and electric guitars and synthetic instruments are pushed to a high point.
After raising the volume in this way, the low frequency of Dynaydio Confidence 60 really woke up! Mark Knopfler cleverly pops the melody of the chords, the snare drum of the jazz drum is played crisply. Confidence 60 is full of passion. After the volume is turned up, the rock concert is full of enthusiasm.
Listen to live recordings of the British Philharmonic Orchestra and records released by Signum. The repertoire is different from the conductor. One is “Elgar: Enigma Variations”, and the other one is “Schottagovic: Symphony No. 5“.
First, listen to Elgar. The variation starts with a light string music theme. Confidence 60 spreads out a broad and dense string group, piece by piece floating in the air. The densely played cello showed a solid bottom plate on the Confidence 60, and it was gorgeous.
Next, I skipped to the seventh variation, dictated to Troyte’s allegro Presto. The timpani set off a substantial low-frequency sound wave, rolling from the back of the sound field. The low-frequency of Confidence 60 is not only abundant but also granular, and the speed will not be dragged at all.
The sound field extends backward, propping up the open sound field, the fierce timpani and the orchestra echo each other. The exhilarating and enthusiastic music scene ends brightly in the bright colors of the brass unison.
Conclusion
The Dynaudio Confidence 60 floor-standing speaker continues the existing Dynaudio technology, but they restarted from the essential precision instrument measurement. In the mature current technology, they find out the subtleties that can be improved and integrate the technological advancement of each tiny area.
Confidence 60 is more suitable for super audiophiles. Although the Dynaudio Confidence 60 no longer uses the previous large voice coil woofer, the long-stroke cone design with more giant ultra-high-quality pure neodymium magnets has another low-frequency fun. At the same time, the sound performance has surpassed the original level.
Dynaudio Confidence 60 Specs
- Sensitivity: 87dB (2.83V / 1m)
- IEC power handling: 600W
- Impedance: 4 Ω (Minimum 3.7 Ω @ 71Hz)
- Frequency response (± 3 dB): 29Hz–22kHz
- Box Principle: Bass reflex, down-firing
- Crossover: 3 way
- Crossover frequency: 200, 2580Hz
- Crossover topology: 2nd/3rd order with DDC
- Woofer: 2x23cm MSP
- Midrange: 2×15 cm MSP
- Tweeter: 28 mm Esotar3
- Specification sheet for Confidence part 1
- Weight: 66.2 kg/145.9 lbs
- Dimensions (W x H x D):: 271 x 1634 x 469 mm , 10 43/64 x 64 21/64 x 18 15/32 Inches
- Dimensions with feet/grille (W x H x D): 432 x 1679 x 517 mm , 17 1/64 x 66 7/64 x 20 23/64 Inches
