Dynaudio Focus 380 Review

LOUDSPEAKER
Dynaudio Focus 380
Offering detail in abundance, this traditional fl oorstander
hints at Dynaudio's professional monitoring expertise
Review: John Bamford Lab: Keith Howard
S
tanding a little over 1.2m tall and
weighing 34kg, the Focus 380 is the
top-of-the-line model in Dynaudio's
middle-market Focus range. Sporting
two 200mm woofers together with a
dedicated 150mm midrange driver and a
28mm soft dome tweeter, it promises to
deliver large-scale audio images and a sizeable
bang for the buck if your listening room is
not too cramped and compact standmount
speakers simply won't do it for you, in your
quest for audio nirvana.
OK, so it looks a little old-fashioned in
today's world of CAD-CAM enclosures and
elaborately sculpted baffl es devoid of all
fi xings to give sleek, clean lines. Dynaudio's
Focus models employ conventional enclosures
– sturdily braced and nicely fi nished in real
wood veneers nonetheless, built in its own
Danish cabinet-making facilities – without such
niceties as magnetically attached grilles and
glossy trim rings to disguise driver fi xings.
They're a bit of a throwback in this respect,
although there's nothing old-fashioned about
the design of the drive units and the attention
to detail Dynaudio puts into its manufacturing.
The consistency and reliability of Dynaudio's
drivers is legendary in professional audio
circles [see boxout]. And anyway, if it's ultra-
modern-looking eye-candy that you crave,
Dynaudio has that covered too, in its fl agship
Evidence series of high-end models.
All the Focus designs employ proprietary
drivers manufactured entirely in-house.
Dynaudio's distinctive bass/mid driver cones
employ a magnesium silicate polymer
composite that offers low mass, high rigidity
and 'ideal internal damping properties', says
the company, with supple rubber surrounds
and a geometric form designed for smooth
sound dispersion. The baskets are in diecast
aluminium, ribbed for improved rigidity,
minimal resonance and resistance to warping,
and formed in a manner so as to reduce air
compression and turbulence behind the
drivers' moving membranes.
The motor assemblies feature neodymium
magnets and large but lightweight voice-coils
made of aluminium, with recently developed
black Kapton formers. Using aluminium wire
instead of copper allows for more windings
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REPRintEd FROM Hi-Fi nEWS
and a larger coil diameter without increasing
mass. By positioning twin magnets inside its
voice-coils Dynaudio says a larger and more
homogenous magnetic fi eld can be utilised,
with less magnetic radiation.
Using two adjacent magnet rings creates
a more symmetrical pole-piece design and
aims to make the coil conduction constant
regardless of voice coil position. Meanwhile
the company's silk soft dome tweeters are
hand treated with a proprietary coating,
their aluminium voice coils suspended in
magnetic oil (ferrofl uid) to increase power
(thermal) handling and to improve the high
frequency dome's excursion capability. A
damping chamber is integrated into the rear
of the assembly to deaden back-wave energy
through an acoustic absorber.
SINGLE-WIRE PHILOSOPHY
Throughout its loudspeaker designs Dynaudio
employs fi rst order (6dB/octave) crossovers
to marry its driver complement. These
feature oxygen-free copper air-coils, selected
capacitors and ceramic resistors chosen for
their temperature stability. 'Dividing the
frequency sections through bi-wiring or
bi-amping is neither benefi cial nor optional,'
states the user manual, since only a single pair
of binding posts is fi tted at the rear.
While ultra-conservative in appearance,
the enclosures are braced in critical sections
and internally damped to minimise unwanted
resonances. Moreover, the fi t and fi nish of the
veneer, which the company hand polishes
and coats, is top class. They are offered in a
choice of maple, walnut, rosewood, black ash
or glossy piano lacquer black or white. The
enclosure sits on a slim but sturdy composite
plinth section with damping compound
between it and the main cabinet, its underside
sporting threaded metal inserts in four corners
for the supplied aluminium fl oor spikes.
The speaker has been designed to be not
too fussy about room placement, although to
RIGHT:
Styled with just a conventional grille and
exposed driver fi xings, the front baffl e sports two
200mm bass drivers working in tandem, a separate
150mm midrange unit and 28mm soft dome
tweeter. Everything is made in-house by Dynaudio
www.hifi news.co.uk
Three-way fl oorstanding loudspeaker
Made by: Dynaudio A/S, Denmark
Supplied by: Dynaudio UK
Telephone: 01353 721089
Web: www.dynaudio.co.uk
Price: £5650