History inside and outside is new and straightforward and neat DynamiKKs! Athos 10
Liu Hansheng Audio Forum
still remember DynamiKKs! That huge Athos speaker? The design principle of the speakers is still to maintain the tradition of DynamiKKs! 20 or 30 years, but its appearance completely breaks the existing concept. No one would have thought that DynamiKKs! could design such noble, beautiful, and textured speakers.
It seems a bit despised DynamiKKs!, in fact, the appearance design of the DynamiKKs! speaker has always been unique since the previous generation of DynamiKKs! (it cannot be said to be unique). It has all kinds of shapes, and it is definitely not a rectangular box. These creative speaker box shapes were not changed to the classical shape of large and small square boxes until the Monitor series was launched. The speakers in this shape are 8.12, 10.15 and 12.18. The number in the front is the size of the coaxial single unit, and the number in the back is the size of the bass single unit.
The designer who likes ancient flavor
What kind of designer is this that designed this "ancient" box? In my impression, UIf Moning, the boss of DynamiKKs!, seems to have never been to Taiwan, at least our audio forum has not interviewed him. According to the information given to us by this agent, he is a person who likes antique cars, antique audio equipment, and antique speakers. His family has British MG1958 Roadster MGA, 1973MGB, and many motorcycles. His main means of transportation is motorcycles. He himself used Marantz7 pre-level and Altec 1594B post-level. According to such description, Ulf Moning is very much like a typical simple German.
UIf Moning was very interested in audio as a student. In the 1980s, I found a job in a Mannheim audio store and officially entered the audio industry. In 1992, a sound store called Music Design was opened. Later, he collaborated with Roman GroB, a vacuum tube expander designer, to open a Musicconnection store. The reason why the two of them will cooperate is that UIf Moning had designed a high-efficiency speaker at that time, which was equipped with a small-power pipe machine, and Roman GroB is an expert in this field, and can build 2A3, 300B and other pipe machines. In 1997, the two of them participated in the then Frank Gospel Audio Exhibition (later changed to the Munich Audio Exhibition) and established the Dynavox speaker brand, the first speaker to be launched was 3.0. This agent has imported products since the Dynavox era, and has also written some comments on the audio forum. Later, the two parties broke up. Since UlfMoning did not master the Dynavox trademark, he switched to another brand he founded as early as 1993! . Please note that the exclamation mark behind the brand S character is also a trademark, not the punctuation mark I wrote. In addition, the two Ks are also capitalized to avoid similar troubles with other brands. The appearance of
Athos 10 inherits the design of Athos, with two pieces on the top and bottom independent, except that the one on the top is missing, and the rest of the curved box and beautiful wooden veneer are still the same.
Classical speaker design principles
To be honest, DynamiKKs! The speaker has adhered to the classic speaker design principles from the very beginning, and has not changed at all. It has only changed the box shape. Where can we see DynamiKKs! This classical principle? The tweeter uses a compressed horn and is coaxial with the midrange. The bass single is very large in size, and the diaphragm and suspended edges are used as antique speaker singles. Moreover, the box has a very large volume, so the tall and thin box does not allow the overall sensitivity of the speaker to reduce the overall sensitivity of the speaker. This approach is incompatible with the popular tall and thin box shapes.
However, last year, things turned around. DynamiKKs! suddenly launched Athos. The box shape of the speakers is surprisingly beautiful, and the veneer is also noble. In terms of design, it uses the MTM method to sandwich the mid and highs in the center, and place a 15-inch bass single unit on each top and bottom. In fact, if you look closely, you will find that Athos actually makes the Monitor series box into an arc and then adds a bass monomer on it. It's simple, but it's not easy to design the box so beautifully.
After the launch of Athos, we can use our knees to know that DynamiKKs! will definitely launch a series of speakers with similar designs but smaller boxes, which is the business practice.Sure enough, the agent imported Athos10 in July this year. When I saw Athos10 for the first time, it was a bit different from what I expected. The difference was that there was no extra bass monomer on it, which was equivalent to making the Monitor series box into a beautiful arc shape. Even so, the Athos 10 looks charming. Moreover, the beautiful log veneer looks really beautiful, and the painter looks like it is not painted (in fact, it is painted), and he touches it with his hands to feel the touch of European high-end furniture. It is undeniable that the shape, veneer and painter of Athos10 are definitely important factors that touch the desire to buy.
Reduced version Athos
Athos 10 model name comes from the diameter of the bass monomer, and the diameter of the coaxial monomer above is 8 inches. Do you still remember the smallest speaker in the Monitor series 8.12? Obviously, the size of the Athos 10's bass monomer has been reduced to 10 inches, and no longer used 12 inches. Therefore, Athos10 cannot be said to be the box beautification version of Monitor 8.12, but a brand new design. However, the 8-inch coaxial monomer above still uses iron horn compressed tweeter monomer, and the monomer diaphragm uses Polyester sandwich diaphragm. The diaphragm of the midrange and bass monomers is still made of paper, but the bass is mixed with carbon fiber. The hanging edge is also a double-circle hard hanging edge used in classical speaker singles. Please note that the dust cover in the center of the bass unit is particularly large, which also reveals that the voice coil diameter of the bass unit is so large.
Unlike before, the iron round horn of Athos10 is covered with sound-absorbing felt on the back of the metal horn to reduce the resonance that the metal horn may cause. Actually, I discovered this problem when I was using my own Monitor10.15, so I had long stuck it on the back of the horn with chemical clay. I didn't expect that now DynamiKKs! Go further and simply pasted the back of the metal horn with sound-absorbing felt. Knocking with your finger joints, the Athos10's metal horn sounds tuk-tuk, which obviously suppresses vibrations. In contrast, the metal horn tapping sound of my Monitor10.15 is relatively crisp, and the resonance frequency is obviously higher.
In addition, the treble horn can clearly see three fixing screws from the front. If you sit in the listening position, you will see the triangle point, which is also something that the metal horn did not have in the past. Obviously, the metal horn, midrange and bass monomer of Athos10 are different from before. However, the design philosophy is the same.
The frequency division point of Athos 10 is set at 200Hz and 1,200Hz. This frequency division method is similar to the practice of antique speakers. The frequency division of the bass single unit below 200Hz is also common on ordinary speakers, but mid-frequency and high-frequency 1,200Hz are rare, which is a frequency division that only ordinary horn speakers use. Generally, the treble frequency division of speakers is about 2,500-3,000Hz, while the treble frequency division of Athos 10 is doubled to 1,200Hz. Obviously, this compressed treble monomer is very powerful. What is the order of the dialer? What components should I use? The original manufacturer said that he couldn't tell me because they used "skipping" in it, and telling me would ruin the effort.
Athos 10 uses compressed horn treble, 8-inch coaxial paper cone midrange, and 10-inch paper cone bass bass. Its monomer design and manufacturing adopts classic designs from the 1950s and 1960s.
arc box
The most eye-catching thing about Athos 10 is the box that is curved on the left and right, and there are concave angles in the front and back. If you look at it from the side, you will find that Athos 10 is composed of two independent boxes, upper and lower boxes. The box below shows a backward angle, and the box above shows a forward angle. After the two are combined, a concave angle is formed. This design is for the acoustic focus of the coaxial monomer above and the bass monomer below. Whether it is the upper box or the lower box, a thick panel (6 cm thick) is added to the front of the panel. A shallow waveguide horn shape is naturally formed at the opening of the horn, which is very different from the front of the Monitor series that is flat. It not only improves the visual effect, but also has a substantial waveguide effect.
When you come to the back panel, Athos10 adds two adjustment buttons, the treble provides four segments and the midrange provides three segments, which is not available in the Monitor series.These two adjustment buttons have a great effect and can change the listening experience. You must make good use of them. As for the connection method of the upper and lower boxes, the same as before, it is connected with professional terminals. Moreover, there is still a large bass reflector hole at the bottom of the bass, but my Monitor10.15 has two, while the Athos10 has only one.
Listen to the Athos10 venue in my open large space. Since I have Monitor10.15 myself, in addition to using it myself, I have also heard of other speaker models in his house, so I should be very familiar with the sound of DynamiKKs! speakers. However, when Athos 10 started to sound at home, I was slightly startled, and my heart was weak and shouting: Is this the sound of DynamiKKs that I am familiar with? This is not DynamiKKs!, this is not DynamiKKs!, I want the sound of DynamiKKs!.
Brand new unboxed
Why isn't this DynamiKKs!? Did the DynamiKKs! horn changed the box shape and completely "going around" (the Taiwanese meaning is not the same)? Actually, it is not. The Athos10 pair just got it out of customs in the morning and delivered it to my house in the afternoon. After unboxing, even the smell of sticky glue was still floating in the air. It can be said that it was a horn that had not yet opened its voice. No wonder when I put the first CD in and listened to it, I felt that the sound was completely wrong. Since this is the case, I will slowly let it open my voice. I must sing until I can accept it before I can write a comment, otherwise I will kill the loyal and kind-hearted. Friends, when you buy a new speaker that has not been unboxed, you must give it enough time to open your voice. It is too exaggerated to say that it takes one year. Just sing for a week and sing for three hours a day, and you should be able to start listening. Of course, the longer you sing, the better the speaker will be, so there is no need to explain this.
It is easy to know whether the trumpet has already opened its voice. Find a string quartet, piano trio or quintet to listen to it. If you think it is wrong, it is a little astringent, and it is too tight to let go, it means you have not opened your voice yet. As long as it sounds quite pleasant, smooth and loose, the sound quality and harmony of each instrument is beautiful, it will be almost done. Of course, the main premise is that these speakers are originally made of materials. If they are rotten wood speakers, even if they spend a year opening their voice, their voice will still not be on the table!
Athos 10 has more midrange and treble adjustment buttons, which is something that has not been seen in the past.
Please carefully match the expansion machine
In addition to spending time to open your voice, Athos 10 also needs to choose the matching expansion machine, otherwise the expected results will still not be achieved. The first expansion I used to match with Athos10 is the current Weiss DAC 502 class, the Baldur 70 vacuum tube mono rear stage from Audio Valve, and the CD turntable is emmLabs TSDX SE. After listening to it for a while, I found that the high frequency is more prominent, and the low frequency volume sense is not enough, making the overall sound more rigid. The second expansion machine I matched with is the SpectralDMC 30SS with the ClaytonS100 pure Class A rear-level. This expansion machine softens the sound of the Athos 10, which is acceptable, but the liveliness of the music seems to be relatively insufficient, and the impact of the low frequency is also weaker.
My third set is paired with Gryphon Zena pre-level and Antileon EVO post-level. The low-frequency band has a very good impact, and the music is also very lively. The high-frequency is quite outstanding, but it is acceptable. What I have more objection is that it feels too much in the medium- and low-frequency bands. When listening to cello , umm, the nasal sound will be too strong. The fourth set I used the Boulder1110 front-level and the 1611 rear-level. As soon as this expansion machine was used, I immediately felt that the hairy feeling of Athos 10 was tamed, and the thicker feeling seemed to be polished more delicately. The most important thing is that the taste is right, and the volume sense of the high, medium and low frequency bands is relatively balanced and there is no highlight.
wire preparation
After listening to the Boulder expansion machine for a while, I felt that I was still missing a breath, so I started to replace the wire. Finally, I used the single crystal silver speaker cable of NeotechNEMOS-1160, which made me feel that I had supplemented my last breath. The difference is the extension of the high frequency and the richness of the overall details, and the improvement of the flexibility of the sound.The above process is very easy to talk about. In fact, it took me about nearly a month because I also had to listen to other equipment and couldn't listen to this set all the time.
Although I have been tossing for more than a month, I still have to be honest. Until I wrote the comment, the sound of Athos10 is not as loose as my own Monitor 10.15, but the basic taste is there, which is the sound characteristics of DynamiKKs! speakers. Why is it not as loose as my old speaker? One reason is that listening time is too short, and another reason may be the size of the monomer and the box. My Monitor10.15 box has a large capacity, which can improve sensitivity; the single unit size is large, so the sound does sound relatively loose. Compared with my Monitor10.15, the box of Athos10 is really much smaller. This is designed for spaces of average size and is not for use in large spaces. In other words, if you want to buy Monitor8.12 in the past, you can now consider buying Athos10. However, Athos 10 is not used to replace Monitor 8.12. These two series are still being produced online at the same time. Moreover, the price of Athos 10 is more expensive than Monitor 8.12. Of course, the appearance of Athos 10 is much more beautiful than Monitor 8.12.
Broadenabled
What are the sound characteristics of DynamiKKs!? It is not the slender one, nor the soft one, but the big one is wide and a bit rough, soft and hard. The piano is large in scale and rich in details, full and prominent in vocals, the cello is rubbed with a bit of hard tones, and the violin lines are deeply engraved. The bass of the big drum is fast and short, and the low frequency sense is not too excessive, but sufficient. Simply put, it is a refreshing and direct voice. To be honest, this refreshing and direct sound tastes similar to the 1960s RCA Living Stereo or Mercury Living Presence record recording . This kind of personalized speaker is very suitable for listening to jazz .
When I think of jazz, I think of the "Jazz Girl's Slow Plate" published by Proluo Culture, and I immediately found it to listen to it. After listening to the two CDs, Athos 10 verified my idea. Whether it is Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald or Shirley Horn's voice sounds more jazzy. Their voices are not soft, but are straightforward and hard. That's right, when we listen to the current recording, we will hear that a lot of MSG was added during the recording, making the voice more beautiful and softer. In fact, the singer's real voice is not that soft, but the voice of the old recordings is closer to the reality. Athos10 is like this. Its voice is not the beauty of adding materials, but is directly with a little hard tone. I think this is due to the monomer characteristics of the Athos10.
Jie Li tastes good
After hearing the "Jie Li actress's slow slap", which is mainly female singer, I found John Coltrane's "BlueTrain". I believe that audio fans have this classic jazz record, but it is not that easy to hear the recording taste, because it can easily make the sound noisy. Athos10 sings this CD with a hot, prominent, direct copper tube, fast rhythm, and a hard-toned jazz flavor.
After hearing "BlueTrain", I found "Kindof Blue" of MilesDavis. The first song "SoWhat" Bass buckle sound particles are short condensed, and the sound of the vibration of the copper tube wall vibrating and breaking gold is very clear. Especially when the main trumpet starts to play, the thick and loud copper tube sound is very direct, and it sounds very much like the sound heard right next to the jazz Pub stage. When the saxophone began to play, the loose sound of gold breaking was even more obvious, and it was very prominent. The piano, drum set, Bass, etc. were really just "accompaniment". To be honest, listening to jazz is to listen to such outstanding brass performances, because they are often the protagonists, and Athos10 happens to be able to perform the direct hidden sound characteristics of these protagonists very well, which is also the charm of antique trumpets!
I have listened to three ancient jazz music in a row, and I turned to modern jazz-flavored female singers, namely Anne Bisson and Lyn Stanley. Listen to Anne Bisson's "FourSeasons in Jazz" first. Her voice is loose and nice. When singing from many speakers, it always makes her voice softer. In fact, this softness is often formed by the afterglow of the speaker's single unit.The compressed treble single of Athos10 and the 8-inch midrange single, Anne Bisson is relatively neat and cheerful, direct, with obvious short tail, and it may be that the treble single and midrange single are less after the treble single. When I listened to the fifth song "Autumn in Montreal", the puff sound of the big drum was solid and short, and the soft Q taste was less, but it still sounded beautiful. The original Bass' buckle is not as hard as the old recording, but has a little softness. The Athos 10 also performs well, and you can feel the rapid response of the bass monomer.
When listening to LynStanley's "Londoncalling", Athos10 also showed a softer sound than the old recordings. This is because these two modern jazz recordings are basically soft, not as direct as the old jazz recordings. However, if compared with ordinary speakers, Athos10 is still relatively direct, has fast speed and less softness and more rigidity. Please note that what I mean by rigidity is not noisy, but a direct and unobstructed personality.
"Starson Pop Pop Bloom II Retro Event" is a new record launched by Malaysian PopPop Factory Records this year. It has won all the singers of its company and has made a voice in the form of a two-person combination. The recording effect is excellent, the songs are good, and it is a good record that can be collected.
Directly without makeup
After listening to two recordings of modern jazz female singers, I took out the "Starson Pop Pop Bloom II" from PopPop Factory in Malaysia. This record is very good in both recording and singing, and it has the taste of the old recording without any hidden secrets, with very little addition. Sure enough, the performance of Athos10 is really great. The brilliance of the copper tube, the texture and thickness of the metal and gold are very real, just like listening to live performances next to a jazz band. The sound particles of Bass are clear and not very large. The hard tone of the big drum is very solid, the small drum is crisp and thick, not like it is noisy. The low frequency control power is very good, especially the sixth song "Singing and Dance" and the electric bass plays a very low scale, but the Athos 10 can still clearly grasp each low frequency soft ball tightly so that it can bounce and control it. Obviously, the 10-inch bass monomer at Athos 10 is very fast instantaneously reacting. As for the singer's voice, they are very direct and clean. You can hear the "no makeup" of your voice. Both men and women are full and energetic, full of energy. This mid-band is also a sound characteristic of Athos10.
After listening to several jazz and pop music in succession, I would like to give a few classical music to illustrate the sound characteristics of Athos10. Let’s first talk about BIS’s “Mysterious Variations” and Horst’s “Planet Suite” (conducted by Andrew Litton by Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra). There are many string groups in "The Miscellaneous Variations". Obviously, Athos10 is not a soft and dense string group, but a dense string group with a little hard tune. This is like some people have soft hair, while some people have hard hair. Although they are all black and shiny from a distance, you will feel the difference in hair quality when you touch your hair with your hands. Athos10's string group is a relatively hard hair texture. In terms of the dynamic range and instantaneous reaction of orchestral music, the sharp personality of Athos10 can be heard from the "Planet Suite". It is a speaker with strong kinetic energy, fast reaction, and will not drag on the mud. Although the bass monomer is only 10 inches, the low frequency shock is quite strong.
Copper tube is loud and loud
Next I will listen to the "Dream Bridge" by mainland composer Fang Kuqing. From the first movement, Athos10 emits huge sound energy, the rolling low frequencies, loud copper tubes, and dense string music groups are all held tightly by a drum of force, with strong cohesion. The guzheng sounds very strong, the piano is huge, the cello has a strong wood flavor, and the overall orchestral musical scale sounds huge. But I have to be honest, due to the single and box size of Athos10, its musical scale is still inferior to my Monitor10.15.
Athos 10 How to sing the violin? I took out the Sibelius Violin Concerto from Haifeiz to listen to it. As expected, the Haifeiz sounds drawn by Athos 10 are hard hair, but there is no shortage of string texture, luster, sweetness, and twists. You don’t have to worry about the sounds being sharp and stiff.
Let’s listen to the “Vivaldiin Venice” of Zhuilong Records.This is a small string orchestra with only 8 people, but through the excellent recording effect, people think it is a chamber orchestra with one or twenty people. Athos10 here shows string music with rich low frequencies and high fusion of string music groups, but not the fusion of milk coffee, but the fusion of different instruments can be heard. When playing the bassoon, you can feel the bassoon's body is round, has rich resonance, and is convex on the string group, which sounds like oil and water separation. From this performance, we can see that Athos10 is a pair of horns with distinct personalities, straightforward, clear, neither soft nor slow.
Architectural and new inside and outside
DynamiKKs! Athos 10 is a pair of new inside and outside, straightforward and neat speakers. The designer insists on maintaining the classic thinking of speaker design in the 1950s and 1960s, but it can meet the needs of modern appearance aesthetics and creates this pair of speakers that are not vulgar and insist on personality. Because of its direct and unobstructed personality, it takes some effort to match the expansion machine and the wire to integrate the advantages of the speaker, expansion machine and wire. Since this pair of speakers is brand new, the opening time is still insufficient, and my comments cannot see all the secrets, but it can be guaranteed that the sound performance will only get better and better after maturity. Have you ever been fascinated by the Athos that you can't afford? Now Athos 10 is coming at the right time.
Specifications:
DynamiKKs! Athos 10
Product type
Three-tone three-month horn coaxial bass reflective speaker
release time
2019
used monomer
compressed horn treble×1
8 inch coaxial midrange×1
10 inch bass×1
10 inch bass×1
3bandwidth
28Hz- 20kHz (semi-active)
32Hz-20kHz (passive)
average impedance
6 Aoum
sensitivity
91dB (semi-active 96dB)
weight
60 kg
appearance size (WHD)
360 × 1,050 × 500mm
