Dynaudio Emit 10

The last in three tests of the hi-fi side of Dynaudio’s entry range, the Dynaudio Emit 10 is the smallest and cheapest in the line-up. The stand-mount loudspeaker is one of the most affordable traditional loudspeakers hi-fi+ has seen in some time. Let’s cut to the chase here; it represents new levels of ‘good’ given its size and price. To quote Shaun of the Dead; “How’s that for a slice of fried gold!”

It’s the smallest in the family if all three are in a row. Also, the Emit 10 doesn’t look big when on a heavy 24” stand, especially if you use typical ‘bookshelves’ like the Emit 20. But unless you are doing some of that in a row comparing, you’ll never notice. And, unless you take the invoice showing how much you spent on them and wave it around, you would never, ever guess they were £630 per pair.

Dynaudio Emit 10: Bespeaks quality

This is a well-finished and conventionally-styled loudspeaker cabinet, with a (surprisingly good) vinyl-wrapped cabinet and a thick black front baffle. It’s single-wired and rear-ported with a fluted port supplied with bungs. and both terminals and ports bespeak quality beyond the basic expectations at their price.

But it’s when you get to the drivers that things begin to look positive. Like all the Emit models, the Dynaudio Emit 10 uses a 28mm Cerotar tweeter, which is used in the Evoke series. It’s a soft-dome design with a Hexis inner dome for greater dispersion and improved high-frequency break-up resilience. Meanwhile, the mid-woofer is a scaled-down 140mm version of the Magnesium Silicate Polymer (MSP) driver used in the bigger Emits. This has an integral dust cap and 38mm voice coil with copper-clad aluminium wire. This is driven by strontium carbonate ferrite/ceramic magnets and is a direct result of the years of designing drivers in the domestic, pro audio and car audio fields, making a loudspeaker drive unit that’s both linear and reliable.

Clever little touches

It’s the little things that make a big difference, especially at this end of the market. For example, Dynaudio includes little magnetic bright yellow tweeter guards; these are designed as double protection during shipping and installation (at one point in every audio installer’s career, they’ve destroyed a tweeter while trying to fish a loudspeaker out of its box). But they also act as useful protection when the speaker is not in use. OK, so bright yellow attracts little fingers, but this gives one extra layer of protection against pushed, torn or otherwise damaged tweeters. Clever and handy.

Of course, if the loudspeaker was rubbish, then a protector on the tweeter prolongs its life expectancy. There are a few loudspeakers that could benefit from a swift and merciful end at the thumbs of a child, but the Dynaudio Emit 10 is not one of those loudspeakers. Instead, it’s everything we have come to expect from the Emit range, just in a slightly smaller size. That also means slightly less deep bass than you’ll get from the bigger Emit 20 stand-mount or the Emit 30 floorstander. But that’s pretty much all you get in compromise terms. You are very slightly trading bass depth for bass speed here; the Emit 10 seems fractionally faster than its bigger brothers, but we are talking about extremely minor improvements here.

Small box, small room

What’s more, often entry-point products go into smaller homes with smaller listening spaces. This loudspeaker is ready to rock in such spaces. Sure, the bass isn’t as deep as others (including the Emit 20), but what it delivers it does so honestly and with precision and refinement. It’s a grown-up sound for a scaled-down room, and those on their first rung on the audio ladder will appreciate those properties and the performance they produce.

It’s that refinement that makes the Dynaudio Emit 10 something exceptional. The tonal balance is spot on, with a treble that is both very easy to listen to and doesn’t show up any of the potentially hard edges that come from partnering equipment at this price point. This was clear from the first bars of ‘Because He Was a Bonny Lad’ sung by The Unthanks [Here’s the Tender Coming, Rabble Rouser], as it defined Rachel and Becky’s voices and the subtle inclusion of reverb in the chorus. Other speakers at this level would make their folk-minded voices hard and spikey.

The midrange in these loudspeakers is similarly well-designed and executed. Staying with Rachel and Becky Unthank a little longer, folk is all about diction, as the mix of traditional and new folk tracks requires the utmost vocal articulation. The Emit range has been outstanding at that vocal projection and detail from the outset, and there’s nothing about the entry-level loudspeakers to change that. These are loudspeakers that let the singer do their magic; little wonder that pro-audio Dynaudio has replaced the LS3/5a as the broadcast monitor of choice for many talk radio settings. These have the same property as those pro monitors, just writ a little smaller.

Folk dub

Of course, staying with folk is trying to dance around the bass issue. No one listens to The Unthanks albums for their dub reggae mixes or some hard electro beats. But the bass is excellent from this loudspeaker for the same reasons it’s good on its bigger brothers; it doesn’t try to exaggerate the bass, and the roll-off is noticeable but not uneven or deliberately peaked. Listening to Leftfield’s classic exploration of bottom-end sounds [Leftism, Comumba], on ‘Afro-Left’ the bass kicks in well and separates from the fake African chanting and (possibly real) kora playing.

The Dynaudio Emit 10 doesn’t have the excavating depth and impact you get with much larger loudspeakers, but the roll-off is clean and honest, with just a hint of lift around the 50-80Hz mark. This makes the loudspeaker sound ‘right’, whereas without it a loudspeaker like this would sound slightly lean. However, this is barely a lift, more like a very slight seasoning to make the bass sound slightly bigger.

The big feather in the Dynaudio Emit 10’s cap is excellent coherence across the frequency range. It also does a nice ‘disappearing act’ when it comes to soundstaging. The top-to-bottom coherence is outstanding, not just on paper, but if you play ‘Be-Bop’ from the album of the same name by the blisteringly fast jazz guitarist Pasquale Grasso {Sony Music], you need a cogent presentation to process all that high-speed jazz box playing successfully; he’s so agile and fast, it’s easy for his guitar runs to blur into one big legato solo. With the Emit 10, every note is perfectly rendered; well enough to make any ordinary human guitar player give up!

Dynaudio Emit 10: A sign of the Golden Age

I keep banging on about this being a ‘golden age’ for audio. It’s products like the Dynaudio Emit 10 that make that case for me. Sure, it’s a golden age at the top-end of audio. ‘Cost no object’ buys you an awesome product that delivers unparalleled performance at every level. But it’s here in the trenches where the significant changes are most visible.

This Dynaudio shows you what is possible from a small, affordable loudspeaker. At least when a lot of modern design and technology is thrown at the project. The Dynaudio Emit 10’s linearity, detail, accuracy, consistency, and even building are not consistent with a product costing £630 in 2022. Or, more accurately, these parameters should be consistent with such a product, and yet so many brands fail to deliver.

There is no space to ‘phone it in’ anymore. Those who make carefully considered purchases at this level don’t have the luxury of making mistakes. The products they buy reflect that. Dynaudio’s Emit range threw down a gauntlet to its rivals. The Emit 10 reinforces that challenge. This is thanks to a sound quality that never, ever points to this being an entry-level loudspeaker.

With the Emit 10, Dynaudio has done it again. It offers an affordable loudspeaker carefully packaged, ensuring the quality is there where it counts. You are getting what should be a higher-priced product but presented in a modern-looking (and highly convincing) vinyl-wrapped cabinet. This brings you more actual loudspeaker for your money.

The Emit 10’s musical delivery is smooth and detailed. It has an articulation that makes these more versatile than many bookshelf rivals. C’mon, other brands… at least try and compete with the Emit 10!

Dynaudio Emit 10: Technical specifications

• Type 2-way, two-driver stand-mount monitor with rear-ported bass reflex enclosure
• Driver complement One 28mm soft dome tweeter, one 140mm MSP mid-bass driver
• Frequency response 64Hz–25kHz +/-3dB
• Crossover frequency 3.7kHz
• Impedance 6 Ohms
• Sensitivity 85dB/W/m
• Dimensions (H×W×D) 290 × 170 × 271.5mm
• Weight 6.43/each
• Finishes Walnut, Black, White
• Price £630 per pair

Manufacturer

Dynaudio A/S

www.dynaudio.com

Distributor

Dynaudio UK

www.dynaudio.com

+44(0)1638 742427

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