What Hi Fi Sound and Vision
05 JUN 2009
Dynaudio Focus 110A
They make a strong case for Active speaker design. Fun, flexible and hugely capable.
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We’ve always found it strange that active speakers like the Dynaudio Focus 110As aren’t more common. Technically they make a lot of sense.
An active speaker is one with power amplifiers built-in – 2 x 50 Watts in each enclosure in this case.
You’ll need some way of switching sources and controlling the volume: a preamp is the conventional way of doing this, but you can also make a system by plugging a laptop’s headphone output straight into the speakers
Coupling the power amplifier directly to the drive unit is a good thing: there are no long lengths of speaker cable or passive crossover to get in the way.
Also, as the active crossover comes before the power amp, it can be engineered with greater precision, as it has to deal with a line, rather than speaker level, signal.
Impressively detailed
All this means the Focus 110As are impressively detailed and can deliver dynamics with great control.
Usually a small speaker, such as the passive Focus 110s (with an appropriate amp, naturally), would be struggling when asked to deliver the likes of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture at high volumes.
These Actives never struggle. Perhaps most impressive is their grip at low frequencies; they differentiate notes even with complex music.
Switch to the likes of Bruce Springsteen’s Radio Nowhere and the Dynaudio’s fine timing and punch come to the fore.
Criticisms? Tonality is a little too smooth and rich for our taste. There are tone switches on the back of the speaker which help, but they don’t eradicate the trait.
Having said that, though, it barely take the edge off what is an impressively accomplished performance.
The passive 110s are fine speakers for the money, but for us these Actives are the ones to go for.
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