Ah, monitors... Iâve gone through more than my fair share of them over the years in my pursuit to find ones that I feel comfortable working on for long days, and that also translate well so I donât feel like Iâm being lied to or fooled into a sense that Iâm hearing something other than what is actually happening. My first ârealâ set of monitors, back in the mid-â90s, was a pair of passive Dynaudio BM5 speakers. I used them for a number of years before I began my relentless quest for the âperfectâ monitor â a speaker ever more truthful, revealing, and enjoyable to work on, than whatever model I was using at the time. What has happened while on this particular search is that Dynaudio monitors have become my baseline against which I judge all others, and the monitors that I would come back to when I was too frustrated by another choice.
This made my first impression when putting the newDynaudio LYDÂ 48monitors on my speakers stands something along the line of âIâm back home!â They sound like the Dynaudios that I know and love, but there is also something much greater to them.
Some background about this particular model â itâs the latest in Dynaudioâs reimagined/re-engineered professional LYD line that they introduced last year with the LYD 5, LYD 7 [Tape Op#117], and LYD 8. This newLYD 48is the first and only 3-way in the family. Itâs equipped with an 8ââ woofer (which is ported in the back through a rectangular slot along one short side of the cabinetâs rear), a 4ââ midrange driver, and Dynaudioâs well-loved 28 mm soft-dome tweeter. The tweeter is above the midrange, while the woofer is to the side of them. This allows for horizontal placement with the woofer either on the inside or outside, depending on room layout (and speaker-boundary) preferences. Meanwhile, the tweeter and midrange stay vertically aligned to preserve their phase relationship as you move left or right in front of the speaker.
Most of the marketing images of the LYD line show the speakers with a front baffle in a striking white color that contrasts with the black of the rest of the cabinet â this makes the speakers immediately obvious when viewed in a control room. I was sent aLYD 48pair in the optional and newer all-black scheme, which gives the speakers a very ominous, stealth-like appearance.
Each driver in theLYD 48is powered by its own onboard Class D amplifier â 80 watts for the woofer, 50 watts each for the midrange and tweeter. The analog-only input (balanced XLR or unbalanced RCA) is internally converted to a 24-bit, 96 kHz digital signal for the integrated DSP. The amps and electronics are tonally neutral and extremely quiet; I had to put my ear next to the tweeter to make sure the amps were on. A switch on the back allows theLYD 48to go into low-power standby after a short period of time of no signal. I found that a healthy amount of signal level from my monitor controller was required for the speaker to turn back on.
There are DSP-implemented controls on the back panel to adjust Bass Extension, Sound Balance, and Position. Bass Extension has â10Â Hz, 0, and +10Â Hz settings. The â10Â Hz setting allows theLYDÂ 48to extend its bass response down to its specified 32Â Hz, at the expense of overall volume, due to lower frequencies requiring the most power to reproduce. The manual suggests that most professionals mix at 70â85Â dB SPL, a range suitable for the â10Â Hz setting; and for each 5Â dB increase in SPL, the next higher setting should be used. In my testing, I left it at 0Â Hz. Sound Balance is a tilt EQ; one direction gives +1.5Â dB at 20Â Hz and â1.5Â dB at 20Â kHz; the other direction is the inverse. I kept this switch in the middle (flat) position after listening to both options, as my room is quite well controlled with a combination of low and low-mid absorption, as well as diffusion. The final Position switch is for a gentle LF shelf to offset the bass buildup that arises when the speaker is placed close to a wall or corner. The manual suggests using the Free setting for distances of 50Â cm or farther, and Wall for nearer. I positioned theLYDÂ 48s with their back corners about 25Â cm from the wall behind them, so having the Wall setting to temper some of the boundary effect was welcome. This put theLYDÂ 48s approximately 1.5Â m from my sitting position.
Dynaudio recommended that I âburn inâ theLYDÂ 48s for 24 hours, using either music or pink/white noise. I played ComadusterâsHollow Worldson repeat, as itâs a loud electronic-music album thatâs also quite dynamic, and it covers the full frequency spectrum throughout its hour-plus playing time. (Iâm still skeptical about the efficacy of speaker burn-in, but if the manufacturer suggests it, Iâm game to give it a go.)
Finally playing music through theLYDÂ 48s for some proper listening, I ran through some of my usual test playlists. John VandersliceâsPixel Revoltis always a good torture test for low-end extension, as thereâs plenty of tasty Moog bass that lesser systems have difficulty reproducing. I found that theLYDÂ 48s sounded smooth and deep, whether I was hitting them with some really well-produced rock/metal, Chris Thile and Yo-Yo MaâsThe Goat Rodeo Sessions, or JĂłhann JĂłhannssonâs soundtrack toArrival. Bass-wise, the speakers were definitely getting down to âbrown-noteâ territory. (Iâm nothing if not classy.)
But enough of the pleasure-listening, it was time to actually mix on them and see how things translated. I mixed an unreleased song from The Lonely Forest that I recorded at Studio Litho here in Seattle a few years ago, just before the band broke up; and it was quite effortless to pull a basic mix together on theLYDÂ 48s quickly, while zeroing in on the problem frequencies that come from dense layers of guitars and bass over a thick vocal arrangement. Soloing the drum tracks, I was transported back to the day we spent tracking and could easily hear the large room at Litho that I know so well. The kick spoke with punch and authority, and I was able to make it and the bass guitar work together as a single unit driving the lows, while still maintaining definition for each part. The imaging of theLYDÂ 48s was particularly impressive and helpful for positioning the multiple guitar parts into a perfect panorama, so that each guitar performance had a place to inhabit, but each supported the whole of the arrangement. Vocals were my favorite thing to work on with the Dynaudios, as the 3-way system of drivers gave the midrange frequencies a presence that is sometimes lacking on 2-ways.
Taking the mix outside the studio to my home stereo, as well as listening on Audio-Technica ATH-M50x [Tape Op#113] and Beyerdynamic DT-770 headphones, I heard what I expected to hear, with no unpleasant surprises. In the mix, I could discern a bit of my unfamiliarity with theLYDÂ 48, compared to how my Genelecs translate for me, but thatâs purely because of my lack of experience on Dynaudios in the past few years. Iâm confident this would be an easy hurdle to overcome.
LYDÂ 48s are non-fatiguing monitors that are enjoyable to work on for long days. They have fantastic stereo imaging, and a wide, even frequency response that not many other monitors in this price range can approach. Given their street price of $2300 per pair, for a 3-way active monitor made in Denmark with bespoke Dynaudio drivers, these may be the best bargain in mid-range monitors today!
Pair $2,298;www.dynaudio.com âDon Gunnwww.dongunn.com