My search for nearfield monitors is temporarily over. I finally stopped reading reviews or looking at ads and took another engineer's endorsement (Bruce Kaphan in San Francisco) to heart and ordered a pair of these Dynaudio BM-6As ($2000). I was not unhappy. They are self-powered with 2 100 watt discrete MOSFET amps per speaker - one for highs and one for lows, crossing over at 2.2 kHz. There are only three controls on the back, besides a power switch. A level switch can run the speakers on either +4 dBm or -10 dBm input. The HF trim reduces high-end response and the LF trim swaps bandwidth for power, allowing a deeper low- end at the expense of a flat response. So far I've left all the trims at zero. In use, these are the best speakers I've ever had at my studio. The 170 mm bass drivers don't look very large but deliver deep lows with a clear imaging in the 60- 200 Hz realm. The tweeter is very clear and non-fatiguing. The speakers deliver a very defined mid-range too. When inevitably compared to a pair of NS-10s at the same volume, the BM-6As didn't feel "scooped-out" like some high-end monitors, yet they were not as abrasive as the Yamahas. My only complaint might be that an extra 25-50 watts on the low-end amp would help make the speakers kick in when pushed really loud. It seemed like the clipping LED was coming on a bit much when we tried to listen loud, although there was no audible speaker or amp distortion. In the end, I was able to improve my tracking and mixes immediately because of the clarity of detail, which is exactly what I had been looking for.
(www.dynaudioacoustics.com)
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