Untitled - Best-Audio

DLS R 55FLOOR STANDING SPEAKER SYSTEMSTORY: WIJIT BOONCHOOIt is a strange beginning that the DLS speaker systems began with a car speakerdesign. As a result, in 1979, their speakers won top awards in Sweden and Europeand quickly gained ground in the market. After the speakers were installed inAmerican cars and won many prizes, in the year 2003 they expanded to produce homeaudio speakers and home theatre systems. They received many accolades fromlisteners. Critics from the Norwegian audio/video magazine Bild & Ljud declared theDLS R55 speaker system to have the Best Sound. The speakers must be quite specialto merit the unanimous praise from that magazine. I have tried to trace what theircomments were. They are very interesting, because it is a speaker that producesexceptionally clear, floating bass sounds, and a speaker with very accurate sound also.Differences and similarities with typical speakers. I think the design ofthese speakers is strange and we must not overlook various important points. We canstart by looking at the structure, which is truly a tower with a tall figure and narrowface, with a hole for the bass reflex tube rather far down on the back side. The frontsurface of the box is real veneer. The pair of two low-frequency drivers uses papercones produced by natural methods similar to casting and molding, so they have arough surface, and are not smooth cones. They use a double magnet system also. The5-inch driver cones are separated for different tasks, although they have the samestructure. The first one is for the mid-range, in a frequency range continuing from thebass (mid-woofer). The other woofer produces the deep low frequencies, and the highfrequencies come from a 1-inch tweeter dome. The DLS R55 speaker was specifiedby the manufacturer as a two-way-and-a-half speaker, which is stranger than ourexpectation that it is a three-way speaker.The poles of a good-quality speaker are divided into two sets for bi-wiringconnections. Although it is a floor-standing speaker, its size is not big. It looks slimand takes up very little space. Also, you don’t need to worry about looking for astand to match with them, as you would for shelf speakers. The base of the speaker isalready strong enough, but you may choose to put spikes in the floor for greaterstability. From the design pattern, you will see that the drivers are set almost at thevery top of the cabinet. The cloth mask is styled to be curved at the top and bottom,and is attached by 6 pins. Furthermore, when we take off the mask, it can fit tightlyagainst the back of the box, because they designed holes for the pins on the back aswell. That is a very good trick.I had never heard these speakers before, nor any DLS speakers at all, so this was agreat challenge for me. What would Swedish speakers be like?REFERENCEMICROMEGA STAGE 2MARSH SOUND DESIGN MSD 2000TMARSH SOUND DESIGN MSD A200SAUDIOLAB 8000SCD PLAYERPRE-AMPLIFIERPOWER AMPLIFIERINTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

MONITOR CABLE ATMOS AIRMONITOR CABLE THASSOSSPEAKER CABLEINTERCONNECT CABLEW TESTIn the past I have traveled to visit the factories producing speakers in the countriesSweden, Denmark, and Norway. The atmosphere in Scandinavia is an impressiveexperience, and every time that I walk and look around at those countries, I feel likeI’m walking in a high place all the time, even when the ground is flat. The seas are asurprisingly deep blue, and when the Sun is overhead past 10.00 PM, it is a specialplace like nowhere else in the world. No matter how many times I visit, I alwayshave a feeling of amazement. Their meticulous refinement together with theirdesigners, who never rest, make the speakers from those countries blend with theclassical music sound and generate a realistic concert hall atmosphere, closelypreserving the nature of the sound. Even though their style is different, the sound ofthe speaker is not only signaling equipment. It must be real music also.DLS, a speaker producer of the city of Gothenburg, has designed many series ofspeakers for watching movies and listening to music, and the R series are speakersthat stress both the quality and structure of the sound. There is complete refinement.When I received the floor-standing speaker DLS R 55, there was a sudden, immediateimpression from opening to look at the speaker cone. You will see paper that ispressed roughly, more like handmade, and you will see only the speaker that is mostlyused in studios. That is quite interesting. When the bass drivers are placed furled onthe face of the box, they extend almost to the edges of the box. It is very noteworthythat the tweeter dome has metal around the edges of the dome that helps to expand thesound. The diameter is much larger than usual for a tweeter dome, at 4 inches, andthe result from expanding the treble tones is exceptional and impressive from the firsthearing.The results from the burn-in. If the DLS R 55 speaker has not stabilized, thebest way to observe this is not from the treble tones, because the treble tones willstabilize faster and the middle upper range stabilizes very well, but rather from thebass tones. You will find that the bass tones will be more blunt-edged thanappropriate for a speaker of this level. Sometimes the bass will also seem to be downnear the floor. Even after the speaker has already completed its burn-in period, thiscan still happen if we put the speaker less than 80 centimeters from a wall. This isbecause the bass tube is a low, drilled-out port at the back, which has both good andbad effects. We must choose to make good use of this bass tube, based on how closeit should be to the back wall for the best quality. After completing the burn-in, whenwe set it in the right place, we can observe that the bass tones will float out of thecabinet, with no box-effect. The bass sound must increase to be firm and clear, withno dragging or blurring of the bass. After burn-in of at least 70 hours, the sound fromthis pair of slim floor-standing DLS R 55 speakers can be said to be very interesting,and too interesting for us to simply listen and walk on by. They are more attractivethan expected.Clear, clean, resonant, glittering treble tones. They are clear, without anyimpediments, floating out of the speaker, as if they are free by themselves, not at alldependent on their own box. The sound does not take second place to film speakers.Afterwards I found out that the treble frequency response of these speakers extends asfar as 25,000 Hz. The treble tones have great clarity, but not so much that they cannot

free themselves without a very loud volume. If the sound is too clear or a little souras the critics say, you should try to listen for about a week. After passing the burn-in,the sounds that may be somewhat stiff will disappear. I understand that the burn-induring this test was no longer than 70 hours, because it seemed to settle down veryfast for the DLS R 55. From listening to the solo sounds of a violin, together with apiano, with a mood of mixing between fresh sweetness and stirring up a fast mood,without being slow or inert, we must accept that the smoothness of high-frequencytones from the DLS R 55 can be produced clearly and continuously, smooth and cleanat the same time. The sound of musical instruments in the treble frequencies isproduced with very outstanding fidelity (Unplug 2 under TIS).The resonance of sound or harmonics are what define the special characterand personality of a speaker. All the drivers work together with the crossover andbox, truly working together. This can indicate how well they have settled down. It isinteresting to analyze how well they produce resonant sound. The sound of a pianothat rises from low keys to high keys and from high falls down to low, the sound thatmakes us feel that the fingers of the player are flowing smoothly, and the resoundingdescent step-by-step of the keys of piano are melodious to listen to, because of thevery clear resonance (Real piano-a collection of real music). I tried to use tracks atthe level we use for testing together with musical sounds. I found clarity, notfuzziness, in the piano sound, and the sounds of voices that seem to hold each other,forever entwined (Don’t smoke in bed : Holly Cole Trio).Clean and detailed sound. There is no doubt about the score of this Europeanspeaker in this category. DLS R 55 makes us separate the abilities of the speaker intotwo parts. The first part is detailed sound and the second part is how clean it is. Thescores for detailed and clean sound are equal, but the impressive thing is the clarity ofsound, which we should talk about further. A speaker that provides clean sound as itsfoundation is then able to provide other qualities, such as expanding on details overwide areas of the sound stage, following like ripples. At the very least it can expandbetter than usual upon details of the musical instruments. Then for the same song onthe same CD, you will hear soft sounds in fuller detail than for other speakers withless clean sound than the DLS R55.Also, because the bass sound is not too thick, it helps greatly to support the excellenceof the high-end sound.I don’t think that only clear sound from the speaker that will be enough for thelistener, so when the DLS R 55 gives clean sound as a foundation along with clarityas an added quality, that translates into very impressive middle treble tones. It cangive shining details from the foundation of that clean sound. Even new age electronicmusic can be expressed more pleasantly than ever (Kitaro : Silk Road). The detailsthat we get from the music as a result of listening can be considered to come closer tothe music. That fresh and clear sound is well controlled by the crossover networkdesign. The R55 shows that it is the floor-standing speaker that has one of the bestdesigns for smoothness in the upper middle treble range among speakers of this type.This series of speakers specifies an impedance of 4 Ohms. Many people areconcerned that if the impedance is not 8 Ohms that will create problems with theamplifier. I would like to inform the reader that no pair of speakers in the world has astable impedance. It will move up and down all the time, and the value we obtain willmean only the average value. An impedance of 4 Ohms is no problem or obstacle foruse in watching movies or listening to music. It simply implies that no more than two

pairs should be connected in parallel, in order to avoid an average impedance that istoo low. Surely my personal sets of speakers, which I love very much and listen toevery day, are also 4 Ohm speakers.A strong point is their rapid response. It is very easy to determine that thisfloor-standing speaker has a very fast treble response. The frequency signal responsecontinues down to low tones that use the mid-range woofer of the same size. Thetransmission has no hiccups due to using drivers of the same size. The bass soundsthat work in tandem at different frequencies lead to almost a seamless transitionbetween the mid-range and bass tones. The appearance of sound is therefore very fast,just as for a high-end shelf speaker, which is difficult for a typical floor-standingspeaker. The concise, well-fitting bass sound is the result of absolute clarity that isnot deafening or thick. When first listening to the DLS R55, I believe that everyonewill feel that the bass is not strong or soft and thick as you might expect. Afterlistening to just two or three tracks, you will experience a bass sound that is firm andclean, quickly becoming realistic. The bass sound is quite meaty and flows from thebox without much forcing. For familiar tracks like Rock You Gently, SomewhereSomebody, Big Noise, New York, I listened to the first three tracks many times withthis pair of speakers (The Hunter: Jennifer Warnes). I am satisfied that the sound ofthe music is realistic, fast, fitting, and appropriately weighty.Bi-wiring, taking the cloth mask off, and putting it on. Many people wouldlike to know the good and bad points. For this set of speakers, I can say that a qualityamplifier is designed for expanding well enough that when connecting them by biwiring,the sound stage at the speaker width will stand out more clearly, with detailsthat are sharp, fresh, and compact at another level that you can clearly hear. In mypersonal opinion, a single connection with good speaker cables will give results thatare more agreeable and smooth. This is your choice and mainly depends on thecapabilities of your amplifier. For taking off and putting on the cloth mask, I like tolisten to this speaker with the cloth mask on while listening to jazz and pop, whichsounds perfect, with details, an appropriate sound level, and smoothness. If you wantto greatly stress the image of the music locations, taking off the cloth mask makesthese even more clear. These two styles make me feel like having two pairs ofspeakers in one. When listening to music with only a few instruments, taking off thecloth mask gives you the atmosphere of the depth and positions of the music, butwhen listening to classical or new age music or big band jazz, it is fine to put on thecloth mask. What is certain is that this is really the only brand of speakers for whichyou can take off the cloth mask and then press to attach it behind the speaker box,without having to set it down and clutter the floor. (I don’t know how they thought ofthis outstanding idea.)The appropriate style of music. This is a floor-standing speaker that hascomplete frequency ranges, details, and a sound stage, so there are no limitations onthe style of music, or even matching with speakers in the same series for watchinghome theater movies. You will get a lively sound, for audiophiles 1 , because its soundhas a main foundation of being clean and clear. Therefore, it is ready for every type1 In the original Thai, this English word is written out phonetically; however, it is used improperly torefer to the sound instead of to the listener, reading “lively sound [that] is also audiophile.” In thetranslation, we use the word grammatically, in a fashion that we hope preserves the writer’s intent.

of music without limits. You can lose yourself to listening to the sound from thisspeaker, and it can make the time of each day go by happily.Strong points, weak points, summary, and suggestions. This speaker is anew choice that blends real musicality for us to listen to, without removing the words“high fidelity.” It preserves the continuity from treble tones to bass tones excellently,in contrast with the typical floor-standing speaker, and is appropriate for every kind ofmusic, without limits. If you like sound with a realistic style, the details of the veryhigh notes are very well reproduced. The bass sound is not excessive, not thick, andnot constrained to the box. This is DLS R 55, which won the title Best Sound frommany European magazines. As we referred to people who would like floor-standingspeakers to put in a small-size room, they must consider R 55 first, because thespeakers do not affect the space in the room very much, unlike other speakers that youhave heard. This is the result of its slim, attractive design, and the appropriate use ofdrivers. In any case, you should not place the speakers with the tube port too close tothe wall. With that exception, the speakers must be considered quite perfect.DLS R 55 is one of the floor-standing speakers with the best sound to befound in the audio world in 2006.[insert English-language portions of final page here]