Dynaudio or Ohm?

Regarding tonality, I would say the OHMs tend to be as dead neutral as anything I have heard whereas the Dynaudios tend to have a touch of warmth and a hotter more exiting top end that can also tend towards a bit more fatiguing depending on what's upstream, clean power, etc.

I've never heard an OHM sound fatiguing. More often they might sound flat or un-involving if things are not going well upstream.

I have also found taht OHMs and Dynaudios tend to work best with similar placement with some distance away from walls. Surprisingly, Dynaudios seems to sound best further apart and well away from teh rear wall in particular whereas OHMs can also go within a foot or so of side walls but just a couple feet from rear wall and sound their best.

I could probably live with either happily when set up correctly and well. I think both lines are absolute top notch and hard to fault save for individual preferences.

My Dynaudios are smaller monitors and cannot compare to my OHM 5s or even smaller OHM 100s for large scale classical works at realistic volumes. The OHMs are champs at that (with suitable amplification, the more watts and amps the merrier, same with Dynaudio) in their size and price class. The Walsh design just seems to enable more clean sound out of a given size driver and cabinet. My 100s (comparable to current 2000s) use an 8" Walsh driver and my big 5s an even larger one, 12" I believe and are the bomb for large scale works at realistic volumes.

Both are very sensitive to what they are fed and both respond to quality amplification, power, current, source, etc. I hear clear differences with most any change I make, including ICs, with both, but with the big OHM 5s teh most.

I run both OHMs and Dynaudios off Bel Canto ref1000m monoblocks. Performance and sound quality with both is absolute top notch. The Dynaudio Contour 1.3 mkIIs are small but the Dynaudio build quality delivers a lot of sound for the size. Pre-amp is an ARC sp16. I use both phono and digital sources, mostly music server for digital.

Mapman,
Nice write up.

Thanks, Mapman for such well thought-out information. It makes me want to hear some symphonic music thru the Ohms.

I have good power conditioning and a high power/high current amp with the Sunfire, so driving either speaker is no problem. The only flaw of the Dynaudio is the less than stellar performance at low volume; once it receives enough current is when it performs.
How does the Ohm perform at lower volume, IOW late nite listening?

The OHMs tend to shine best opened up at higher volumes, but do fine at lower as well and I listen to them both ways frequently. An amp that does not have too low a damping factor will help keep things clean and tight at all volumes.

Some might prefer speakers that tend to be a little hotter or brighter at lower volumes though. Frequency response of human ears is not flat and tends to drop off for higher and lower frequencies at lower volumes in particular. Loudness controls used to be mainly to help compensate for that.

If I were restricted to low volume listening, the OHMs would probably not be my first choice. A smaller good quality monitor would work just fine. I tend to like my little, easy to drive Triangle Titus XL monitors best at low volumes actually, though in a quiet room in particular, The OHMs or Dynaudios are fine as well.

I think it has more to do with the dropoff from speakers playing at realistic volume levels to artificially low ones. With teh OHMs, the difference is bigger. With smaller monitors in particular not so much. In fact small speakers tend to sound their best at low volumes when not under much strain. It is really not very hard to get good sound at low volumes. Higher volumes is what separates the men from the boys.

While I've never heard those particular Dyn's I have heard the Contour's (which I heavily considered buying) and currently own Ohm Walsh 3's which are way down the ladder from what you're considering. Comparing Ohm's to most direct firing loudspeakers is a tricky proposition, they simply project music in a way that is so relaxed and easy sounding that it's difficult to describe without hearing for yourself.

If you are an overly critical listener (which I used to be) they may disappoint, but for room filling, sound good anywhere Hi-fidelity I can think of nothing outside of Shahinians or the mega buck German Physiks which would compare to the Ohm's. They are the first speaker (out of WAY too many) that my wife actually sat up a declared "these sound great!" and she sits far from the sweet spot in the room they reside.

I hate to use this term but to me they are an audiophile's "Lifestyle" speaker, or if you prefer they are a music lovers speaker, either way, they are keepers for me, good luck!