DYNAUDIO MUSIC 5

Dynaudio’s $1299 Music 5 is the second largest player in the range of four — and given that the rangetopping Music 7 is very large indeed, that leaves the Music 5 with still quite the physical presence — it’s a full 66cm wide.

After experiencing the Music 7’s performance via HDMI as a kind of superior TV audio system (see February/March issue), we tried the Music 5 also in soundbar position, receiving the TV sound into its optical input (you may need to set your TV to output PCM). It impressed with movie soundtrack depth, the lower decks of the ship in Alien Covenant have some impressive throbbing going on, and the Music 5 served it all with remarkable bass content, while again keeping clarity for dialogue. And while (as you can see elsewhere in this issue) soundbars often aren’t very musical, the Music 5 is built for the purpose. Switching back to the Music EQ setting, we were equally taken with the wide-ranging musical delivery, with 5 × 50W driving twin tweeters and midrange plus a single woofer. The bass never here strayed into bloom; indeed we thought it sounded slightly more natural in that regard than its sibling speakers. Despite quite a push to the EQ down low, music sounded full but not bloated, while spoken voice sounded realistic and accurate. Jazz was delightfully delivered, Bill Berry’s cornet given impeccable tone on TakeThe

ATrain while piano was full and dynamic — significantly above the quality of sound you might expect from a ‘wireless speaker’. Dynaudio’s strengths in drivers and voicing can really be appreciated here.