Review: Dynaudio Focus 160 bookshelf speakers - King of all-rounders, nearing High End Hi-Fi

I’m not sure why I have postponed this review for as long as I have. Maybe because it felt like it would have been a monstrous behemoth of a review and it seemed all too daunting. But I think that’s the way with most projects. The only way forward is to simply start and build it up piece by piece. In the end this review might not be as comprehensive as these speakers would have deserved but I guess it’s still better than nothing.

source:dynaudio.com

This article is about Dynaudio Focus 160 bookshelf speakers – although it would be foolish to place them on a bookshelf, they deserve proper stands as do most “bookshelf” speakers. The Dynaudio Focus 160 is the successor of Focus 140 but all they have in common is somewhat similar size. They upgraded pretty much all the parts including tweeters and mid/bass woofers – I have experience of the former Focus-line with the floor standing Focus 220s and the difference in clarity was substantial. But more on that later.

The Focus 160s are now out of production and used to retail at around 2000 € a pair. That’s a lot of money for speakers, let alone bookshelf speakers. The next choice in Dynaudio’s bookshelf line would have been some from the Contour line or even the legendary Confidence C1s. Anyway, even at this price point the objective performance of an audio gear is becoming more subjective. The Focus 160s have fairly large cabinets of 202 x 350 x 294 mm (W x H x D) and weigh hefty 7.6 kgs a piece. The black piano lacquer finish looks and feels luxurious, but I don’t understand why the grills aren’t magnetic, especially at this price. Take the grills off (as most of us do) and suddenly the front with all the pin holes and screws doesn’t look as beautiful as it could have. Dynaudio’s later models seem to have addressed this issue with magnets.

Focus 160 & Batman

As with most speakers of this size the sensitivity is rated at lowish 85 dB and impedance at 4 Ohms – pair this with Dynaudio’s reputation of building power-hungry speakers and you start to realize that these are not meant to be paired with simple multichannel A/V amps found at a local supermarket. Indeed, Dynaudio rates the power handling of these babes up to 200 quality watts. And they can be played loud, very loud.

I have placed the speakers on Dynaudio Stand 1s, not the most robust stands money can buy, but still Dynaudio here as well.

The first thing that stands out is the bass, as it usually is with Dynaudio speakers. There’s plenty of it, incredibly plenty. The fullness and scale of the sound is mind boggling. And it’s not just the volume of bass but also how deep it goes. For music listening purposes I really doubt that anyone would feel an initial urge for a subwoofer, no matter what you genre you play. It is still however a pair or 17cm woofers doing the job, so don’t expect them to deliver any miracles if you are used to quality floor standing speakers or subwoofers. After you gather yourself, the focus (pun intended) shifts to that sweet tweeter. All while this massive bass is taxing the speaker, the tweeter sings without any hint of strain and all the clarity and resolution is there up to the finest detail – this is what I noticed immediately after switching the older Focus 220s to 160s, the latter just paints so much clearer image and I imagine the upgraded tweeter is to thank for. The sound stage is large and places instruments in their places when needed.

Initially I had the speakers paired with my Dayens Ampino monoblocks, but at 50 watts per channel, albeit high quality watts, I felt like the Focus 160s could use more power and perhaps a bit drier or sibilant amplifier. And so, I made a second-hand deal for Emotiva BasX A-300 power amp, this budget “giant-killer” delivers 150 watts per channel and is equipped with huge toroidal transformer for that steady current. (Oh boy, I think I need to write about the Emotiva A-300 at some point.) After switching the amplifiers, it was clear that the Emotiva was more suitable for Focus 160s. The upper range became even more vibrant, drier and the bass felt more controlled.

I enjoyed the Focus 160s for a few good years, thinking that they might be an end game solution until I had a larger listening room. But the nature of a Hi-Fi hobbyist is to always look for an improvement. And so while I had very little to complain of 160s as they seemed to perform everything very well, and in a balanced manner, in the end I felt that something else was needed; magic, sparkle, excitement – maybe the amplifiers were not the ideal match and could not bring these traits out of the speakers.
And so I ended up selling them. But given the chance I’d love to try them out again in my current upgraded setup as it is clear, that Dynaudios of this caliber require, or rather, scale nicely with high quality system with plenty of power headroom - this is to be expected from a true high end Hi-Fi speakers.

Be as it may, I can easily recommend the Dynaudio Focus 160s for everyone, as they will work with any type of music with ease, offering plenty of dynamic low notes and true hifi-like details. I usually recommend Dynaudios as the first serious hifi speakers to anyone seeking to venture into the world of hifi because of how versatile and excellent all-rounders they are.