I have a few challenges facing me when writing about the Dynaudio Core 47s. The first is going to be avoiding starting every paragraph with “As I said in my article about the Core 59s and Core 7s”. There is a lot of common ground here and the differences still relate to the other members of the Core series. The other thing I’m going to struggle avoiding saying is words like “open”, “powerful” or “transparent” because that I where I keep going when trying to communicate anything meaningful about these fantastic little three-way monitors.
The Core Series
As I said in my article about the Core 59s and Core 7s (I know…) the Core series has been designed with the majority of end-users in mind, in that they have used DSP throughout but presented it via the simplest of user interfaces - a small number of switches on the back. The Core series is a from-the-ground-up new design with new drivers, DSP looking after the crossover filters and simply presented options for fine-tuning the performance and to compensate for monitor placement.
The Core 7 is a solid performing two way of similar size to the Core 47 and the Core 59 is an altogether more substantial three-way.
They all follow the same principle of a digital monitor, in as much as any monitor can be “digital”. Air and ears are analogue after all, but the deployment of DSP is unobtrusive and clearly very effective. To find out more about the implementation of DSP and the connectivity and controls on the Core series look at the video below and for even more detail read the article on the Core 59s and Core 7s.
In my article about the Core 59 and 7 (three references in as many paragraphs! - It’s not going well) I commented on the excellent bottom end performance of the Core 7, describing it as “tight and deep” but the performance of the substantially bigger Core 59 as “effortless”. The Core 7 was good but the 59 was an altogether different experience. Given that the Core 47 has a 7” bass driver in a very similarly sized and ported cabinet you might expect the performance of the 47 to be the same as the Core 7, at least at the bottom end.
While I no longer have either the Core 7 or the 59 with which to compare them directly I do still have my regular monitors against, which I assessed both of them while they were here but before I get to subjective opinions about the bottom end performance (which, while we all know is far from the whole story, we are all usually rather preoccupied with) I’ll refer to the tech specs.
The Core 7 is 3dB down at 45Hz, the Core 59 is 3dB down at 42Hz, a difference of only 3Hz. This is evidence if it were needed that there is more to the experience of sitting in front of a pair of speakers than can be ascertained from paper specs alone. Keeping this in mind, the specs show the Core 47 to be 3dB down at 44Hz, just one dB lower than the Core 7 and 2Hz higher than the Core 59. Subjectively the impression I get is one of very controlled, deep bass, helped on its way by the same quality of cabinet as found in the rest of the range with a double layer front baffle and a satisfyingly heavy, extremely stiff enclosure.
The box itself is roughly the same size as the Core 7, being slightly wider, slightly less deep but packing in three drivers it leaves me with an impression of extreme compactness and this combination of relatively small size (390 mm, 355 mm, 240 mm W x D x H), solidity and industrial levels of power, the Core 47 contains two 500W and one 150W Pascal class D amplifiers for a total of 1150W per speaker, makes it unsurprising that the unofficial name for the Core 47 during its development was the Bulldog. While that might sound like a lot of power, in spite of the advances made in technology most of the speaker design involves balancing compromises against each other and if you want good bass performance you probably need a big box. Direct radiating drivers, meaning drivers which aren’t horn-loaded, are inefficient, particularly at low frequencies where the low speed of the driver means that the air being pushed tends to be pushed out of the way rather than being compressed. Larger drivers can help but in a compact design like this, another solution has to be found, after all, you can’t put a big driver in a small box. Direct-radiating drivers can be a little as 1% efficient, this can be compensated for through increased power so while 500W per driver might sound like a lot, it is there for a good reason.
Drivers
The crossover point between the 7 inch woofer and the 4 inch midrange driver is at 475Hz. Considering the crossover frequency between the 7” driver and the tweeter in the two way Core 7 is at 2.3KHz I was be amazed that these two 7 inch drivers had anything more than their diameter in common but apparently they are the same unit. I use a pair of Neumann KH310 monitors day to day and one of the principal differences between these two monitors is the midrange driver which in the Neumann is a soft dome and in the Core 47 is a cone. Something interesting occurred to me about how I perceive these two drivers. When I see a large soft dome driver the association I make is with quality, inevitably because of the famous ATC soft dome midrange driver. When I see a 4 inch cone driver the association I make is with the small consumer devices in which I most regularly encounter them being used as bass drivers. That comparison isn’t at all fair but it’s definitely there. Years ago it wasn’t uncommon to see three way speakers with cones covering the midrange and HF duties. Cone tweeters are uncommon now having been replaced with dome tweeters - Why?
The original motivation for moving from cone to dome at the top end was that the heat which builds up in voice coils becomes more difficult to dissipate as coils get smaller. To make the voice coil easier to cool it was made as big as possible and moved to the perimeter of the diaphragm. Covering the space inside the new perimeter-hugging voice coil with a diaphragm gives us a dome tweeter. Domes and coils aren’t all that different.
Neumann quote one of the advantages of the soft dome tweeter to be fewer breakup modes than a cone. This is true as a cone can break up in all sorts of ways, though at sensible levels it really shouldn’t. A dome, on the other hand, doesn’t have a voice coil at its centre so while it might have fewer breakup modes, the main one it does have can result in the centre of the dome decoupling and being out of phase with the edges.
As I said earlier, designing speakers is all about balancing compromises and the cone midrange driver in this speaker covers the crucial three and a half octaves midrange from 475Hz to 5.25KHz keeping all the detail, which so often can be a bit off in a 2 way, beautifully preserved.
What about at the top end though? In my article about the Core 7 and 59 (yep, there it is again…) I highlighted the Hexis soft dome tweeter as the star of the show, describing it as “exceptional”. While the bass and midrange drivers differ significantly between the Core 47 and Core 59, the differences at the top end are minimal, a slightly higher crossover frequency but the Hexis device clearly visible behind the semi-translucent soft dome is the same and is helping this very, very sweet tweeter do what it does so well. The Hexis is a very specifically shaped plastic device which controls the airflow and resonances in the space behind the dome of the tweeter. The overall impression when AB ing between both my regular sets of monitors is a lack of colour, my little Genelecs, in particular, sounding positively congested in the lower mids, and an accompanying openness which was reassuring and quite addictive. An interesting game to play is to carefully level match two sets of monitors through your monitor controller and, rather than audition mixes or commercial tracks, simplify things and just audition some kick samples. It sounds like a rather uninteresting game but just try it. The timbral differences between two sets of monitors which are ostensibly “good” and that you’d be happy to work on are laid bare and an identical kick sample can sound just as different on each pair of monitors as different kick samples do on the same pair. This is what’s so interesting and ultimately so frustrating about monitors.
Playing this kick sample game illustrates a couple of other things, One is that, while the bass response of the Core 47 is better than it has any right to be, physics is still physics and it isn’t without limitations. It’s great and I would have absolutely no complaints working on these but If I still had the Core 59s I know they would outperform these compact monitors. One of my principal concerns when I had the Core 59s was strictly practical. At 25KG a piece and considerably bigger, the Core 59s aren’t a comfortable lift and are frankly inappropriately big for my particular studio. These Core 47s “fit” my studio in terms of size and sound. They have integral mounting points and a bespoke mounting bracket manufactured by K&M allows flexible mounting of the Core 7 and Core 47 so they should fit in the tightest spaces. However unlike the Core 59 with its rotatable baffle allowing the speakers to be installed in portrait or landscape the Core 47s are and “handed” pair and in this configuration the tweeter is at the outside top corner and the ports are on the inside of the panorama. The back panel is in portrait orientation with all the legending, switches and connectors rotated through 90 degrees when installed. This makes very little difference in use. Once installed correctly you really don’t have to visit the back panel again. There isn’t a power switch available on the front or back, the Core 47 uses a switchable always on or auto standby mode where they power down if not used for a little while and wake up when an input signal hits their inputs. Straining to reach round the back to power down at the end of the day is a pain and I’ve never been comfortable with turning monitors off at the distro.
Core Sub
The bottom end performance of the Core 47s is more than adequate but if I felt the need to I can’t help noticing how physically well matched the Core 47 is with the recently released Core Sub, both being 390mm wide, I can’t believe that’s a coincidence! When combined with the Core Sub the frequency response goes all the way down to 15Hz and as the Core Sub is a sealed enclosure timing would be great too. The Core 47s and a couple of Core Subs would make an amazing monitoring system and at least you wouldn’t have to lift the heavy bit. All the speakers in the Core range integrate seamlessly with the Core Sub with the aforementioned DSP making sure everything plays nicely together.
Which Core?
Would I buy some Cores? Absolutely. They are a welcome reminder that a ported 2-way monitor can be very good indeed and that it can be further improved by the addition of a third driver. They sound tight, transparent and controlled with fantastic imaging and a really impressive resolution of low-level detail. A favourite test for low-level resolution, which I’ve used before can be found in Shelby Lynne’s cover of Dusty Springfield’s “Just a Little Lovin”. If you listen at 1:24 you can just about hear a tape print-through of the vocal. It fades in through a few layers of tape, even the loudest isn’t very loud but it is preceded by a few more. How many repeats can you hear? Try it!
The Core 59s are beautiful speakers and if you can afford them and have room for them then they are the best of the bunch but if you are considering the 7s I’d definitely recommend you save up a little more and go for the 3 way Core 47. They are the same size and not that much more money - the Core 47 retails for around $5,000 per pair, typically the 59s are a thousand more and the 7s a thousand less per pair. If you can’t afford the Core Sub, you really won’t miss it even with the Core 7 but if you can I’d seriously consider it if your room can take 15Hz. Quality costs but quality also lasts so while we can’t call computer and software purchases “investments” a really well built set of monitors like these should be good for a couple of decades, why would you skimp?