DB Dynamics Blue Diamond Speaker System

They say money is the root of all evil and as proof Roger Manning, owner of DB Dynamics, tried to get rich by going way upmarket in the speaker business. It didn't work (the get rich bit), the speakers he designed and made are absolutely superb (having used the Paradigm Studio 100's as a reference - they bloody well should be) but getting a speaker branded DB Dynamics to be accepted by the better HiFi stores was a challenge as his speaker systems are generally associated with lower to mid priced offing ($800 - $3000). The Blue Diamonds were to be the crowning glory, a 5.1 set up equal to anything locally available under $6000 and retailing at $5500. As we were initially involved in the design of these speakers, I guess we're a little biased, but we tweaked the two main speakers to sound as close to the Paradigm Studio 100's as we could and got within 10% of them (that's pretty close in the scheme of things). Where am I going here? Well, it wasn't easy to get them off the ground (no, you fools, not physically - although the mains do weigh 40kgs each) I mean that the HiFi stores weren't taking them seriously. That left Roger with a bucket load of high quality speakers that were taking up way too much space in his warehouse. What to do? Give them to Uncle Steve at cost price to move them (not all of them, just enough to get down to manageable levels then whack the price back up). More on the pricing at the end of this review.

Enough of this -

Big, dynamic, yet capable of playing complex orchestral music. That's the Blue Diamonds. That's "Big Kev" (our newest employee) leaning on one of the main speakers to give you an idea of the size (of course, unless you know how big Kev actually is, it doesn't mean much). The Blue Diamond system consists of two floor standing main speakers 1225mm (H) X 440mm (D) X 250mm (W) weighing 40kgs each, a centre speaker 530mm (W) X 230mm (D) X 195mm (H), two dipole surrounds 360mm (W) X 200mm (D) X 330mm (H) and a subwoofer 450mm (W) X 420mm (D) X 520mm (H) weighing in at 28kgs. Lets run through the individual speakers then look at the complete system. First, those big floor standing mains.

These are not your wimpy little speakers, these are a mans speaker. Consisting of a 30mm Dome Tweeter, 80mm Dome Midrange, two 125mm mid/bass units with a side firing 200mm woofer (I measured the drivers across the cones, not the baskets as some do). Power handling is above 200 Watts RMS - I say above as we could only test up to 200 Watts and there was still no sign of distress. Our reference speaker, when comparing, was the Paradigm Studio 100, a $4700 pair of speakers with impeccable credentials. Many speaker tests are conducted without a reference, the results of which mean bugger all as the variables, such as room acoustics, source, amplification, interconnects etc. means that the ear can't possibly compensate for all these things and give an objective assessment. Hence our use of a switch box to compare with a known quantity.

Using our test disc from Sheffield Labs (Amanda McBroom and Lincoln Mayorga - Growing up in Hollywood Town) Track 5 gives us that sharp Triangle to which so few speakers manage to give that "shimmering" quality, the Blue Diamonds and the Paradigms were almost par on the top end there. The mids, quantified by the vocals, were sharp, distinct yet not piercing on both sets of speakers - so far, so good. Only when it came to the bass reproduction do the Blue Diamonds come under pressure from the Paradigms. The difference is the tightness of the bottom end, the Paradigms give a short, sharp bass response where the Blue Diamonds tend to hang on to the note a little longer. The bass on the BD's is actually better for the rock heads who listen to Metal and Rock where subtly isn't a virtue but for Jazz, Classical and easy listening, the Paradigms have it. Realise, however, that we're comparing a $4700 speaker to a $3000 speaker (the retail of a pair of Blue Diamond mains) so one would expect some performance drop. If we were to compare them to, say, a pair of Paradigm Monitor 11's ($2400), B&W 604's ($3500) - which we did - the Blue Diamonds cream them. We even put them up against a set of Mission Elegantes ($5999) which we were testing at the same time and the jury's still out to which sounds the best (I prefer the BD's) so one must take the value for money equation into consideration when looking at these reviews. All in all, a very musical speaker, suitable for stereo listening for all types of music at virtually any volume.

The Centre speaker is fairly standard Using the same tweeter and mid/bass units, with a slightly smaller mid driver, the sound is perfectly matched to the mains in terms of vocals and mid range action, setting the centre to "small" via your receiver means the bass duties are handled by the subwoofer anyway so that's not really an issue. Power handling is rated to 120 Watts and the likelihood of that ever being reached in a domestic environment is so close to zero that it's really moot. -3dB drop off is around 60Hz which is bloody good for a speaker this size.

The surrounds are di poles This time, the tweeter is a 25mm dome although sonically very close to the 30mm units in the mains and centre. The mid/bass drivers are identical however. I've always found the surrounds to be less important in terms of audio matching than the centre and mains as there's very little vocal emanating from them, these surrounds are as close to the other speakers in the set up as needs be though. Downpoint at -3dB is 60 Hz, again an excellent result. Being a di pole configuration means that positioning isn't as critical as direct radiating units.

Ah yes, the Subwoofer Just another big, black box with a built in 200 Watt amplifier and a 12" long throw driver. This subwoofer kicks like a mule and can play very, very loud. Specifications are virtually irrelevant when choosing subs as there are so many variables such as speaker sensitivity, amplifier slew rate and so forth which are critical to performance although hardly ever referred to in the spec's. Suffice it to say, although it's no REL R305 or Paradigm UltaCube 12, it'll certainly hold its own in the under $2000 price range. Musically, it performs well and blends into the mains seamlessly without that doof, doof sound that pervades the cheaper subwoofers, it just adds to that bottom octave or so and lets you feel the kick drum and bass guitar. The real test is movie explosions however where, with the explosion at the start of T3, the sub gives the walls and ceiling a hiding without any distress on the part of the driver or built in amp. This is a very serious subwoofer. As a sweetener, it also comes complete with remote control so continuous adjustment for various sources is made painless.

The test was performed using two different A/V receivers so as to find out the relationship of the system when paired with one of the best - the Yamaha RX-V3800 ($2500) and a modestly priced unit, the Marantz SR4001 ($1100). Even thought the Marantz is rated 80 Watts against the 3800's 140 watts, there was still enough power to blow the rafters off, this is due to the fact that the sensitivity of the speakers is around the 91dB mark, certainly the Yamaha makes the overall set up sound better and more dynamic but don't be put off if you have a less powerful device.

So what's the conclusion here? As a system to take on the established brands, the DB Dynamics Blue Diamond 5.1 speaker System, on a direct comparison, will knock the socks off just about any other set up under $5000. The retail of $5500 may be a little ambitious given the branding issues but dealers would normally discount this to $4490 anyway, which is where I think it should sit in the market place. So what are we doing to help Uncle Roger move these beauties - we're currently offering the whole pack for $2490 plus delivery (generally $90 to major cities). Go on - treat yourself!