Floorstanding loudspeakers — Dynaudio Confidence 30

The Confidence 30 is the smallest floorstander in the Confidence range from Dynaudio of Denmark, which was redesigned from the ground up, first shown to the public in Munich in 2018 and shipped from the end of that year. The range has four models - the Confidence 20 standmount and the Confidence 30, 50 and 60 towers. In the United States the Confidence 30 was priced at USD 19,999 per pair. Current finishes are Midnight High Gloss, Blonde Wood, Ruby Wood High Gloss and Smoke High Gloss, and a Raven Wood gloss version was also listed at launch.

Key specs that matter

Driver complement in this passive three-way tower is a 28 mm Esotar3 soft-dome tweeter, a 15 cm MSP midrange and two 18 cm MSP woofers. The crossover divides the band at 290 Hz and 3,700 Hz with second and third order slopes. Rated response is 38 Hz to 22 kHz within 3 dB, and sensitivity is 88 dB at 2.83 V and 1 m. Nominal impedance is 4 ohm, but the curve falls to 2.8 ohm at 85 Hz. IEC long-term power handling is 350 W. The cabinet is 222 mm wide, 1,337 mm tall and 399 mm deep, growing to 364 x 1,382 x 424 mm with feet and grille, and each speaker weighs 44.2 kg.

Engineering and use context

Dynaudio Directivity Control, or DDC, arranges and filters the drivers so that output is concentrated toward the listener and less energy reaches the floor and ceiling, while horizontal spread is kept. In this generation a machined waveguide, the DDC Lens, surrounds the tweeter as part of that system. The Esotar3 evolved from the Esotar2 used in the previous Confidence line and borrows the airflow optimisation first applied in the Special Forty, adding a revised neodymium magnet and the Hexis inner dome that damps resonances. The woofers belong to the NeoTec family, pairing neodymium magnets with aluminium and copper voice coils, and the midrange uses a new basket with the Horizon surround. All drivers mount on a Compex composite baffle, and the bass reflex port fires downward. The line was developed with measurements in the Jupiter facility in Denmark.

Pairing

The speaker is fairly efficient, but the impedance dip at low frequencies means the amplifier must deliver current into a low load without strain, which points toward solid-state stereo or mono amplifiers stable at 2 to 4 ohm. With its high power handling, the speaker accepts large amplifiers with ample headroom.

Alternatives

The Dynaudio Confidence 50 is the next floorstanding model up in the same Confidence range.