Bob Katz,
In the second video (embedded below), Bob and his team of helpers unbox the speakers in his garage.
About halfway through the video, Bob elaborates on the speaker design and how we use the DDC (Dynaudio Directivity Control) to avoid reflections from the floor and ceiling.
Day 2 – Breaking in the Evidence
November 24th, 2016.
After the unboxing and a few days of rest, Bob announces on his Facebook page that both speakers are hooked up in the garage and fed with an 80 dB pink noise signal for 24 hours to make sure they are properly ‘broken in’ before going into the ‘Holy Halls’ aka Bob Katz’ Mastering Studio A.
Bob Katz,
Day 3 – Entering Studio A
November 25th, 2016.
The big day has finally arrived. The Evidence M5P speakers have now been broken in and are ready to be moved into Studio A.
This, however, is quite a task, and it turns out that it takes no less than one dolly wagon and 4 grown audio professionals wearing white cotton gloves to get one speaker from the garage and into the house.
Once in the house, Bob personally mounts the speaker bases, and when the first speaker is standing vertically, it now takes 5 audio engineers to carefully slide it on the carpet to its approximate position.
Each Evidence M5P is weighting in at 115 kg and obviously you want to be very careful not to tilt it over, so perhaps it's not that surprising that it takes some hands and efforts now that you really think about it...
Later on the 25th, Bob posted a few words about his first impression of Evidence M5P on Facebook:
“Dynaudios blew my mind. Most impressive and accurate transient response I've heard from any speaker in my entire career. The low diffraction, perfect polar response and first order crossover break new ground. More later after I dial them in.”
Bob Katz,
Day 4 – Placement Perfection
November 26th, 2016.
When you pay as much attention to detail as Bob Katz does, you don’t just settle for an approximately-optimal placement – or a near-perfect one…
You go all in and take whatever tool and measure necessary to get it absolutely and completely right! Watch the video and let Bob explain in more detail how he approaches this game of painstaking accuracy.
After the positioning, the speakers are being put through a LEDR test*, and shortly after Bob posted:
Bob Katz,
* The LEDR (Listening Environment Diagnostic Recording) test is often used by audiophiles to determine the imaging a set of speakers deliver. And for evaluating the imaging few would be better qualified than Bob, as he has mastered one of the CDs that are commonly used for conducting this particular test (Chesky Records Jazz Sampler & Audiophile Test CD). Bob also contributed an in-depth article on the subject in Stereophile.
Day 5 – Absolute Polarity
November 28th, 2016.
After a few days in Studio A, Bob has had the opportunity to listen more closely to his new Evidence M5Ps and he posted this observation:
Bob Katz,
It is great honor to have a capacity like Bob Katz evaluate our speakers – and we are of course extremely proud that he finds them so great. But what made the biggest smile on our faces was his last comment about being able to make better mastering work than ever.
That is what it all comes down to eventually. Creating great music and making that music sound its absolutely best!
Stay Tuned for More…
With this summary of Bob Katz’ installation of Evidence M5P in his mastering studio, we will bow out for now. But please do stay tuned, as we will definitely follow up with an even more in-depth interview with Bob when he has had a chance to use the speakers for a while.
We want to know more about his thoughts on these new speakers, but also pick his brain a bit on the general topic of high-end mastering. If you want to learn from someone, why not learn from the best?
UPDATE! Part 2 of Evidence M5P and Bob Katz has now been published.
