the big picture
The Dvorak is the first truly full-range speaker I know of that appears to maintain a moderately directional radiation pattern throughout the entire audible bandwidth, yet whose radiating surfaces are relatively small compared to the wavelengths they produce from 20Hz all the way up through the treble. As a result, the dominant signature of the listening room is reduced by an unprecedented amount in a dynamic speaker, allowing the listener to experience a literal wealth of low-level detail, textural purity, and natural timbres. One of the principal reasons for this outstanding expressiveness is that the Dvorak fills a listening room with two-thirds less reverberant energy for a given on-axis volume level compared to a pair of conventional box speakers! In other words, substantially more sound is focused toward the listener and less is radiated to other areas of the room. By the way, the Gradient Revolution shares some of these characteristics, as does the Quad ESL-63 when partnered with the Gradient SW-63 -- another dynamic dipole subwoofer -- but neither are true full-range designs.
My usual listening experience was transformed to a perspective I found more natural and engaging than that produced by any other speaker I've heard at length -- to date, that is. I'm not claiming that the Dvorak is superior to all other speakers -- it's not. But it demonstrates that by applying known principles in a novel manner, several serious limitations that are consciously (or perhaps subconsciously) taken for granted can be dramatically reduced. I also feel that the Dvorak's fundamentally more natural presentation is more important than many of the desirable sonic attributes on the typical audiophile checklist, even though the speaker does perform well when assessed by these more traditional standards.
The Dvorak also illustrates an interesting paradox I've noticed with other outstanding components. A product that combines a special blend of attributes that improve overall fidelity, rather than just providing specific sonic changes or enhancements, seems to get out of the way of the performance. Such components not only are more resolving but allow the listener to more easily separate uncorrelated distortions and anomalies from the music, making them far less distracting. With other gear that lacks these special qualities, but is still considered revealing, irregularities either embedded in the recording or generated elsewhere along the reproduction chain normally bother the listener more because they are intertwined with the music.
I've also seen an interesting array of reactions from various people after their first exposure to the Dvoraks. While nearly everyone noticed their captivating viewpoint from the outset, a couple of audiophile friends felt a little puzzled after the first session with the speakers -- almost as if something were missing. They were missing the "room." The contribution of a room's reverberant field and standing waves is so ingrained in our experience of reproduced music that many of us take it for granted, however much we may acknowledge its impact intellectually.
This is an important point, and one common to many areas of subjective experience. A loose analogy can be drawn comparing the various distortions heard with LP playback: in addition to its numerous inherent positive attributes, many of us have learned to prefer the LP through years of acclimation. Accordingly, constant listening to speakers with omnidirectional bass can lead to a conditioned preference for overpowering but dynamically constricted bass impact, or excessive low-frequency "slam" that is neither on the recording nor representative of the real thing. Once the Dvoraks were placed in my system, I went through a few days of adjustment as the lack of low-frequency "room compression" I'd become accustomed to all these years was replaced with an open, effortless, and full-bodied bass reproduction.
the dvorak difference
Right from the start, the Dvorak's startling dynamics of voices and instruments was apparent, as was an alluring resolution of low-frequency ambient information and subtle textural detail which (I surmise) is normally masked in my room. Surprisingly, the most pronounced effect of the clean bass performance was greater clarity and presence throughout the midrange. With the bass as extended, tactile, and well-integrated with the rest of the spectrum as it was with these speakers, even ordinary recordings became more interesting, more involving.
With the Dvorak's better perceived dynamic contrast, correct playback volumes of my favorite recordings varied over a wider range. Fine gradations in volume setting were more easily appreciated, making the value all the more the Rowland Coherence preamp's remote control and awesome transparency. Though the midrange perspective reminded me of the Quad '63's, with the Dvorak this desirable quality extended all the way down through the subterranean foundation of music. It's difficult to overestimate how important open, articulate deep-bass reproduction is in allowing your mind to suspend its disbelief and become engrossed in the music when devoid of the typical veiling colorations and overhang from resonant artifacts.
In particular, I noticed two important qualities that define this characteristic. First, the room doesn't take off on its own when its resonances are excited. While this room "compression" can make the impact of large crescendos or high-intensity transients seem visceral, certainly increasing the "Wow!" factor, much of its impact comes from reverberation and resonant feedback rather than from the direct natural energy of the music. Dynamic contrast becomes restricted, analogous to the way in which electronically compressed music allows a loud but shallow range of expression.
Subjectively, the room distortion feels as if the sound is pressing in on you from all sides during a high-level transient. By contrast, the Dvoraks allow you to hear the swing from quiet to very loud and back with remarkable fidelity. Listening to the well-made LP's like The Fantasy Film World of Bernard Herrmann (Mobile Fidelity MFSL 1-240), I had the sense of sharing the recording's original acoustic environment. A musical swell or crescendo would extend from the soundstage and envelop me without the artificial pressure from excessive room-mode excitation. Be forewarned: Unless you have a very large room, it's difficult to go back to traditional speakers, even those of outstanding design, after adapting to the Dvorak's realistic and appealing presentation.
Second, because of the reduced amount of resonant overhang and lower overall reverberant energy in the room, the decay of musical passages and notes is simply more lifelike. Fine nuances and ambient cues normally buried in the room's noise floor are revealed. The ability of these speakers to clearly distinguish various recording styles is remarkable. Microphone types and arrangement, as well as the quality of multitrack mixing and relative distances between elements within a naturally recorded soundfield, are more easily delineated with the Dvorak than when it is overshadowed by room compression. Even with well-known recordings, I'm still surprised by the wide-band low-level resolution that was swamped by acoustic compression with other excellent speakers in my 17' by 23' by 8' room.
The combination of these two major attributes produces the Dvorak's open-sounding perspective. With the right material, boundaries really did seem to disappear, allowing the acoustic soundscape to permeate the room and sonic images to pass right through the speakers rather than bend around them. The Dvoraks convey the scale, intensity, and presence of a real piano, tenor sax, or lead vocalist better than any speaker I've heard. One listen to Johnny Hartman's elixir-like voice on John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (Impulse! AS-40, reissue GR-157), and I suspect it will be "case closed" -- these speakers portray voices so beautifully!