System Context
For this review, I used my main system, consisting in the basis of the CH C1 DAC, CH L1 preamp, and CH A1.5 power amp, and normally used with Magico S1 MkII speakers. The main digital sources are the Aqua La Diva M2 CD transport and the Grimm MU1 music server. Additionally, I will use the Antipodes K50 Music Server, the Aries Cerat Impera Reference preamp, and the NuPrime AMG-STA power amp.
Preface
Regular readers know that I was a huge ribbon and dipole fanatic for over a decade. It started with Martin Logan SL3’s, then Magnepan MG3.6R’s, and then a seemingly endless supply of Apogee speakers, most notably the Centaur, Duetta Signature, and Diva, before returning to Martin Logans once more and finally moving in a different direction. In 2020, I reviewed the Analysis Audio Epsilon which sparked fond memories, and meanwhile, three of my friends never stopped using Apogees, assuring that I am still getting my ribbon-fix on a regular basis. Ultimately, my own quest led me to Magico and for the past two years, I have been very happy with the S1 MkII’s. Although these were at that time the brand’s entry-level speakers, they still cost a whopping 23.000 euros, so they better deliver the goods, right?
This is where planar dipole speakers come in. I’ve always felt that Magnepans offers great value for money and to some degree, the same can be said of Apogee when they were still in business. Unlike Magnepan, Apogees were never truly cheap, but still, better performance routinely came at much higher prices. As I would soon learn over the course of this review, the very same is true for Diptyque. And at a price that makes the competition look rather expensive!
Listening
Listening to the DP-107’s for the first time, I am transported right back to when I first heard Apogee Centaurs a couple of years after the change of the century, in a work colleague’s system. At that time, I was still using B&W Nautilus 804’s and was amazed to hear how much less colored and how much more open the music could sound. That colleague was Jan Willem, who went on to become one of my very best friends. The Centaurs are a hybrid design with a closed “acoustic suspension” cabinet and a large midrange/treble ribbon. The Centaur sprung to mind because, like the DP-107, it had highly revealing and very open treble and the kind of delicacy, resolution, and transparency that most regular tweeters simply can’t manage. But the Diptyques are not just about the treble, it’s the entire picture. They possess this immediately gripping, beautifully linear, open, and transparent sound that has always pulled me toward ribbon dipoles and often away from dynamic speakers.
Not only are they open, fast, and articulate, they prevent falling into the “overdamped” trap. Rather than sounding dry or too controlled, the DP-107’s also excel in sustain and decays and they are ever so fluid.
Besides sounding fabulously open, the compact DP-107 is able to produce bass that will come as a shock to anyone unfamiliar with this breed of loudspeakers. The speakers actually go very deep but they do it very cleanly and with precious little coloration. While the DP-107’s cannot equal the S1 MkII’s in terms of punchiness and slam, and no full-range ribbon speaker would be expected to, they do actually extend deeper than the Magicos when you allow some room-induced bass lift. And while the much bigger Apogee Duettas do manage fuller and more voluminous bass, the DP-107’s sound considerably more linear and precise throughout their entire bass range.
Taking their bass and superb coherence into consideration, on the whole, the DP-107’s are actually more reminiscent of the full-range Apogee Dueatta ribbon speakers than of the hybrid Centaurs. And, for that matter, they are also more akin to the Magnepan MG3.6R’s that I owned long ago and I have the strong feeling that the relatively small DP-107’s extend just as deeply as the much larger MG3.6R’s. The DP-107’s also have the kind of super-airy and ethereal treble that the MG3.6R’s achieved with the aid of their true pure aluminum ribbon tweeter and that the Apogee Duettas never quite equaled. But besides similarities, there are also obvious differences.
As one of their strongest suits besides transparency, the DP-107’s also have great coherence and sound very much as one driver, whereas the MG3.6R’s three drivers all possessed different characters that were discernible, especially when sitting close to them. With the DP-107’s you can sit as close or as far away as you like and they will always sound coherent. In addition, their transient behavior is absolutely impressive, bordering on what the Magicos can do and certainly not what I am accustomed to hearing from Magnepan or Apogee.
There’s one caveat that must be taken into account, which is the treble output, and by extension, the speaker positioning and toe-in.
Just like the Apogee Centaurs, the DP-107’s are a little hot in the treble. Mind you, it’s not that the treble is hard or edgy, the treble is actually of fantastic quality but there’s just a lot of it. More precisely, while the DP-107’s sound fantastically flat with no bumps, valleys, or phase shifts to speak of, I do note that their curve is gently tilted. Imagine a straight line from the lowest bass to the highest treble and then tilt that curve right in the middle so that the bass end goes down while the treble end goes up by maybe a dB or two. I have no truly professional measuring equipment but what I do have seems to corroborate with what I am hearing.
The treble output can be ameliorated somewhat by slightly toeing in the speakers and this also helps the focus. But no matter the amount of toe-in, the DP-107’s remain quite exposed. They are most definitely not obscuring, smoothing, or blurring anything! Of course, in my opinion, at least, this is precisely why you would get magnetostatics and the DP-107’s big upside is that this amazing level of insight extends from the uppermost treble all the way to the deepest bass.
When set up ideally, the DP-107’s have comparable focus precision as the Magicos in the horizontal width plane and they can sound similarly as spaciously and room-filling to the sides and around the listening position. They do not, however, extend the soundstage very deeply, and for the record, neither did the Magnepans or Apogees. The Magicos are not even true masters in this area but they do sound considerably deeper than the DP-107’s, and so do many other dynamic cabinet speakers. But as mentioned, cabinets do introduce several other issues which makes this a very personal consideration.
Like other magnetostatic dipoles, the bass is not hugely authoritative, visceral, or particularly full, but it is reaching very deeply and is of such superb quality that probably the best way to describe the bass behavior is to compare it to a very good pair of headphones. And just as headphones are not muddled or colored by room acoustics, the DP-107’s have the same precision, speed, and lack of overhang and are much less affected by room boundaries than non-dipoles, especially ported designs.
While my listening to the DP-107’s progressed, the next points of attention were the effortlessly non-constrained and free-flowing delivery, that fabulously pure and clean midrange, and the overall lack of coloration. Yup, it was easy to see why I fell for ribbons for so long! There’s just this purity to magnetostatic speakers that is very hard to equal by dynamic speakers. Of all the speakers that I have owned, so far only the Magicos come close to sounding like magnetostatics in the midrange and treble but at what cost… And the more I listen to the Magicos and the aforementioned classic Apogees, the more I am astutely aware of colorations in cabinet designs. With the DP-107’s there’s a refreshing lack of boom and other colorations, or, for that matter, any spurious noises. The speakers sound fabulously crisp and detailed when playing at low levels but they are just as happy cranking out Deep House, in fact, they seem to thrive with it!
By the way, for those who are unfamiliar with ribbon radiation patterns, I’m happy to note that the horizontal spread is fantastic and similar to a dome tweeter. It’s in the vertical plane that they are quite beamy. Basically, the treble will roll off very noticeably whenever you place your ears above the speaker’s edges. When seated, however, the spread is more than enough to allow one to either sit up straight or be sagging on the couch while retaining all of the treble extension. For those cases where the seating position is very low or very high, the speakers can simply be tilted in any position.
Positioned 1,5 meters behind the Magicos proved to be ideal for the DP-107’s in my room. And, although they weren’t nearly as bothered by the speakers in front of them as one might assume, they did sound more spacious when the Magicos were moved away, and of course, that is how I reviewed them. Incidentally, for the eagle-eyed among the readers, indeed, the CD racks are growing;-)
Next: Positioning
Hi Christiaan ,
You are on the right track to try to test another pair of French brand loudspeakers, from the manufacturer Eric Buy, which are the AtlantisLab AT31! I really want you to have this experience !
Best Regards
Superb review, as always, and I hope this is an appetizer for the coming review of the Diptyque DP 160, which appears to be a real contender for best planar sound, besides great looks. My only concern about the line is their decision to use a short ribbon tweeter, with its typical vertical directionality.
Glad you like the review, Vladimir! I may indeed do more Diptyque reviews down the line, but nothing’s planned so far. The vertical dispersion is not an issue for me and it wouldn’t be any better if the tweeter was longer. It only starts helping when the tweeter actually extends above ear height when standing.
Hello Christiaan. Great review! I admire the quality of your listening reports.
Do you have any insight into the difference in sound signature between this Diptyque model and the Martin Logan ESL X, which are at about the same price level?
Thanks for the kind words:-) Between Martin Logan and pretty much any full-range dipole, there is always the matter of bass cabinet synergy versus bass volume. Please read the various Martin Logan reviews on this site to get the full picture but in short, Logans will outperform many full-range dipoles in terms of bass volume and punch while most full-range dipoles, the DP-107 included, will outperform any Logan in terms of coherence and uniformity.
where are these measurements of the slightly tilted output ?
Good review! My rom is 4,5×6 m. Will the 160 model be to big?
Regards Rolf
Hi Rolf, there’s no reason for the 160 to be too large for a room where the 107 works well. Basically, they are very similar designs with no changes in room behavior. All the 160 adds is more bass extension but I’m sure it won’t overwhelm the room.
Just a request – for us older folks who can have difficulty reading low-contrast text. Links in your pieces are orange – difficult to read for me. Also the test I am typing is also low contrast. I imagine you could maintain the fundamentals of your visual design even with some increased contrast. Thanks!
Hi Joe, I agree the orange links are not ideal. But when making the site, I tried all variables available to me within the software and I even added countless mods to the theme to improve things as much as possible. I tried other colors for the links but they all looked off to me. I also tried using the same color as the normal text but then you easily miss the links. Underlining, finally, is very distracting, especially with the number of links I use. Ultimately, I stuck with orange but made it as dark and saturated as I can for best readability without straying too much from the orange house color. At some point, the website will need an overhaul, something I am not looking forward to as it takes an absolutely huge amount of time and effort. But if and when I refresh the site, I will definitely have this on the list as one of the important aspects to improve.