I will try to describe Boenicke speaker the best I can, but please bear with me as I’m not a reviewer or a journalist of some kind and I don’t post in forums for some time now... Online you can find almost all reviews from Boenicke range of speaker from the W5 up to the W13, and a funny fact is that all reviewers have the same finds; the real sense of being in the presence of a live performance.
After two days and a bucket load of music and even 2 movies, I can say that this speakers (W5) are going nowhere , the same as my Dyns that I’ll keep for sentimental reasons and value, to be fair, the 350 or 400€ that I would keep from the sale, I can’t buy anything that came close to the X12 performance.
The Dyns have lived with us for almost 10 years, the longest that any piece of gear stained in my system, the same as the BK sub and some cables...So, the Dyns have proved to be a very competent pair of speakers for the money, and a brand that I absolutely love very much!Heard a ton of Dyns models, from Contour, Confidence, Focus and Evidence, and IMO all across the range I can find that especial timber of Dynaudio, for me is like being home with the flippers on when I’m listening to a pair of Dynaudio speakers. I always thought that I would stay within the brand for the rest of my life, maybe the new Contour 20 or the Speacial Forty would be a nice replacement for the X12. With that in mind, Boenicke speakers came into my life for the first time in 2017 Lisbon Audio Show, the room was huge, and a pair of Boenicke W11 were feed by a Parasound combo Pre/power (you can watch my video on YouTube posted above) and produced a gigantic sound stage, with the bass filling the room in a natural and almost real/palpable sounds. I had to ask if it was any sub in the room just to be sure that all I was earring came only from those relatively small floorstanding boxes. After following the brand closely and reading every reviews and discussions forums I had at least try them in my system. Last week I came upon the W5 add on the Portuguese dealer webpage, their pair of W5 was up for grabs just for 2890€, they retail for 4490€ less 1600€... And this is only the entry level, you can buy the W5 SE or the SE+ with a considerable price tag increase. The placement of the W5s were not easy, as I never had a pair of speakers with side woofers and a little ambient Twitter on the back, so had to move them more that 15/20 times before finding the right placement. Boenicke speakers are made from solid wood, the “W” stand for wood, you can read online the Boenicke philosophy (
http://www.boenicke-audio.ch/about.pdf) and what is behind Sven Boenicke speakers design. In a close look you can see the attention to detail and a very nice hi-end finish only accomplished by a few brands. Started by listening with all my fav musics and my demo play list (will post it in the end) My first impressions of the W5 were that they had a very close timber to the Dyns, and that for me was a good start, as we (me and the wife) never had a listening fatigue with the Dyns, but After 3/4 musics it was evident that the similarities between the two models ended there. Boenicke speakers are known for reproducing a real sense of live performing, and I could ear it easily, studio recorded music is displayed like you are in the recording booth with the singer and not on the other side of the glass. Musics from the same album can be displayed with quite some differences , never had that sense of transparency or intimacy with smooth sounding treble. My audio diet doesn’t include classical music, primary because my wife don’t appreciate it, but every time she goes out I try to listen to some classical music, but find myself always distracted with something else or just because two ways speakers are not suited for a full representation of the busy sound stage of a classical symphony , so I rather listen to a pianos, cellos or violins concerts.But the Boenicke W5 proved me rong, It seems like a full scale representation from a far bigger speaker, you can’t quite believe that what you are earring can came from such small package. Funny fact:So you think that you know all your favorite musics start to finish? And even if it’s played backwards you still recognize it? Right? Rong! First I thought I was earring things, little nuances, small representation of noises created by the artists in the recording booth, or the flux of air entering a flute, the resonates of a violin wood, this little nuances make you believe that you are in the middle of the action, it representantes reality in a palpable way. The sound stage is airy, wide and with a sense of depth like I’ve never felted before. The Dyns X12 have a fixed point representation of the artist,but the Boenicke W5 do that and beyond, they can represent a full image of the band. I know that this kind of achievement is possible, I’ve earn it some times with very expensive equipment, never ever thought that I could reach such quality with this speakers and my system.