Dynaudio Xeo 2 Wireless Loudspeaker

The Xeo 2 is the smallest and perhaps cleverest model in Dynaudio’s rapidly expanding universe of wireless active loudspeakers. You heard correctly—it’s a truly wireless, internally amplified system. It uses aptX Bluetooth as its wireless conduit for BT-compatible sources, all the while employing its own DSP and internal power to transmit the signal to each loudspeaker. Translation: no speaker cables. (I think I just felt a shudder rippling through the wire-maker community.) Yes, you can hook up a CD player or digital source component if you’re so inclined. But you don’t have to. In fact, Xeo 2 presents the easiest hook-up recipe in audio: Remove the contents of the box, plug them in, and take a couple of seconds to pair your music-loaded, Bluetooth-capable device. If you’re an old cable-handler like me it is a truly bizarre feeling just plugging the Xeo 2 into the AC—and boom, instant music. Look Ma, no wires!

The $1500-per-pair Xeo 2 is a two-way, bass-reflex design. It stands a mere ten inches tall but exudes quality with flush-mounted drivers and clean design elements. It sports a 27mm soft dome tweeter and 14cm mid/bass driver that includes a rigid, one-piece, thermo-formed proprietary MSP (Magnesium Silicate Polymer) cone and an oversized 38mm pure aluminum voice coil. The crossover kicks in at 3.1kHz and employs a 24dB-per-octave slope. Dynaudio designs and makes it own drivers in-house in Denmark. In fact, Dynaudio is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of high-quality drive units.

The cabinet is a molded composite bolstered by an aluminum baffle to further stiffen the enclosure. The downward firing port is cleverly hidden from view behind the rear cover plate where the power cord and selector buttons are housed. The entire package is fully self-contained with bi-amplification rated at 65W to each transducer, and DSP and Bluetooth streaming with aptX and AAC support. The Xeo 2 also sports a sophisticated digital crossover and true time-coherent, phase-linear FIR filters in the integral DACs. Additionally, Dynaudio uses its own Sound Power and Adaptive Bass Technologies to enhance low-end output.

Dynaudio has conveniently equipped the Xeo 2 with touch-button control for volume and power atop each speaker. The button also doubles as an input selector. My only nitpick was its extreme sensitivity to even casually light pressure. And, I soon learned just how loudly the Xeo 2 would play when I unwittingly rested my hand on its top a couple of times. The Xeo 2 is designed to fit in small, even difficult spaces, stand-mounted, on-wall, or bookshelf. To that end there is a three-position eq slider switch on each speaker to contour the sound for the realities and compromises of speaker placement. The three settings compensate for corner, wall, or neutral positioning to provide the most even response. Not missing a beat, Dynaudio offers optional table stands and wall brackets as well.

Furthermore, there are three zone settings that allow the use of multiple pairs of Xeo 2s in a multi-room/multi-zone system with independent source connectivity and independent volume control. Dynaudio offers the optional, reasonably priced Xeo Hub or Dynaudio Connect wireless transmitters for these more sophisticated installations. Wisely, wired inputs haven’t been completely jettisoned but they are purely optional. The Master speaker is equipped with digital (TosLink 24-bit/192kHz) and analog (RCA and 1/8″ mini) inputs. All incoming signals are digitized. A remote control is included but its lackadaisical response will encourage you to use whatever paired smart device you’ve got handy.

The sonic expectations for wireless speakers have risen considerably over the past few years. Latency issues, while still real, have been largely ameliorated. And it shows—the Xeo 2 performance was very stable with excellent throw distances and no signal drop-outs in my home, a personal first for a BT device. Part of this is due to Dynaudio’s internal antenna. Dynaudio points out that many Bluetooth products include the antenna as an integrated part of the very small BT board. The Xeo 2 has the antenna integrated inside the Xeo 2 cabinet, but at a safe distance from the main electronics board and wiring.

Sonically, the Xeo 2 has a bold, confident voice that neither screams with treble lift nor shrinks into the background with midband suckouts. It’s a midrange-centric sound that doesn’t play favorites with male or female vocalists; it does justice to both, conveying intelligibility and a level of the tactile and physical underpinnings of the performance. There’s a slight presence range dip but the impact on musicality was minor. It’s a darker, warmer character overall, a more conservative balance, which is not necessarily a bad thing in a compact speaker. Small speakers often default towards rising top octaves that suggest detail of an order that never existed in the recording. On first listen this might get the speaker noticed but such hyper-detail and etching wear thin over the longer haul. Rather than drawing my attention to the tweeter, the Xeo 2 projected relatively smooth, coherent, energetic midrange dynamics, with a long-term listenability that prompted me to put iTunes on shuffle and let the music carry me away.

Due to its active biamplification I expected Xeo 2’s bass response to be weightier than the average passive loudspeaker of similar spec, but I wasn’t disappointed. Its response was crisp, with punch, drive, control, and scale that easily belied the speaker’s puny footprint. This loudspeaker has a big voice that imparted much of the body and resonance characteristics of the rhythm section during the opening bars of Shelby Lynne’s “Just A Little Lovin’.”

 Xeo 2 might be a full-time wireless system but I still listened closely for sonic fingerprints that might be more related to the physical structure of the Xeo itself. To these ears it did at times sound a little overdamped, as if the cabinet were absorbing some of the natural transient crispness of percussion and winds. Also there was some general veiling  that I could hear as a slight reduction in image individuation, as well as a flattening of dimensionality. The port does an admirable job filling in the midbass spectrum, but a ten-inch-tall mini-monitor can’t be expected to sound like a Wilson or a Magico.

Paramount to the Xeo 2 experience—and wireless in general—is using the system day in and day out. My findings? In two words, pure pleasure. Connectivity was as easy as pairing with your iPhone. The plug-and-play aspect delivers as promised—quickly and with no hiccups. The speaker eq slider was helpful in resolving room-induced acoustic issues. Owners should consider experimenting freely with these settings, as no two rooms are exactly alike. For example, I found that in my smallish room the speakers sounded more neutral in the “wall” setting rather than the more bass-heavy and overbearing “neutral” setting. The “corner” setting in comparison rolls off the mid and upper bass more than the “wall” setting—a roll-off consistent with the extra acoustic reinforcement that comes with corner placement.

The common wisdom in the audiophile world is “wired good, wireless bad.” Well, Dynaudio and its Xeo 2 really upset these assumptions. Not only did its combination of packaging, performance, and convenience find a receptive audience with yours truly, but the Xeo 2 was also a hit among my tech-savvy millennial nieces and nephews. Will it make believers of proud audiophiles with big, dedicated, fully wired systems? Nope, but that would be beside the point. As a no-fuss, no-muss option that brings Dynaudio’s vaunted musicality to virtually anywhere in the rest of the house, Xeo 2 proves that under the right set of circumstances sometimes wire-less turns out to be a lot more.

Specs & Pricing

Type: Active two-way, bass-reflex loudspeaker
Driver complement: 27mm tweeter, 14cm woofer
Frequency response: 40Hz–24kHz
Weight: 8.8 lbs.
Dimensions: 6.8″ x 10″ x 6″
Price: $1499 (white or black finish)

Dynaudio North America
1852 Elmdale Ave.
Glenview, IL 60026
(847) 730-3280
dynaudio.com