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This transmitter requires no driver software or similar. You can even drive it with just USB power and eliminate the included wall wart. That’s particularly practical if—like moi—you’ve transitioned to playing from a file library and some of the newer Internet music services like Spotify. Then simply park the transmitter on your work desk, connect it to the PC and off you go. It’s really that simple and fun! You needn’t even fire up the system. The moment the transmitter goes online, the speakers follow suit. In the absence of signal the threesome after a few minutes enters sleep mode.


Sound. After a few days with the slim Danish columns especially elegant in high-gloss black, one realizes nothing much in particular. The mundane listening day— if I may refer to my interactions with regular review loaners in my living room thus—was positively noteworthy for its absence of particulars.


The fact that the speakers weren’t leashed to signal cables didn't even factor. First and foremost the Xeo 5 acted like a typical Dynaudio of the sort I’ve repeatedly heard in the past. Hence after 48 hours (the tweeter might enjoy a bit longer to fully shed the last remnants of sleepiness) I quickly recognized the musical flow and top-to-bottom tonal coherence as brand signature traits which my internal referee refers to as ‘unlimited long-term comfort’. A Dynaudio box doesn’t stress out, plays games or throws herself at the listener like a tart.
 
Quite the opposite. With great care and structure did this one erect the prog-rock "Untouchable Pt.°2" of Anathema’s Weather Systems. The atmospherically suspended intro of synth and lead vocal by Danny Cavanagh had a spatially tangible profile. The voice appeared ultra present in the foreground nearly like a scissor cut against the panoramic background of electronic ambiance. This had depth and substance to approach the holographic, especially from the moment onward when a second ( female) voice enters with a glassy nearly broken intonation and spreads out in front of the speakers in all its facets. As the number progresses the band enters in typical rock formation of percussion, electric bass, lead and rhythm guitar but is augmented by strings which are apparently real and not synthesized to layer up the song into a gloomily threatening thunderstorm over which the Xeo 5 maintained a constant and unwavering view.


"Untouchable Pt.°2" offers up much instrumental simultaneity to make tuning into the hidden harmonies of these details worthwhile. These the speakers then need to sort out before they get masked by sheer mass. The Xeo 5 handled this as well as I know it from the Focus 160 or Focus 220 models in the same catalogue even though those cost more. But the family resemblance was uncanny. No detail fell by the wayside but it's not about spotlighting. Complex fare doesn’t trip up. The presentation remains of a piece and fluid whilst each virtual performer maintains a solid well-localized position on the stage.


Many active speakers of my acquaintance share well-pressurized and highly damped bass. Occasionally this approaches a tad too much of a good thing particularly when it's an exercise of milking maximal extension from a small enclosure. With the slim Xeo 5 column one is equally surprised by the amount of basement action.


It goes low enough and on the famous title track of Schwarzenegger’s Terminator 2 soundtrack with such gnarly growl that I wouldn’t recommend these for rooms much below 20m². This bass never seems blown up or pudgy but it's certainly forceful in a highly defined dry manner. Though I know speakers with even ‘faster’ bass which render kick drum attacks harder and more incisive, the Dynaudio down low is assuredly neither late nor undercooked. A minor reticence in attack matters also dominated the midband. That’s nothing of concern but should be factored. Those like me whose dominant musical calories stem from the Rock and Indie genres to routinely enjoy letting it crack hard will miss a bit with Swedish rocker Europe’s "Not supposed to sing the Blues" from Bag of Bones (yep, they still exist and no, it no longer sounds like "The Final Countdown"). The brief but brutal drum intro or the distorted guitar hook of John Norum don’t crash into the crib in full wall-of-sound hard-rock glory. This number can blow-dry your hair and only then it’s completely fun. It’s not as though the Xeo 5 didn’t try its best but it was clear this wasn’t her master game.