Audio Xpress
Jan Didden of Audio Xpress visited our office and factory to get to know the 8c and the company behind it.
Recommended Components 2023
Every product listed here has been reviewed in Stereophile. Everything on the list, regardless of rating, is genuinely recommendable.
"Recently upgraded to D&D 8c speakers.
Fantastic quality audiophile product that sound incredible. Superb full range detail & excellent controlled bass. Plus, they look stunning.
In addition, personal emails & a welcome from the designer/owner of the company add to the overall experience & confidence in the product & support.
Highly recommended 👍"
"Every day feels like I hear my Dutch & Dutch 8c speakers for the first time. They sound so amazing! I have never experienced this with any other speaker.
A nice and welcome addition is the ability to apply room correction in the DSP of the 8c’s using REW and a calibrated mic. This works excellent and gives better results than Dirac.
The Dutch &Dutch support is excellent. I’m very happy with my 8c speakers."
Recording Studio Loser
"These monitors making me sick to my stomach. Almost suffered from a panic attack."
"Most companies can produce a speaker which are good in measurement chamber, few companies produce speakers which sound amazing in a real room be that a studio, theater or a living room. Dutch and Dutch's 8Cs are simply the best speakers I've ever heard outside of a dedicated purpose built engineered listening room, and that statement includes an audition last year with speakers almost double the price in my living room. The internal DSP for room correction and cardioid midrange design is truly a game changer and I cannot recommend Dutch and Dutch speakers more highly."
"I have been into two channel audio for the last 20 years. I have had myriad amplifiers, inc,using tube and solid-state, horn speakers, electrostatic speakers, monitors, floor standers and many others. I wanted to simplify and minimize my listening experience, so I focused on the Dutch & Dutch 8Cs. All I can say is that I am so pleased and satisfied with these new speakers. Two ethernet cables and two power cords connected to a Roon core are all I need to hear the best sound I’ve ever had in my listening room!I am a hobbyist who enjoys music immensely. I’m not a professional studio guy or an expert by any means. All I can say is that these speakers fill my listening room with superlative, enjoyable sound, with tremendous bass and clarity, no matter what music genre I play, all without having to worry about room treatments, speaker placement and the like.Highly recommended!"
Diego Estan - Soundstage! Hi-Fi
When Doug Schneider asked me to review the 8c active loudspeaker from Dutch & Dutch, my first reaction was: “Dutch and what?”
"I've owned a pair of Dutch & Dutch 8cs for around 2 years now. Having had a long hi-fi journey of box swapping it's apparent to me just how special and intelligently designed these speakers are. These kicked out a system costing much more from a fairly difficult but acoustically treated room. The cardioid response and use of the rear wall to reinforce the lower registers is fantastic and the supplied filters for distance do an excellent job of calibrating this. The addition of direct upload of filters from Room EQ Wizard and a well written and easy to follow guide to measure and implement really make these amongst the best speakers your room will ever match with. Having said that the filters I ended up with were a modest improvement and far away from 100% necessary so good was the initial setup.All the previous speakers I had in the listening room demanded more space to the rear than was possible leading to a confused upper bass and midrange even after modest acoustic treatment and correction through REW.The sound I have through these is the best I've heard in a normal room and I'm almost certain that no amount of money spent on alternative equipment could improve this.Since owning them the upgrade to Roon ready really brought improvements and the recent addition of spotify and further updates to the app shows continued commitment and improvements to this product.Service and communication with Dutch & Dutch is absolutely top notch.If you're looking for and end game system with non of the fuss of multiple boxes and likely a better sound though working with the room rather than against it I can't recommend these and the company that makes them highly enough."
"One of the best speakers out there.The 8c is a fantastic concept, executed brilliantly. The speaker is fast, accurate and is a joy to work on/listen to. These have replaced 'traditional' monitors in my studio and have also reduced my reliance on heavy EQing and compression. I am also revising my mixes a lot less, which has improved my workflow.These are truly revealing speakers without being harsh or sterile or clinical, and great for cleaning up audio before the mixing process.REW integration is also very well executed - and although I was already familiar with the software, the online instructions are clear and detailed for someone diving in to REW for the first time.The support team at D&D are also fantastic are very knowledgeable and show a real commitment behind their product.Congratulations Dutch&Dutch, you have a winner and a very satisfied customer on your hands here!!PS The unboxing experience is also one of the best I've ever had on any studio monitor I've owned in the past :)"
Colby Ramsey Review
“Response was even and smooth from the lowest to highest frequencies, and I’ve rarely heard such a stable centre image, almost like having an additional monitor there.”
"I have been into two channel audio for the last 20 years. I have had myriad amplifiers, inc,using tube and solid-state, horn speakers, electrostatic speakers, monitors, floor standers and many others. I wanted to simplify and minimize my listening experience, so I focused on the Dutch & Dutch 8Cs. All I can say is that I am so pleased and satisfied with these new speakers. Two ethernet cables and two power cords connected to a Roon core are all I need to hear the best sound I’ve ever had in my listening room!I am a hobbyist who enjoys music immensely. I’m not a professional studio guy or an expert by any means. All I can say is that these speakers fill my listening room with superlative, enjoyable sound, with tremendous bass and clarity, no matter what music genre I play, all without having to worry about room treatments, speaker placement and the like.Highly recommended!"
"I had heard great things about the 8c. But the choice in the professional field is always very delicate and must be approached very carefully. I have tested in my workplaces several speakers from the highest end brands. The comparison and pliability of the Dutch & Dutch 8c was always superior to all other loudspeakers. The pleasantness in listening combined with the precision in detail and clarity in perceiving appropriate mixing or mastering choices was unparalleled. The sound and characteristics of these speakers remained unchanged in whatever room we placed them in (acoustically treated or not). The choice was so clear that we immediately purchased the 8c's without ever having any misgivings or regrets. After about a year since the purchase I am, every day, happier and more satisfied working with these monitors in my studios.The only "problem" is that I would like to listen and work only on them as the difference with other products is disarming.Another "problem" we have encountered is the following: we are so enchanted by the sound and their working characteristics that every time we are in the studio we spend more time in enjoying listening and talking about the 8c's than working on our musical projects ;)))!"
Falk Visarius - HiFi-IFAs
German review. Aktivlautsprecher mit D/A-Wandler Dutch & Dutch 8c – Ein leckeres Gedeck.
David Grzyb - Hifi Knights
"If you’ve been ever wondering whether an all-in-one product can stand up to a far costlier setup of regular sort or even surpass it, this report might have just the answer."
"The Dutch & Dutch 8Cs replaced a complex system consisting of several larges pieces of electronics -- and then they blew the old system away with their accuracy and rich sound! I fall in love with the speakers every time I sit down to listen to music. I have not had a single issue with these speakers, but I have reached out to Dutch & Dutch with some questions about how to get the most out of them. Their responses have always been immediate, and in general I have been very impressed with the level of support I've gotten. Highly recommend!"
"We operate a multi-studio complex in Accra, Ghana. The Dutch & Dutch 8c are in Studio A and are so balanced and unflattering it's amazing. They present the truth!We experienced a problem on initial setup with a faulty subwoofer. Dutch & Dutch after sales support is top notch. They shipped out a replacement woofer within a few days and we had it fixed and working perfectly.I recommend both the 8c and the company!"
Phil Ward - Sound on Sound
Of course the vast majority of conventional speakers begin to become cardioid at mid and high frequencies — above, say, 500Hz — but Dutch & Dutch claim the 8C is cardioid right down to 100Hz.
Kalman Rubinson - Stereophile
“The Dutch & Dutch 8c’s might be the sweet spot in the new category of active speakers”
"I am a very happy owner of the Dutch & Dutch 8C. They are truly amazing speakers. As a mastering engineer at Translab Mastering Studios in Paris, I was looking for a great system for my living room both for my everyday listening pleasure, but also for critical listening. My expectations were exceeded. I was extremely surprised, as were all my friends and colleagues, how good these speakers sound without acoustic treatment. Their ability to fit almost any room is impressive. They are detailed and precise speakers, but even more important, the Dutch & Dutch 8C are musical. They are the perfect answer for the need of many professionals and Audiophiles. Finally, the quality of Services and Support of the Dutch & Dutch team is fast, efficient, and customer friendly."
"The 8cs are just amazing to mix and master music on.All the guesswork is taken out of the process because I feel I can now hear everything. It translates exactly over to car, airpods, etc with no surprises."
Marja & Henk - 6Moons
“Here we felt the 8c to be as neutral as can be. There was no hint of
coloration, accent or emphasis. Whatever we put in is what came out,
just louder.”
Sinan Kökbugur - Hifi.nl
Dutch review. “Om maar meteen de deur in te trappen: de 8c’s klinken goed, heel goed zelfs.”
"The 8Cs are beautiful speakers, very versatile room integration and most of all pristine sound suited to all music genres. They are at the center of our recording studio specialized in acoustic music.A special note to D&D support: great service, particularly appreciated in a pro environnement"
Big fan of D&D's 8c speakers. Have two pairs in different rooms. The integrated room adaption solution is brilliant. Can't think of many other ways to get such superb sound in our home. Roon integration works perfectly well, always got quick and very competent support - and the speakers look great ;) Happy customer here...
Jason Kennedy - Hifi+
“If you want to hear the future of fidelity, grab yourself an audition forthwith.”
"I'm composer and producer in France.These speakers are my favorite piece of gear, of course you need to have good converters in order to hear the difference.I have had them for 4 years and I can say that they have freed me from the problems of mixing and have allowed me to concentrate on my compositions.I am hearing details that others do not hear, I have colleagues that send me stuff for me to listen and tell them what i found.They are FLAT, they are not predominant at any frequency and I don't get ear's fatigue.On low latency mode I can work almost without latency,so no problem for tracking and composing.They are solid and robust and the fact that they can reproduce the sub as well, solve big issues I had before having a separate subwoofer.There correction system works really well, the fact that you can directly read the REW measurements make it really easy and friendly.Glad to have jumped!"
"My last system was high-end hi-fi with equipment over €30k. During this time I got to know many physical effects and always tried to get close to the sound signal of 100%. But I didn't stand a chance against the physics in my acoustically difficult living room. And my wife no longer understood my room acoustic experiments. I was tired of the voodoo of the industry. But now I have your speakers .The 8c! And I'm excited!"