Dupuy Acoustique Bongo Speaker System Review

Installation and Setup

The Dupuy Acoustique Bongo are available in a black finish as a standard, but can be ordered in whatever veneer finish you would prefer. The review samples arrived in a very rich-looking rosewood finish. The included wood stands are finished in matte black.

The Dupuy Acoustique Bongo is a reflex loaded design that consists of two 5” cone midrange/woofer units and a 1” cloth dome tweeter. The drivers are mounted on the front baffle in a D’Appolito-type MTM (midrange-tweeter-midrange) configuration. The speaker’s rather diminutive size of 17 x 10 x 11 does not prepare you for its rather substantial heft of forty pounds.

The sturdy dedicated wood stands are quite easy to assemble and provide a very stable foundation for the speakers without need for additional mass-loading. The top of the stand adds additional isolation and support by using textured rubber strategically placed to hold the speaker firmly in place and to further minimize vibration or “walking.”

The Bongo are equipped with top of the line WBT binding posts, which are a breeze to hook up even when dealing with heavy and stiff cables such as the superb Enklein Titans.

As I mentioned in my review of the Eficion F300M satellites, it was the arrival of the Dupuy Acoustique Bongo for review that prompted me to first review the Eficion 300M’s in order to establish a sort of baseline of what level of performance should be expected from a modern satellite speaker system. Placement of these rather hefty little speakers was a bit more of a challenge since they were totally unknown to me. Dupuy actually encourages proximity to the back wall in order to bolster the Bongo’s bass response. In practice I found that it wasn’t really all that necessary. The Bongo’s achieved excellent overall balance at slight greater distance from the back wall as the Eficion F300M’s, 4 feet. The distance between the speakers and distance from speaker to listening position created an isosceles triangle of 7 feet.

The reference system utilized during the entire period of this evaluation cycle included:

The Sound

Prior to formally reviewing the Dupuy Acoustique Bongo, I had them set-up and breaking in downstairs in my small home theatre system while I completed power amplifier, tonearm, and phono cartridge reviews, that necessitated the system remain stable. During that period I was able to become acquainted with these speakers as they relate and compare to my reference home theater speakers, the Eficion F300M. In the context of this sonic preview, the Dupuy Acoustique Bongo did nothing but draw attention and respect from the household and visitors alike. As such, when it came time to haul them upstairs I already knew that the Bongo were going to make an impression.

True to my suspicions, indeed the Bongo proved to be very competent. They were quite consistent top to bottom and bathed the midrange with just a touch of burnished warmth — something I like to call the “Conrad Johnson effect” (more on this later). This translated to a very engaging and almost overly emotional reproduction of acoustic guitar; Katie Melua’s voice for instance on “Piece by Piece” was warm, round, and full without ever sounding too heavy. That small touch of added warmth gave the Bongo a very rich and inviting sound that urges the listener to relax and enjoy the moment. So wonderful was this first “outing” for the Bongo, that I broke from my play list and ended up enjoying an afternoon of largely acoustic records. These included selections from the Townsend and Lane record Rough Mix, Steve Howe’s Not Necessarily Acoustic, Katie Melua’s Piece by Piece, Neil Young’s Prairie Wind, Peter Gabriel’s Scratch My Back, and Vitamin String Quartet Performs Segur Ros.