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Review: Dynaudio Contour 1.8 mkII Speaker

Category: Speakers

I have been on a speaker hunt for a while. My goal was to find a sub $3000 speaker (new or used). I was really hoping this speaker would be the one because I had read many reviews about how great Dynaudio is. I couldn't wait to get to the store and hear them.
I was sitting and listening to CD after CD... After trying to convince myself that I liked them, I gave up.
The entire Dynaudio line seemed to have very fatiguing highs. The midrange was nice and they had good mid-bass punch. They made music come alive in many ways but, something about the way the highs were delivered made me want to get away from them.
I played James Taylor, Tracy Chapman, Art Blakey, and all sounded good in some ways. The imaging was nice, they had a good presence but, weren't smooth and liquid. They were kind of brutal in their attack on certain notes. Bass was booming during some tracks and then the highs would squeel in others.
They're good speakers for someone but, if you have a harsh amp or other electronics, these speakers will not sound natural. If it's all tubes and such, you may be OK.
Build quality looked OK, the speakers have a nice finish and a clean look. Most wives would approve.

Strengths: good midrange and/or midbass, good imaging, nice looking.
Weaknesses: Fatiguing speakers

Associated gear
Rega Planet
Bryston Amp

Similar products
B&W NT series
Thiel
Revel F30
Monitor Audio
carlman

Showing 1 response by jrwr7

jrwr7
211 posts
 
Hello Carlman,

I believe what you were hearing was the Bryston amp and not the 1.8's. I've heard the Bryston 3BST and 4BST. Although they are quite respectable amps, I found them a bit rough and edgy in the high frequencies. As for your choice of the Revel F-30's, I owned a pair of M-20's and they were very forward and sharp,expecially in the highs. Short of calling them tizzy, I did found them fatiquing. Even after changing amps, from Krell to Plinius, they were still a little to forward sounding. Then I did a side by side demo of the F-30's and the Dynaudio Contour 3.0's and I immediatly sold my M-20's and bought the 1.3MKII's and 'am waiting, quite impatiantly, until I can add the 3.0's to my system. I know the 3.0's are 2K more then the F-30's but I found the 3.0's sounded that much better. I think the difference in the highs can be found in the tweeters that are used by the speakers in question. The Revels have an aluminum dome tweeter and the Dyns use a silk dome, if I'm not mistaken.

This is just my oppinion. I hope I have not offended anyone for that was not my intention.....John
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