Dynaudio Contour MKII - Initial impressions with about 100 hours on them

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bullethead

I managed to find a "new" pair of Dynaudio Contour MKII loudspeakers a couple of days ago.  I decided to buy them and see what all the fuss was about regarding these Danish speakers.  Well it turns out that the positive reviews were only the tip of the iceburg in terms of actually sitting down and listening to these puppies.  Really nice open soundstage, excellent bass response, vocals and high frequency extension is world class, and the open soundstage as mentioned pulls out into the room a holographic presentation which I have never heard before in any speaker I have auditioned. 

One of the things I have noticed was that the bass is "real".  The speakers are boxes but do not sound as such due to isolated chambers for each driver and wonderful internal damping etc...  There is no over-tuning for bass unlike some other bookshelfs which put out what in my mind is "fake bass".  The speakers go low and that's it.  There's no boom, no bloat and no muffle.  It's quick, animate and delicate at the same time.  I believe this is one of the reasons for that holographic soundstage I speak of.

I've only played the speakers out of the box for a few dozen hours, and I am noticing the speakers starting to "break in", the sound changes towards the "even better" hour after hour.  I plan to spend a couple of hours today listening.  I have to say that the speakers are worth it and possibly are worth more than the $2400 price I spend on the pair due to excellent quality and craftmanship and nontheless really sophisticated sound quality.

jimdgoulding

Had these speakers at home for a weekend audition.  Didn't buy them cause I prefer a richer mid.  Patricia Barber, etc., just seemed less luscious than I like.  But there are some things that this speaker does extremely well, most of which Bullethead already noted.  I would give them lots of power.  They can take it.  On bass transients of the explosive variety, they bent the walls of my room out!  They have massive voice coils and can translate power to amazing energy.  You've heard that saying "cut from the same cloth"?  Top to bottom they are and that's a very cool attribute in practice.  Good height to the soundstage in my room as well.  One of the best two way standmounts that I've had at home.  Second to none, really, for what they do so well.   

catch_22

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 6
I owned a pair of Dynaudio Contour 1.8 mk II for 5 years.
Then sold it to a friend due to upgrade.
He made the following mods:damped all the walls inside with 2mm self adhesive bitumen sheets. Also replaced the capacitors of the filters with higher grade ones.
Now the sound of these lovely speakers is much better than before.
The only drawback is the lack of a midrange speaker. But it is Contour 1.8 mkII.

Freo-1

I managed to find a "new" pair of Dynaudio Contour MKII loudspeakers a couple of days ago.  I decided to buy them and see what all the fuss was about regarding these Danish speakers.  Well it turns out that the positive reviews were only the tip of the iceburg in terms of actually sitting down and listening to these puppies.  Really nice open soundstage, excellent bass response, vocals and high frequency extension is world class, and the open soundstage as mentioned pulls out into the room a holographic presentation which I have never heard before in any speaker I have auditioned. 

One of the things I have noticed was that the bass is "real".  The speakers are boxes but do not sound as such due to isolated chambers for each driver and wonderful internal damping etc...  There is no over-tuning for bass unlike some other bookshelfs which put out what in my mind is "fake bass".  The speakers go low and that's it.  There's no boom, no bloat and no muffle.  It's quick, animate and delicate at the same time.  I believe this is one of the reasons for that holographic soundstage I speak of.

I've only played the speakers out of the box for a few dozen hours, and I am noticing the speakers starting to "break in", the sound changes towards the "even better" hour after hour.  I plan to spend a couple of hours today listening.  I have to say that the speakers are worth it and possibly are worth more than the $2400 price I spend on the pair due to excellent quality and craftmanship and nontheless really sophisticated sound quality.


Which model number contour did you buy? 


I've a pair of the older Focus 360 speakers, and am impressed with the Dynaudio house sound.  Have them being driven by a pair of Devialet 400 with Speaker Active Matching (SAM), which gets the bass further down safely:


https://www.devialet.com/en-eu/expert-pro-sam-ready-speakers/dynaudio/focus-360/




charmerci


Which model number contour did you buy? 



12 years ago, 27 posts. This guy probably ain't around anymore!  :lol:

Freo-1


12 years ago, 27 posts. This guy probably ain't around anymore!  :lol:




Good point! 

maty

I owned a pair of Dynaudio Contour 1.8 mk II for 5 years.
Then sold it to a friend due to upgrade.
He made the following mods: damped all the walls inside with 2mm self adhesive bitumen sheets. Also replaced the capacitors of the filters with higher grade ones.
Now the sound of these lovely speakers is much better than before.
The only drawback is the lack of a midrange speaker. But it is Contour 1.8 mkII.

by acidbrain

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