Neutrality, soundstaging, imaging, clarity, detail

Somewhat inefficient, needs realistic volume levels to sound its best

I must say after careful consideration and listening to more speakers than you can possibly imagine. That the 1.3 SE is definitely one of the best speakers out there. Rated at 6 ohms they are somewhat inefficient but not as inefficient as most high end speakers (which most tend to be rated at 4 ohms) I have no trouble with my receiver clipping while driving them. It's definitely the best speaker I have ever heard that is a bookshelf speaker bar none! The soundstaging and imaging and detail particularly when listeing to female vocals (like Diana Krall) is to say the least quite breathtaking. After listening to several CD's you find yourself hearing things that you never heard in them before. Some good some bad (they reveal so much you will know if it has been recorded poorly because it will pick it up) You gotta love a company that actually manufactures drivers for other speaker companies. I don't know of any other speaker manufacturer that does this. They do take a while to break in somewhere around 150 hours. The only drawback to this speaker if any is that it should be played back at realistic volume levels to get the most out of them. If you are considering the 1.3's you owe it to yourself to give them a listen. system configuration B&K AVR202 Toshiba SD-9200 Dynaudio 1.3 SE (left and right) Dynaudio T2.1 (center channel) Dynaudio 1.3 MKII (surrounds) Canare interconnects

Neutrality; smooth across the entire frequency spectrum, bass response from a relatively small enclosure, and outstanding build qualtity. These speakers are a beautiful piece of furniture.

Require a high powered amplifier and demand high quality electronics. Prefer to be placed far away from rear and side walls. And, they're expensive.

I recently purchased these speakers from a local dealer after using the Contour 1.3s for over four years. I'm using the Contour 1.3 SEs in a system that's undergoing a significant transformation, so I don't yet have the top quality electronics that will ultimately drive these speakers. The SEs are finished in a natural cherry, real wood veneer and are sitting on Dynaudio's Master Stands. They are "attached" to the stands with BlueTac. To date, they have been driven by a Denon AVR-5700 receiver (140 watts per channel) and an Arcam FMJ22 integrated amplifier (100 watts per channel). Upstream electronics are numerous, and include the Merdian 508 (20 bit version) CD player, a Denon DVD 5000 DVD player, and a Sony C555ES multichannel SACD player. First, despite the fact that the electronics I've used are not at the same level of the Dynaudios (except for the Meridian CD player), I was shocked at the improvement over the standard 1.3s. The SEs are much more open and tranparent, and the bass response is quite deep for a small speaker. These improvements were obvious from the moment I first used the SEs, even though Dynaudio speakers are notorious for requiring a significant break in period. I summary, in the short time these speakers have been part of my system, I've been nothing short of thrilled with their performance. I'm looking forward to driving them with electronics that are commensurate with their performance.

Similar Products Used:

Dynaudio Contour 1.1s, 1.3s, Thiel 1.5, various NHT models.

precise soundstage, full body mid-range, perfectly balanced sound spectrum.

price

I''ve just upgrade to 1.3SE from my very old Celestion SL6Si. The improvement just blows my socks off even they haven''t broken-in. Full body mid-range, very approachable and well balanced, solid bass. Overall, very musical instrument, probably the best bookshelf speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Celestion SL6, SEK acoustic

natural, transparent, staging, imaging vocal reproduction astounding build quality

not a cheesy appearance - oh - that''s a strength too

after gathering some info from readers like you, i was very interested in the B&W series and somehwat interested in Dynaudio. how quickly that changed. having recently ventured out of town to narrow down my search, i was extremely really impressed with Dynaudio. i will not attempt to describe the difference, as you already know. currently living in an apartment, i like the versatility of the 1.3SEs - good for now, most likely good enough for larger room later (w/ sub). my question for all of you concerns power: knowing then what you know now, what amp would you buy for these? i will likely have to make one large purchase, as i don''t think my old Denon receiver is up to the task. i see everyone''s equipment, but i would much appreciate what you "would if you could." (60% audio / 40% HT) until i get mine, i''ll have to just envy you. thanks for any feedback. dano

Similar Products Used:

B&W

Clean, natural sound reporduction. Very nice appearance.

Lacks in bass reproduction in the lower octaves.

This is a pair of really, really fine loudspeakers! Having lived happily with the original Contour 1.3’s for several yeas, it was natural for me to look at the SE’s when it was time for an upgrade some 6 months ago. It would be easy for me to write a long “in depth” review about every aspect on the correct and natural presentation of music, that is almost the pure essence of “high fidelity”, but I will settle for a few remarks and recommendations: The Contour 1.3 SE’s are quite inefficient and they require a lot of input power to start singing. Forget about valve amplifiers and small A/V-receivers, and go instead for the heavier stuff in the Krell or Rotel series for instance. They also require a break-in period of about two months of frequent listening, before the elements have “loosened-up” and the filters have the correct parameters to work with. Please have this in mind if you decide to take the speakers for a spin in your home system. Borrow the well-used pair from the dealer. As mentioned before, the sound from the 1.3SE’s is very clean and natural, with a huge ability to position “life-like” instruments and vocalists in your listening room. Still they have a bit more sweet or “polished” presentation than the original 1.3’s. The practical meaning of this is that the lesser perfect recordings in your collection (and for most of us, this means like 90% of all records), will be more endurable. In comparison, the original 1.3’s really made your ears cry on occasion. The speakers lack in bass reproduction, of course, considering the size of the boxes. For normal listening volumes, in normal listening rooms, this is not a big problem. It only means that the bass “dies” around 50Hz or so. You could try to tweak-up the bass by re-positioning the speakers, but this will only increase the level of bass, not the depth. These speakers, like the majority of the models in the market, need quite a bit of breathing-room, so keep them positioned at least a couple of feet away from the back- and side-walls. A separate sub-woofer is an option, but be very aware of the effects in the hand-over/cross-over region. The 1.3SE’s are so good that you certainly do not want to sacrifice transparency and “attack” in the low-mid/high-bass region for a few Hz of lower reproduction. In that case, it is much better to learn to live with the lack in bass depth. To be ab

Well design with very good tweenter and woofer.

Price

I have used this speaker for around 1 year, the speaker was well design in every aspect. Since my listen environment is not big, so I look for bookshelf speaker. I finally go for 1.3SE because it suit my taste of music.

Similar Products Used:

Dynaudio Audience 5

Dynamics, harmonic richness & clarity, zero harsh ugliness.

Not the warmest/fuzziest design out there -see ProAc for something more friendly. Also power hungry and NEED space. Expensive.

Dynaudio has seemingly gone all-out on these units, with Neodymium-boron magnets on both tweeter and woofer (Neodymium-boron, for the uninitiated, is an extremely powerful magnet MANY times more powerful than the standard ferrites) and a 6db crossover that appears as tweaked as it gets. The result is an amalgam of technology that can create music unlike any other transducer I have yet heard. Damn good speakers that shame many much more expensive designs. These units are not fundamentally about the typical ''audiophile'' detail, air, soundstaging & the ''stereophile-correct'' interpolation of the music; instead, they convey music as the harmonically rich, transient, rhythmic, poetic, complex event it is, with the air, detail and soundstaging seemingly occuring secondarily as a result of getting the music right. Overall, these speakers deliver music in a more emotive and captivating way than anything else I have listened to. They continually impress me in their ability to not only resolve the nuances of music, but equally the power and intensity behind any piece I play. I know someone will eventually ask, "what is the system?..." so: Naim 3.5/72/140 with naim cabling throughout. The 1.3se''s reside on custom "Jan''s Engineering" (Vancouver based) 6-pillar sand filled, spiked 24in. stands. Lastly, these speakers crave power and perform with increasing fervour and verve the better fed they are. The might even be worth the dinero? This is the Porsche of loudspeakers: simple, sexy, but with performance that will scare the s*%t out of you.

Similar Products Used:

Darn near everything.

Pleasant, rich sound, compact design

No real deepbass-range, bit slow

Sound pretty well but surely NOT fanastically. Clever danish masking of faults (i.e. missing deep-bass). Comparing to others in this pricerange you will find: too expensive.

Pretty much everything.

They're too expensive.

What the hec is Chris from Munich talking about???
Clever danish masking of faults, missing deep-bass ???

These are smallish stand mounted monitors!!! Such speakers with the lone exception of Mani-2's are not supposed to have deep bass.

Of ALL the mini monitors that I've heard, only Mani 2's and Sonus Faber's Extrema were noticibly better than these 1.3's. (And I have heard JMLab's Mini Utopia and Wilson's Cubs.)

The 1.3's are extremely musical. Mids are as accurate and natural anything else I've heard. The highs with the wrong amplification can be a bit edgy but overall is quite good.
Bass has reasonable extension and is very detailed and very fast(quite unlike the ponderous Mini Utopias). This speakers main fault is price. If you have to have stand mounted monitors, then spend a little bit more and get Mani 2's. Otherwise there are a Lot of better options. Soliloquy (and others) make excellent tower speakers that outperform any stand mounter for a good deal less money.

Similar Products Used:

Totem's, Soliloquy's, Hales

excellent imaging, rich transparent sound and good bass extension for a bookshelf speaker

need lots of power, relatively expensive

These speakers have a very balanced detailed sound that is not a bit tiring to listen to for extended periods of time. They throw a deep, wide, and well-defined soundstage (especially so when used with quality cables). They do sound best with relatively (100 watts or more) high powered quality amplification behind them. Placement is important to get the best sound but that's true for all speakers. I've listened to lots of speakers (bookshelf and otherwise) and this is one of the best. I have yet to hear a bookshelf speaker that doesn't need help with bass extension and when these are paired with a quality sub the sound is awesome (superior to much more expensive floor standers)! They are a little pricey but the craftsmanship and sound reflect the price. A step up from the N805.

Similar Products Used:

B&W Nautilus 805 and 804