I just spend an afternoon listening to Dynaudio Contour 1.3 at home with my own electronics. They are placed on a pair of Sanus
UF 24" speaker stand. My electronics: Wadia 16, Classe CP-50,
and Levinson 333. My own speakers are Thiel 3.6.

What's wrong: these are ported bookshelve size speakers.
The bass sound is quite a bit slower sounding compare to
Thiel 3.6. Specs says -3dB at 45 Hz and I think they are
about right. They do quite a bit deeper than my own bookshelve
speaker Epos 11 while being about the same size.

What's right: midrange. Male and female vocal are about
as good as it gets. The closest sounding speakers are the
$14k Eggleston or $10k Sonus Faber Extrema. Voices are
more natural sounding Thiel 3.6 which are already difficult
to beat. Top-end. Very extended and detailed sounding without
being sharp. It's a pleasure to listen to Issac Stern's violin.
It's extrodinary close to to the live Issac Stern concert I
heard last weekend. One last thing, it has a very large sweet spot.

Equipment matching might be a problem. These are very revealing
sounding and power hungary speakers. To have decent bass control,
you will need at least 100 W/ch for a mid-size room.

These are the most neutral sounding bookshelfs I've ever heard. I've listened to many excellent monitors and they all fell short before the Contour 1.3 mkII. They are perfectly sized as bookshelfs and beautifully finished. The only thing that came to my mind was "perfection". Considering that I'm currently running a Krell system, I'm definitely getting a pair in my next upgrade!

These speakers are killer!! They definitely blow away similarly priced B&W's in light of their incredible neutrality and "bastard"ly imaging...:) Although I currently own the Dynaudio Audience 50's I want to upgrade to these slightly larger but supposedly better-sounding speakers. Hearing the latter speakers I was stunned at the amount of realistic sound brought forth to the listener. Ofcourse, these speakers were being used with the aid of a Sunfire subwoofer which also sounded great. The dealer at the store recommended using this brand of subwoofer with the Dyn's to bring out the lowest octave of the music. Boy, is that a timely suggestion especially for rock & roll! I agree with some of the others that these speakers do in fact sound their best with top-notch equipment. All in all, these speakers are simply one of the best pairs of speakers I have ever heard considering their somewhat reasonable price... period. I am hoping to get a pair of the Mk.II's at a decent price soon. Worth saving your money for!

I'll begin by confessing that I only had the opportunity to audition these speakers for a few hours at a local dealer, but I believe what I discovered there may still be of use to those here curious about what kind of music Dynaudio speakers make. The electronics I listened to the 1.3s on were the Conrad Johnson DV-26 cd player ($2500 US), and the Conrad Johnson CAV-55 integrated amp (45 WPC tube, $2500) with AudioQuest wire (I believe it was high end AudioQuest as opposed to AudioTruth, though I was unable to identify the exact model). I compared the 1.3s directly to the B&W Matrix 802s ($4000) on the same system, as well as listening to the Contour 3.3s ($7100) on a system composed of the Krell KAV-300cd cd player, KAV-250p preamp, and KAV-250a power amp (all together about $8000). Wiring was AudioTruth Opal interconnects and (I believe) AudioTruth Argent speaker cable. Both systems made use of Bright Star isolation equipment. To jump right into it, I agree completely with the general concensus here that these speakers are revealing, and get the midrange just right. It is also worthy of note that they have significantly deeper and more realistic bass performance than almost any speaker their size. You get your money's worth out of them, but only if you are very careful in system matching. The Conrad Johnson combo was incredibly musical, but was unable to play loud enough even for the medium sized room I listened in. The combination of 86dB speaker sensitivity, passive preamp section in the integrated amp, and 1V cd player output (I assume it's 1V since they chose to use this value in their separate DAC; I didn't actually measure it) simply made for a synergistic mismatch. Switching to the 4dB more sensitive B&Ws did the trick, and the full magic of the Conrad Johnson gear was able to shine through.
Paired with the almost surgically revealing and much beefier Krell electronics, though, the 1.3s larger sibling, the 3.3, corrected the dynamic difficulties that had been apparant with the CJ system. Something, though, was not quite right about the big rig -- it was so ruthlessly revealing that badly recorded music became almost unlistenable for the flaws this system seemed to highlight.
If your music is all well recorded, go ahead and buy a Krell/Dynaudio combo... there is little more revealing for the money. It'll make great choral and classical absolutely come to life. If, like me though, you enjoy a great deal of music that didn't happen to be mastered very well, then you will probably not fully apprecate this system's strengths. It's important to consider whether or not your stereo can make all of the music you love happen for you... not just how it measures up on audiophile test discs.
What is the moral of this short story then? Dynaudio speakers would probably be perfectly matched with a system designed to dish out both tube-like liquidity and solid state power, but not either of the two extremes. If you have, or are interested in matching components to account for the weakness of the Dynaudios (low sensitivity) and highlight their greatest strengths (natural midrange and accuracy) then these are definitely speakers you should audition. If your tastes or equipment do not mesh with these qualities, though, you would probably be better sevrved by a different brand of speakers.

Please direct any feedback or flames to my e-mail address, and enjoy the music. :-)

--Aaron Boyer, aaronboyer@hotmail.com

Nuff said above about the amazing beauty of this monitor. Those who thinklesser of it, most likely heard it with the wrong amps.I have lived with
it for 1.5 years now, and here is a winning combo as inexpensive as I think you can do it RIGHT.: Conrad-Johnson PV10A (tubed pre-amp.)to a Parasound 1500A
amp. (200 W pr.)via Transparent interconnects. Likewise Transparent speaker-
cables. That Totals about $3300- sans speakers and your choice of front-end.
And that better be good, because this system spells Magick.

Sound superb and very natural, excellent imaging, deep bass from small boxes, look great!

Some very bassy music can cause the bass to become 'boxy' - but this is only to be expected from small speakers. Err, that's it!

These speakers really are quite stunning! They sound extremely natural, especially on vocals, with no discernible coloration of their own. No speaker in their price bracket that I have heard even comes close to the sound quality, emotion and involvement that these provide. Even in higher price brackets (up to double) the only speaker which really beat them was the bigger 1.8mk2.

Interestingly, I demoed the speakers (a store demo pair) against the newer 1.3mk2, and preferred the originals, which have a freer treble. To some ears this could translate as a trace to much sibilance, but to me it sounded much more inkeeping with the general presentation.

Can't recommend them highly enough.

Similar Products Used:

Demoed against many other speakers of similar price (and much higher) over a couple of months.

An amazing set of speakers for their size with a midrange to die for !After about two hours of listening I was convinced of their prowess.

My only problem with was their size. It's hard to rid yourself of the
bigger is better mentality. I listened to them sans a sub but was almost
convinced that I could live with them that way.

Highly recommended - even at their current price !

Great mid range and highs

bass is lacking

I have been running these speakers for a little over a year now. Their great speakers! These are one of the best sounding bookshelf speakers i've heard. The mids and highs are very detailed. The bass is lacking a little in my opinion. Nothing a decent sub won't fix. I would recomend these speakers to anyone looking for a set of bookshelf speakers.

Pure, natural sound

none given its design intents

I like minimonitors (though not that word), for all the usual reasons. Easy to move around and experiment with, they don't overload the room in the bass, great imaging, etc. The Dyns do all this but also possess an ineffable musical gestalt. What the hell does that mean? Simply, the little speaker from Denmark brings me closer to the music. These are very emotional speakers (yeah I know the real emotion comes from the music being played and my reaction to it), but without a speaker to emote, it's a moot point, my emotions. The speaker brings out feelings, ie, that all the money and time and energy spent on the crazy pursuit of musical bliss is somehow worth it. I've had many speakers in house lately, but this is the only pair I've really wanted to keep; the only pair I always get excited about going home to listen to. No laundry list of what this speaker does right. Suffice to say that if you love music and its joys and sorrows, The Dynaudio will tell you the truth about it. Listen for yourself. But really LISTEN to these, or you just won't get it. Good Luck!

Similar Products Used:

Variety of minimonitors

Most natural sound ever heard from a speaker

Kind of expensive

These speakers are fantastic. The most neutral, natural speakers I've yet heard.

Similar Products Used:

Totem Model One, Joseph Audio RM7, ProAC 1SC all auditioned