great on a high end chain

very lean on less powerful amp

I have had the Confidence 3 at home to test it
Sounded absolutely brilliant at the dealer's - great stage, precision, dynamics. I didn't expect wonderful sound at my place cause I wanted to start upgrading by buying a real good speaker. Trouble is, this speaker sounds pale and lean if your amp isn't overly powerful of if you have the wrong cables.
When it DID sound so brilliant it was on Wadia/Mark Levinson pre+power amp etc, cables alone cost 4K

At home even my old Band & Olufsen sound better.
I'll give the Confidence back. Too difficult.

Similar Products Used:

Dynaudio 1.3 MK II, B&W Nautilus 805

CLEAR SOUND ALL THE WAY THROUGH SPECTRUM, ACCURATE BASS

NEEDS LOTS OF POWER

4 Ohm nominal impedance; needs lots of power. I have an old 100 watt-per-channel Krell, which is adequate, but not overly so. However, the sound is incredible.

These may be THE solution for absolutely getting the most sound into a small space, but you pay in terms of retail price (at least look around for 25 to 40% discount, possibly on web, before you just walk into the local stereo boutique and plunk down cash) and other resources needed.

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SONUS FABER EXTREMA

Tightness of bass. Imaging. Detail.

Lean. Too bright.

Well hush my mouth. I'm gonna sell these (for a tidy profit)and use the money to improve my main system (Dynaudioacoustics M3's). For small speakers, these are pretty amazing. They are pretty lean and lack midrange dynamics. This is the price you pay for the amazing imaging. They will sound awful on a cheap amp. The stand gives them amazing bass punch. I have decided that these are not my kind of speaker. I wanna hear zero speaker compression.

Dynaudioacoustics M3's
Bryston BP20 / 4B-ST.
Apogee converters
Technics SL1200 turntable.

A superb if expensive loudspeaker. It demands equally good sources andamplification gear. Rewards you with excellent, neutral music. Very
revealing of shortcomings in your source material. The grills tend to significantly darken the sound, so remove them for best results.

A superb, if expensive loudspeaker. Demands equally good sources and gear, andthen rewards you with excellent, but revealing sound.

I have seriously auditioned the Dynaudio Contour 1.3MkII, Contour 3.0, Contour 3.3 and the Confidence 3. I really like all of the Contour speakers. I find them to be very revealing and accurate, with tight solid bass. I was expecting the Confidence, with their lower system Q, to be even better. I was set to fly from Arizona to the East coast to audition the Confidence 5 as there are no dealers within driving distance that carry them. I found a set of trade-in Confidence 3s at a dealer in Phoenix. I found the sound very lean. I decided within a few minutes that the sound was not for me, and I saved myself a plane trip. Five stars for the Contour 3.0 and 3.3, 3 stars for the Condidence 3.
Joe

Absolutely the best speaker I have ever heard!!!

One heavy mofo if you need to move it.

Very expensive ($8k) ... worth every penny. I have never heard truer sound than I have from this system. SimAudio I5, Dynaudio Confidence 3's, Nordost SPM interconnects and Speaker wire.

Large clean sound from a small box.

I have had these speakers for 3 years or more.
They work great with an ARC VT100.
I continually listen at dealers to new speakers
none sound as good, even if they are more massive in sound.
True to recording. Sound great with Opera and Bruckner.

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Auditioned many speakers at dealers.