Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: Dynaudio Contour S3.4 Speakers by TKwolek General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

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Model:	Contour S3.4
Category:	Speakers
Suggested Retail Price:	$5000
Description:	Contour S 3.4 two-way floor standing loudspeaker. Impedance: 4ohms; sensitivity 88dB; power rating: 300 watts. First order crossover. Dimensions: 190mm × 1200 × 340mm.
Manufacturer URL:	Dynaudio
Manufacturer URL:	Dynaudio

Review by TKwolek ( A ) on July 15, 2003 at 20:20:42 IP Address: 12.221.216.27

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I made a decision to buy these speakers after a long time of auditioning many different brands. Together with my teenage son, we visited four dealers listening to most of the major brand’s speakers ranging from $2,000 to $30,000. This includes B&W’s Nautilus 802, 803, 804, JMLab’s Utopia, Martin Logan’s Odyssey, Dynaudio’s Audience 82, Confidence C4, Contour S1.4, Magnepan's and others. In the beginning I was looking for small speakers for my son’s stereo system (Sansui G4700 receiver and Dual CS 604 turntable). During these visits I started paying attention to the Dynaudio brand, which was previously not known to my ears. I bought the Audience 42’s (please see my review). The first thing that struck me was the natural balance and the lack of fatigue. I am very sensitive to listening fatigue. I experienced this all the time with my Paradigm Studio 60’s. The majority of speakers I know can reach a volume of about 90-94 dBA without problems, but above this level, the sound starts to compress. The result is an increasing lack of clarity and a loss of the frequency balance and dynamics. The sound also becomes edgy. After I finished listening, my ears felt as if they were filled with cotton. The fatigue destroyed my listening pleasure. I investigated this during my listening sessions and I found out that the major problem is the metal tweeter. Their ultrasonic ringing really bothers my ears. Very clean recordings with a smaller emphasis on treble work better with metal tweeters. That’s also why soft (rolled off) amplifiers like tubes and solid states such as McIntosh are better suited with metal tweeters, but the price to pay is high. The loss of bass definition, detail, air and stereo imaging caused by rolled off amps far out ways their advantage with metal tweeters. I turned my attention to Dynaudio. These speakers have phenomenal tweeters with soft domes (I think the best in the market). They have no ultrasonic ringing, so you can use the best solid states amps like Mark Levinson, Classé, Plinius, etc. Best of all, this allows you to preserve details, extended trebles, and most importantly, sound quality. I even experienced treble harshness with JMLab’s ultra expensive Utopia (the old one), all due to the metal tweeter’s ringing. I do not know about the new Beryllium models (they probably solved the problem), but Dynaudio’s have this quality without the need to take a bank loan. The sale price of the cheapest Utopia BE is $7,000.

Back to Dynaudio. I auditioned the Audiences 82 and was actually considering buying them. Everything was right with them, except…very boring look. I wanted to have something that not only sounded excellent, but also had the looks to match. My dealer first showed me the new Contour design in an Absolute Sound advertising right after the Las Vegas CES. I was impressed with the style, and decided to hold off buying anything until I had heard them. After over a month’s time, Dynaudio finally started shipping them to dealers. My dealer had the stand mounted S 1.4’s first. They are really gorgeous. Especially with the maple finish. I had the same experience like with other Dynaudio's: with solid state McIntosh amps, they didn't sound right. The detail of the treble and the stereo imaging was mostly deteriorated. We switched to a Classé system, which consisted of the CP-35 pre-amp and CAM-200 mono blocks, rated at 200 Wpc/8 Ohms and 400 Wpc/4 Ohms. Huge difference. Amazing detail, 3D stereo imaging, and outstanding dynamics. But I have a decent sized room and I wanted more extended, uncompromised bass. The S 3.4 looked like the way to go. I visited the dealer a week later. He had the 3.4’s. At first the sound was very dirty and altogether not enjoyable: no wonder, McIntosh again. We switched to the same Classé system that was hooked up to the 1.4’s a week before. We played an SACD from Red Rose Music, and it was the most impressive listening experience in my life. The stereo imaging was fantastic and incredibly lifelike. While talking I heard a glass break on the floor. I looked around, thinking it was real. My son was smiling. It was the recording through the Contour 3.4’s. I ordered a pair, and received them at my home a week later.

They arrived in two huge, double boxes. It takes a lot of effort to unpack them and two people are needed, especially to carry the boxes to your listening room. The boxes are glued together, so it is necessary to cut them. The speakers are protected with thick felt pads. Very secure. I have a small concern about the manual. It could be more informative. The speakers are easy to set on the floor, and the spikes, which have round ends, can be screwed from the top of the plinth with the provided wrench. Very easy job. In the maple finish the Contours are among the best looking speakers on the market. Their smooth polished veneer finish is outstanding. The drivers are attached to the thick metal plate, which is separated from the cabinet by a thick rubber-like gasket, so no vibration is transferred to the box. The WBT binding posts are gold plated, and very elegantly placed on the back of the plinth, eliminating any cables hanging down. The front grills have small magnets that snap to the front plate. Beautiful idea. The grill also has a thick metal frame, unlike the common plastic or ugly fiberboard found in most speakers. In fact, I find the Contour’s grill to be superior to that of what even the Evidence Temptation has.

Factory Specifications:
General: 2 way, floor-standing monitor, Bass reflex with port in the back
Frequency response: 35 – 25,000 Hz +/-3 dB
Sensitivity: 88dB/2.38V/1m
Impedance: 4 Ohm
Crossover point: 2000Hz, 6 dB/octave
Port resonance: 28 Hz
Internal volume: 44 liters
Weight: 33 kg/72.6 lbs
Dimensions: 190 x 1220 x 340 mm (7.5W x 48.1H x 13.4D”) without the plinth
Drivers: (2) Midwoofers -17cm; (1) tweeter – 28mm
Power handling: 300 Watts (4 ohm)

Technical overview: Performance on Paper
These speakers are made like no others. The mid-woofers have unusually large (75mm diameter) aluminum voice coils, wound on highly temperature resistant Kapton formers. The voice coils are bonded to the one-piece injection molded, MSP filled, hard polypropylene diaphragm. This material has a very high damping factor. Aluminum voice coils allow the dissipation of heat much better than traditional copper, and allow preventing the raise of resistance, responsible for compression. With higher power, the temperature of the coil raises, forcing the power draw to drop, and resulting in a nonlinear movement of the membrane, causing compression. Aluminum’s superior heat transfer minimizes these effects. It is also much lighter, which helps to reproduce transients. The wire itself is of a hexagonal shape, so it fits together tightly and takes up less space. The cooling is also more efficient and the voice coil is stiffer. Dynaudio uses a sophisticated progressive suspension, which (when properly calculated) reduces the compression. Normally, when the voice coil goes out of the magnetic gap (during transient peaks), the electromagnetic force (EMF) decreases, causing the membrane to speed up and create a highly distorted sound. Progressive suspension gets stiffer as it moves out, compensating this. It is hard to calculate, but Dynaudio has got this almost perfect. Most speakers don’t have this compensation, so distortion rises rapidly when the voice coil gets out of the gap. The Contour’s also have double magnets placed inside the voice coils for better efficiency.

The Contour’s tweeters also use aluminum voice coils with magnetic fluid and have a sophisticated back chamber to absorb back waves. A first order (6dB/octave) crossover is used to preserve fast impulse responses. But this kind of crossover requires drivers with smooth, extended frequency responses well above or below the crossover point, so not everybody can use one. Higher order crossovers (such as 24dB/octave) usually sacrifice the transients, important to reproduce the piano or percussion accurately.

Insulating the drivers from the main cabinet by mounting them directly to a think steel plate is an entirely new development. The rubber-like gasket between the cabinet and the steel plate prevents any vibrations from traveling from the woofers to the cabinet. There are some arguments about drivers, how they are attached to the baffle. Some argue that insulating gaskets cause the drivers to shake and create countermovement, interfering with the diaphragms. But Dynaudio’s system, with the big, front steel plate, is heavy enough to prevent any such deficiencies. Unusually, the tweeter is not attached to the front steel plate along with the woofers, but rather separately directly to the rubber gasket. The front steel plate has a precisely cut opening for the tweeter. They don’t touch together, preventing any vibrations to be transferred from the mid-woofers. This idea is very unique and definitely contributes to the sound.

The Room:
My listening room is 15’ x 12’ x 8,5’. I covered the back (opposite from speakers) wall with a rug (10’ x 7’) to absorb reflections. This method has always worked well for me, increasing clarity and imaging. We placed the speakers about 2’ from the back long wall and 3’ from the sidewalls.

Listening: The Sound of Music
Do not expect these speakers to sound good right out of the box. The first day was a nightmare. The sound was blurred, over bassed, and had a very recessed midrange. There was no stereo imaging, even with the best recordings. I had this experience with the Audience 42’s so I did not expect much, but I wasn’t expecting it to be this bad. I got the speakers on Friday afternoon, and after several hours of breaking them in (a couple of those hours at 100+dBA levels) they finally started to open up on Saturday evening. Amazing, how it is possible. They became like a different pair of speakers. Everyday afterwards the clarity was improving and the midrange came to life. The dynamics and bass also improved dramatically. But really the sound got great after about one week of listening (6 hours per day). Dynaudio advises 200 hours of breaking-in period.

The Classé CAM-200 mono blocks with the CP-35 preamp are an excellent match. These powerful amps are very detailed across the entire spectrum, and have great dynamics. Very neutral, too, just like a Dynaudio speaker. There isn’t an emphasizing on the treble either, such as is typical for Krell’s.

The Contours, like all Dynaudio's, love power. You really enjoy cranking them up, because of the complete lack of dynamic compression. I was able to reach a 115dBA SPL peak on Hugh Masekela’s “Stimela,” the last track on his fantastic Hope CD (Triloka 7930185215-2). Feeling the power was tremendous. The bass is super tight, controlled and extended. This is all without the rattling of all the furniture in the house, due to the excellent damping; it works like a sport car’s suspension. More like an Audi A4 instead of a Buick LeSabre. There is no made-up bass. Occasionally the sound seams to be lean, but no wonder, there is no recorded bass. This speaker will not produce it, unlike a Bose.

The Contours, however, are not very forgiving to bad recordings. Eric Clapton’s Backless LP (RSO RS-1-3039) sounds flat and compressed, eliminating the pleasure of listening to it. On the other hand, “Homeless” on Paul Simon’s Graceland LP (Warner Bros. W1-25447) produces a 3D stereo image, offering an almost life-like experience. While listening to Jean Michel Jarre’s The Concerts in China LP (Polydor 40MM 0177/8)(I think one of the best live recordings of all time), I was able to forget about the speakers, the amps, everything. The Contours completely disappeared. I could see them, but the sound did not come out of them, but from the stage between and around them. I could enjoy the music, detached from the outside world. Amazing. And this, this kind of experience is what separates the great from the legendary.

According to the specs, the Contour’s frequency response is 35Hz– 25kHz ± 3dB, but the port resonance is 28 Hz. This means that they can produce useful bass from 28 Hz. And that is what I feel. Their bass extension and quality actually surpasses that of all the subwoofers I’ve heard. They truly are full range speakers. No need for subs. It’s the same with the 30th Anniversary Pink Floyd re-release of the famous Dark Side of the Moon LP (EMI SHVL 804). It has full, rich and powerful bass, wholly extended to the lowest registers. The heartbeat is cleaner and more realistic then I’ve ever heard it. When listening to Billy Cobham’s well-known “A Funky Kind of Thing” on his album, A Funky Thide of Sings (KOCH JAZZ KOC-CD-8527), I was able to bottom the woofers during the bass drum’s loudest passage. Because of the complete lack of compression, it is hard to know how loud you can go before the dynamic limit is reached, especially with an amp as powerful as the Classé CAM-200. Similarly specified loudspeakers from other makers would make an unpleasant compression before they bottom, so not many listeners would try to play that loud. Anyway, this bottoming phenomenon can only happen when the bass is over exaggerated on the recording (another example is the cannon passage on Telarc’s Tchaikovsky 1812 (Telarc CD-80041)(a very poor early digital recording, by the way)).

On the second side of Andreas Vollenweider’s Down to the Moon LP (CBS FM42255), the clarity of the treble from the harp is incredible. But on Vollenweider’s White Winds (CBS FM39963), the treble is dry and mechanical (no wonder, it’s a digital recording). The Contours clearly show the superiority of a good analog recording over a digital CD. CD sound is empty, as if something were missing (attributed to their low level resolution). Analog is liquid, smooth, and natural. Another example is Muddy Waters’ Folk Singer (CHESS LPS 1483), an excellent LP. It has fantastic dynamics and resolution, even though the recording is 40 years old. You can hear the fingers sliding on the strings, and Muddy tapping his foot reveals very good bass extension. But really the best is the recent Direct to Disc (D2D) 45 rpm recording of The Bill Cunliffe Trio’s Live at Bernie’s (Groove Note GRV1009-1DD). This is probably one of the best recordings of all time (you can’t really call it a recording, though, since the lathe cuts the LP straight from the microphones). The effect is very unusual. The edginess of traditional recordings doesn’t exist. Nothing is pronounced…. Just like real life.

Since this is a review of a high-end speaker, it would be good to make some comparisons. I compared the 3.4’s to their bigger brothers, the 5.4’s ($8,000/pair) and even the C4’s ($16,000/pair). The 5.4’s have more bass, but I preferred the balance of the 3.4’s. The 5.4’s are too bass rich for my taste. In my smaller room (compared to the dealer’s room) their bass would be overwhelming. The 5.4’s are designed to play in much larger spaces. The C4’s are very similar sounding to the 5.4’s, but more refined. Because of the less emphasized bass, I could hear more midrange and treble details from the 3.4’s. Big bass almost always masks the low level details. The 3.4’s were also much more relaxing when compared to B&W’s Nautilus 802’s. B&W’s metal tweeters are too bright for me and their sound has this sonic signature, which is coloration. They caused fatigue after a while. The 3.4’s don’t have quite the bass impact of the big woofers, but the 7” mid-woofers have the best of both worlds: fast and detailed midrange, outstanding dynamics, and low bass extension. Big woofers also require 3+ way crossovers, which add yet more distortions and muddy the sound.

In conclusion, Dynaudio has changed my opinion about the size of the woofers and bass quality. I used to not believe that smaller woofers could match the big guys in regards to bass precision and dynamics. After meeting the Dynaudio’s, all my traditional views changed. These speakers are the most natural I’ve heard. In my opinion, they belong to the top elite in the High-End world. Are they reference class? Absolutely. The best speakers in the world? Very close. Dynaudio, thanks for the music, I can enjoy it again.

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Product Weakness:	Very basic manual, long break-in period
Product Strengths:	Very neutral, very dynamic, no dynamic compression, no listening fatigue, look beautiful, outstanding build quality

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Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Classe CAM-200, Rotel RA980BX
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Classe CP-35
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Technics SL-D2 w/ Audio Technica AT12XE cartridge, NAD 502 CD player
Speakers:	Dynaudio Audience 42
Cables/Interconnects:	Tara Labs RSC Prime 500
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	See review
Room Size (LxWxH):	12' x 15' x 8.5'
Room Comments/Treatments:	Rug on wall opposite speakers
Time Period/Length of Audition:	2 months
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	None
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

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