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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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In Reply to: Dynaudio Contour S1.4 or B&W 805s? posted by P.O.M. on April 21, 2007 at 09:16:37:
I bought Contour 1.3 SEs in late 2001 after hearing both them and the B&$ 805 model current at that time.My take then was that they were very different speakers. The Contours sounded cooler, the 805s warmer, though both could be said to sound relatively neutral. They 'lean' in opposite directions though neither 'leans' very much in my view. I felt the Contours had better and more extended bass response and sounded more natural to my ears with vocal material, in fact I loved voices on the Dyns and that was the factor that really tipped me into buying them.
I listen largely to jazz with some rock/pop and some classical. I used music from all of those styles in the auditioning. I enjoyed the 805s which I heard first, and came away very impressed with them. I enjoyed the 1.3 SEs and came away in love with them. Just because you pick one speaker doesn't mean that you necessarily consider the 'failed' contenders bad in any serious way. I could live with the 805s I heard, and probably live quite happily with them, but I felt I could live a little more happily with the 1.3 SEs.
I've heard the newer Contour 1.4 briefly but not in direct comparison with my 1.3 SEs, and I haven't heard the new model of the 805. I suspect that if I compared both of the newer models I'd opt for the 1.4 but that's my sound preferences which tend to be for a slightly less warm sound than many people like, possibly because I used to be an amateur musician and used to listen to a lot of music very close up, much closer than people are in a concert hall. The sound close up tends not to be as warm as it is in a concert hall and that has no doubt affected my preferences. If you listen to live music and like to listen from a more distant position rather than close up, you might well prefer the 805s but that could also depend on the acoustics in the halls in which you listen to live music. A lot will also depend on your listening room but you have some control over that if you can use acoustic treatments.
They're both going to be good speakers and both are going to be relatively neutral, but you almost certainly won't like both equally. I strongly suspect you will have a preference for one over the other, but I think that preference will depend more on the sort of sound you like and are familiar with rather than the sort of music you play. I think you need to listen to both.
David Aiken
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Follow Ups
- Re: Dynaudio Contour S1.4 or B&W 805s? - David Aiken 14:13:01 04/21/07 (0)
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