If I felt like using the new Dynaudio Contour 30 i to review, that was the question I got after pledging in advance that I until 23 April would be silent about what I would get in the house. Well, please! And also a bit exciting, because even though colleague Renà © van Es was able to write the absolute scoop to his name with the entry-level model of the series ????  de Contour 20 i  â ????, my review of the 30 i would be one of the first reviews of this new speaker series anyway. That honor came to me because I previously had the direct predecessors Contour S 3.4 LE  and Contour 30  should have received at home . To determine the progression after 3.5 and 2.5 years respectively, it did not seem superfluous to pull the old notes from the archive again, but it was clear from the first notes that the Contour 30 i Outperforms its predecessors.

Dynaudio Contour 30 i Adding a new member to the venerable Contour family is taken very seriously by Dynaudio . And rightly so: the series has been the brand’s very popular upper middle class for decades. In this price segment, however, the speaker series at our Danish friends usually last longer than 2.5 years. Why did it take a relatively short time this time before the very popular Contour got its i (from â ???? improvedâ ????) pinned? This is, as colleague Van Es also said, in the fact that the last Contour series was developed just before they got access to the wonderful Jupiter measuring space in Skanderborg, with which it can be determined very quickly what the result of adjustments is. to the cabinet design or the crossover filters. And engineers in heart and soul as they are, the developers of Dynaudio did not rest on their laurels. The previous Contour series was then hoisted onto the measuring platform to see what could be improved according to the latest insights. And that turned out to be one thing or another. No big things, the engineers at Dynaudio also understood their trade before Jupiter, but all in all it turned out to be a series of small things that together gave a considerable result.

The â ???? iâ ???? in Dynaudio Contour 30 i Who the New Contour 30 i a superficial look may shrug and â ???? a new tan, well wellâ ?? ¦â ???? mumble. Not justified, but understandable, because the vast majority of the improvements come from within. But to start with the exterior, the new series has indeed received new colors. The high-gloss black version has remained, but now shines even deeper, and for the wood colors the buyer can choose from a beautiful warm color Walnut â ???? it has become slightly redder compared to the previous one. and a beautiful high-gloss lacquered Gray Oak variant. I prefer the latter, but the Walnut version that I got is just as nice as it is. What I personally think is a shame is that the separately supplied (magnetic) fronts still do not cover the entire metal baffle. It must be â ???? Danish Designâ ???? are to do that, but I don’t like it. The legs protruding diagonally under the cabinet are also visibly different. They still offer a clever combination of rubber feet and top-down spikes that can be turned from top to bottom, but instead of four separate legs, they now have two in an elongated U-shape that extends under the cabinet at the front and rear. That is nicer and firmer.

But the real changes are inside. The Contour 30 i got a new tweeter, the Esotar 2i, with behind the woven textile membrane the now legendary Hexis dome developed for the top series Confidence. For those who don’t know yet; the Hexis dome is a spherical plastic â ???? shellâ ???? which follows the contour of the tweeter dome, and which has a pattern of pits that facilitate the airflow to the rear. It’s an aerodynamic trick, just like the pits in a golf ball that allow you to hit it further away. In addition, the Hexis dome protects the delicate woven membrane to a certain extent against piercing children’s fingers. Behind the Hexis is a larger damping chamber with smooth curves, also in the service of a better discharge of air to the rear. The reduction in compression that this provides is quite significant, which is reflected in a cleaner display and a considerably wider radiation pattern.

In addition, the woofers got a new spider. This folded fabric collar keeps the voice coil centered, so it’s critical. But it is in the way, it obstructs the radiation to the rear, and that again provides some compression. The new spider is made of Nomex, a super light but very strong plastic. It can be woven much more openly than the previously used material, but it does provide the same stiffness. The new spider therefore lets more sound through. Simple and very effective. The exchange filter has also been addressed. The changes in the units allowed the impedance correction circuit to be omitted from the previous filter, resulting in a simpler filter. In terms of crossover filters, “the less the better” applies anyway, but if you subsequently convert the savings from the lower number of components into better quality, I think you’re doing a good job as a speaker builder. The audible result of this will be discussed later, but believe me: this is a very important one.

Finally, the damping material. Thanks to the Jupiter measuring system, better damping materials could be developed for the Confidence and Evoke series and of course the Contour is now benefiting from this. Enough reasons for curiosity to lift the speakers from their boxes and carefully set them down in their temporary place.

Dynaudio Contour 30 i listened to  In my notes I found that the Contour 30 in September 2017 was one of the last speakers I listened to on my unrivaled Naim Supernait2 amplifier. Not long after that, I returned to tubes; a long-cherished wish that materialized in a PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP Integrated amplifier. Earlier this year I replaced that HP with its successor the PrimaLuna EVO 400. The sources were a Bluesound Node 2 on a NAD M 51 da-converter (operated via Roon) and my vintage Thorens TD 125 with Jelco SA – 750 E arm, Holistic Audio HA – 103 C element and Audio Creative Phonodude tube phono stage. Interlinks, speaker cable and power cables were all from AudioQuest.

Omitting the impedance correction circuit in the changeover filter worried me a bit for a while. Tube amplifiers often have a much higher output impedance than solid state amplifiers. This can cause the frequency response of the output signal to match the impedance curve of the speaker. Since many speakers have an increasing impedance in the bass, this can lead to too much and baggy bass. But those fears turned out to be unfounded, the designers of Dynaudio have again managed to make a nice flat curve, and because the PrimaLuna is fortunately quite low in terms of output impedance, the match between PrimaLuna and Dynaudio was very good. Only then you still have to try which â ???? tap â ???? of the output transformer the best result is achieved. That turned out to be the 8? a bit of a surprise as Dynaudio de Contour 34 i specifies at nominal 4 ?. If you use the Contour 30 i with another want to combine brand tube amplifier then it is smart to pay attention to that, and to be sure not to sail blindly on my preference for the 8? tap. These limitations apply to a solid state amplifier to a much lesser extent, as it mainly comes down to the sound match. My advice is not to choose an overly laid-back sounding amplifier. A little power and a smooth character do the Contour 34 i good.

The loudspeakers were pushed directly from Denmark and thus brand new into my driveway by the transporter. Immediately after unpacking they already sounded very promising, but I wanted to give them some mechanical response before I would make a first impression. To this end, a set of Russian 6P3S-E â ???? workhorseâ ???? pipes into the PrimaLuna to the 34 iâ ???? s play at a reasonable level for two full days. After that they were far from â ???? doneâ ???? but in my opinion were they already at 95% of their maximum quality. You are then close to the often overlooked margin of temperature differences and the influence of air pressure and humidity, so I dare to start the listening tests with that. The rest of the recording process takes place mainly between the ears anyway.

First I replaced the 6P3S-E tubes with the El supplied with the amp 34 tubes. The tubes bearing the PrimaLuna logo are all Chinese made (Shuguang) and rigorously selected by manufacturer Durob Audio. With these tubes the sound was fantastically rich and warm, but after a few days I had the feeling that the bass should be just a little tighter. So were the PrimaLuna EL 34 â ??? ? s replaced for the PrimaLuna KT 95 â ??? s, and that turned out to be a golden opportunity. The â ???? punchâ ???? increased, the layer reached just a bit deeper and had more power and definition. This also made it clear that the Esotar 2i tweeter played so delicately and silky smooth that the slightly fresher treble of the KT 88 â ???? s no problem.

If I, looking back on my previous review, one point for improvement for de Contour 30 had it was a slight restraint in the lower midrange, where voices and many acoustic instruments have their primary timbre. There was nothing wrong with that, but in combination with some amplifiers or in a muffled listening room, the Contour 30 sometimes sound a bit too laid-back. Apparently not only I noticed, because already with the first jazzy tones of the beautiful Paul McCartney tribute album Taste Of Honey by Ulf Wakenius, Lars Danielsson and Magnus à ?? ström the new Contour taped 30 i clearly from a different tune. Wakenius’s smooth guitar playing sounded dynamically and colorfully from the speakers and was clearly a bit forward. The spaciousness was generous and even extended quite a bit beyond the speakers. An afternoon of shuffling with the speakers did not yield huge improvements in the sound image, it was and remained very good. The tonal balance was also very nice from the start. The bass went deep but never got too heavy at any point, so even in my listening room from about 25 square feet, the included damping foam plugs for the bass ports could stay in their pouch. The midrange sounded open and transparent, beautifully reproducing the natural timbres of acoustic music, with a slight tendency towards warmth that I know from Dynaudio and have always appreciated.

Where perhaps the greatest profit has been made, it is high. I usually listen to music holistically, so without focusing on sub-areas in the frequency range, but for a review I of course put myself in analysis mode. That significant increase in spatiality, especially in the width of the image but certainly also in depth, had to come from somewhere. Experience shows that especially very good phase behavior and close tolerances in the equality of the units used are very important for spatial representation. Since Dynaudio has been making its own drivers for many years and can seamlessly adjust the filtering accordingly, that is a good thing. And that darn Hexis dome , that inconspicuous piece of plastic that cost a lot of money and effort to develop but that afterwards only cost a few duppies each… it cannot be otherwise than that it makes a crucial contribution. I heard that enormous spatiality earlier in the new Confidence and Evoke series, in which the Hexis is therefore also used.

What made the rendering even better was the use of the integrated spikes. Because it was more convenient to use the rubber feet mounted under the legs when determining the best place for the speakers, I continued listening that way in the following days. I’m not usually a big fan of spikes either, but as soon as I turned them down a little bit with the easy-to-use knobs – just a millimeter, because a greater height difference would have changed the reproduction too much – and the speakers again I had the feeling that the final measurements in Jupiter must have been carried out with the spikes. Because although not much changed tonally, things like placement, dynamics and timing all got a few points better. This was clearly audible on the wonderful new album Conference Of Trees by Pantha du Prince, which has a nice spatial production and contains all kinds of percussive sounds that are in different places in the sound image. With this album I regularly felt that I could get up and walk in between.

Votes were with the Contour 34 i also a bit livelier than I remember from its predecessor. A wonderful album to establish that is Book Of Romance And Dust by Exit North. This project by former Japan drummer Steve Jansen and a number of Swedish studio musicians is of an incredible beauty both musically and recording-wise. Singer Thomas Feiner often resembles Steve Jansen or his brother David Sylvian in the timbre of his hoarse baritone. The Contour 30 i gave the vote with so much detail that I – cliche alarm! – felt like he was standing in front of me and addressing me directly. Confrontational and very intimate, and goosebumps from head to toe. If a loudspeaker, as the last link in the chain, is capable of that, then you know that everything is right.

Conclusion

The Contour 30 i is a hefty yet slim looking speaker, with a colorful and dynamic character that makes listening to music the party it should be. Progressive technical insight cannot be restrained, it turns out. Dynaudio deserves a compliment for the fact that they gave their engineers free rein to test and improve the still fairly recent models of the popular Contour series, according to Dynaudio standards. The result is â ???? at least with regard to the Contour 30 i a???? very remarkable. But â ???? in der Beschränkung zeigt sich der Meisterâ ????, as the French say.

The engineers and the golden ears of Dynaudio have changed exactly what was needed to take it to the next level, while keeping the original character well recognizable. . The price (7. 000 euro per pair) is substantial in an absolute sense, but fully justified in a relative sense. The Dynaudio Contour 30 i offers great value for its money and is a feast for the eyes and the ear. Highly Recommended! Â

Dynaudio Contour 30 i

â ?? ¬ 7. 000, 00 per pair | Â dynaudio.nl