Hi folks, and welcome to this month’s article from us here at Audio T Brighton. We’ve certainly been treated to some quality gear coming through our door in recent months and our March blog continues this tradition with another special loudspeaker - the Dynaudio Contour 30i floor standing loudspeakers. Let’s delve in a bit deeper!

Dynaudio Contour 30i floorstanders...

dynaudio contour 30i’s in gloss black with our naim 300 series system

The latest iteration of the Dynaudio Contour 30i are our most recent acquisition here at Audio T Brighton , and they have numerous technical improvements over the original Contour 30 model. A 2.5 way design, using two larger 18cm Magnesium Silicate Polymer bass/midrange drivers with a tuned 2nd order bass crossover frequency of 300Hz to integrate the bass drivers and a separate tweeter crossover at 2200 Hz.

Quoted frequency response is 32Hz up to 23kHz at -3dB. Sensitivity is quoted at 87dB/1W. IEC power handling is rated at 300W and impedance quoted at 4 Ohms.

dynaudio contour 30i in nordic silver looking elegant in a domestic setting.

Dynaudio refine the design of their drive units periodically and the Esotar 2i tweeter now incorporate the Hexis inner dome to deal with back wave resonances and give superior sound with lower distortion figures. Our Dynaudio representative, Bill Livingston, was keen to show us the bass drive units in a recent visit to us, explaining how their choice of aluminium in the voice coils, instead of the usual copper, improved speed and dynamics owing to the reduced mass of such material. Other improvements to the asymmetric spider boast superior acoustic response. As you will read shortly, our listening tests certainly seem to support the claims made.

The crossovers in the Contour 30i are chock full of high quality Mundorf capacitors and air-core inductors, enabling Dynaudio to simplify the 2nd-order crossover, enhancing performance further. Dynaudio go to great lengths to get their speakers sounding right, with some of the most advanced testing facilities in the industry.

dynaudio’s advanced factory testing facilities

Dynaudio Contour 30i variants...

The Dynaudio Contour 30i are available in Gloss black, Walnut and Nordic Silver. As can be expected of speakers in this price category, the fit and finish are exemplary. According to Dynaudio, each cabinet takes over 90 minutes to turn on a five-axis CNC machine, the lacquering process takes 40 hours to cure, and 16 pieces of sandpaper are used in order to finish the speaker to Dynaudio’s standard.

So how do they sound?

As a previous owner of several Dynaudio speaker models, including the Dynaudio 42 and Dynaudio Focus 110 standmount speakers, plus my personal experience of the current range of Dynaudio Evoke 10, Evoke 20 and Evoke 30 we have on demonstration here at our Brighton Audio T shop, I have become accustomed to the family sound Dynaudio speakers exhibit. Refinement and added detail become more apparent as you move up the range; they all have the “bounce” and fun sound I associate with the Dynaudio in house sound, without losing technical quality in the process.

Once you get to the Contour range, things definitely go up several gears, with models in the Evoke range only hinting at what’s to come sonically. My first experience of the Contour range came when I had the pleasure of listening to the Dynaudio Contour 20i on the end of a Naim Uniti Nova, )available to read in my blog here). To say I was bowled-over with their performance would be somewhat of an understatement, such was their refinement, musicality and fun-factor.

The Contour 30i take the scale and bass extension to another level and although not that hard to drive, quality electronics are almost a prerequisite to get the most out of them. Our resident Naim 500 series system consisting of ND 555 streamer, Naim NAC 552 preamp and Naim NAP 500 DR power amp fronted by a Linn Klimax LP12 with a Urika phono stage and Radikal 2 power supply really pep things up Guardiola style! Let’s put it this way, if there were a footballer called Dynaudio Contour 30i in the squad at Manchester City, I’m sure Pep Guardiola would have his name on the team sheet early on!