"Unfading values" is about Dynaudio's "Contour" series speakers. In the 1990s, this series of loudspeakers was the dream of many audiophiles newly discovering the world of High Fidelity. We will tell you a little about them.
Before purchasing the speakers of your dreams, every audiophile must have a love affair with Dynaudio. For some, it becomes a point of resistance for further searches, but a large part of music lovers dwells on the exceptional sound of Danish acoustics. And in this whole situation, the most interesting thing is that the Dynaudio speakers do not have a clearly expressed line. There is only a definite philosophy that the company's engineers have followed for many years. The famous slogan "Danes don't lie" means that the main task of engineers when designing acoustic systems is to get the sound as close as possible to a natural-sounding musical instrument without introducing any distortions or "improvements".
Yes, we can see that many manufacturers are declaring that they are trying to create it in the narrative. But only Dynaudio managed to achieve actual recognition of its success, both among specialists and among ordinary lovers of good sound. For many years, the trademark design of Danish loudspeakers has been considered as a benchmark for neutral sound and its traditional understanding - close to ideal amplitude-frequency characteristics, minimal non-linear, phase and intermodulation distortions, high level of overload tolerance.
Dynaudio's Contour speaker series appeared on the market several decades ago, and since then, it continues to amaze a large audience of quality sound lovers with its capabilities. In all the time, I have not met people who would not like the sound of the current generation of "Contour" speakers. We're sure there won't be any left at all when the new series comes out. This article focuses on the flagship of the series, Dynaudio's Contour 60. This is a powerful, three-band acoustic system, made according to the classic "recipe". Two 24-centimeter speakers with a large diffuser path are responsible for the deep and fast bass. This is a successful reworked and improved version of the classic, old 18cm speakers used in the Contour 20 and 30 speakers. As usual, all coils are wrapped with stranded aluminum wire. An asymmetric, centering, newly designed bushing is also used.
However, the true "stars" of the Contour 60 are the midrange and tweeters. And if the excellent high frequency of the Esotar 2 is well known to us thanks to the expensive "Confidence" series, then the 15-centimeter diameter mid-range speaker is designed specifically for this model. Like all Dynaudio loudspeakers, this series is made of the polymer material MSP (magnesium silicate polymer), although a neodymium magnet system has already been used here. A computer-based method of finite element analysis was used in the development and optimization of the loudspeaker, which requires a considerable amount of computing power from the hardware.
The next important element of the acoustic system is the separation filter. A second-order crossover is used here, which resolves the rapid 12dB octave drop. But the most important moment is the mid-range speaker, which independently reproduces perhaps the most important part of the range from 220 to 4500 Hz, while the high frequency and low frequencies start working only when necessary. Equally important are high-quality filter components. They use polypropylene tape capacitors from Mundorf and inductive coils from the same manufacturer. Necessary measures were also taken for the mechanical separation of the filter mounting plate from the surface of the inner walls.
Speaker housings are basically made of high-density wood fiber panels covered with natural wood veneer. Several finishing options are available. In the photos of this article, we show a natural walnut finish (called Walnut Light Satin in the catalog).
The most noticeable element is the front panel, where all four speakers are attached. It is made of a single piece of aluminum and is attached to the walls with the help of screws and special glue. Dynaudio's Contour 60 has taken extra measures to combat standing waves inside the speaker housing. Thanks to the calculations of the engineers, the right body shape was made, and the inside was covered with sound-absorbing material. For the acoustic solution, a phase inverter is traditionally chosen, especially since both ports are output in the back part of the speakers: one at the top, the other at the bottom of the case. To ensure stability and mechanical contact with the floor, four legs with height-adjustable special needles are attached to the bottom of the column. As always with Dynaudio, only one pair of connectors is provided for speaker wiring. The company's engineers do not believe in "bidirectional" and passive "biamping". The plastic clamping heads have a comfortable profile and are sized so that you don't have to struggle to tighten the ends of the lugs tightly. It goes without saying that each pair of speakers comes with protective, magnetically attached dust nets to the front panel.
We also want to mention that these speakers sound great both when connected to transistor and tube amplifiers.
Technical data:
- Power: MAX 390W
- Frequency band: 28Hz - 23kHz
- Resistance: 4 Ohm
- Sensitivity: 88dB
- Size (H x W x D): 133 x 25.5 x 42
- Weight: 54.3 kg.