Audiophilepure

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“. A listen to LCD Soundsystem’s “Dance Yrself Clean” delivered expansive dispersion and some rather impressive lower-octave oomph. I never really felt tempted to bring out the subs. We’re not talking nightclub-level, cage-rattling bass here, but still far more depth than expected, especially from compacts. Of course, when I turned up the volume a few notches, some edges and aspects softened slightly in the bass, but the big picture didn’t fall apart. Per the specs, SPL maxes out at 106dB but I didn’t push that far. The LS50s conveyed this track’s broad-spectrum layers and gave all a great sense of groove and potent energy. I switched to Lila Downs’ “Aqua de Rosas” from La Cantina (Red Book CD rip), where multi-layered percussion was reproduced with crispness and clarity within a pleasing sense of airy openness. There was a rich smoothness to her smoky contralto vocals.”

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“Likewise, I heard a similar but different sense of scale and proportion to the playing in the 1965 Martha Argerich recording of the Chopin Piano Sonata No.3 in B Minor (Op.58 [Warner Classics 825646 372867]). In this case, it was the clarity in the lines and phrasing, the balance between left and right hands that illuminated the piece, a sense of musical shape and purpose built on the system’s ability to be both loud and quiet, delicate and powerful simultaneously, preserving the attack, poise, weight and placement of even the quietest notes alongside the loudest and most suddenly explosive. Even the rumbling of a repetitive bass arpeggio couldn’t disturb the crystalline clarity and astonishing delicacy of the upper registers, or the way that each note was spaced and placed with musical purpose.”

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“In the 1990s, I had a pair of Apogee Centaur Minor speakers and, fairly or unfairly, they’ve affected my view of hybrid designs ever since. The Centaur Minor had a 6.5” dynamic woofer alongside a 26”-high ribbon tweeter, and were murder to set up properly in my room — they sounded good only in just the right places, and then only if I never moved my head. If I moved my head even an inch to left or right, the soundstage would disappear and the tonal balance would go all wrong. But even with my head in that virtual vise, I could always tell which sounds were being produced by the dynamic woofer and which by the ribbon tweeter — the former sounded a bit rubbery and soft, the latter fast and crisp. Forget any sort of convincing reproduction of the sound of an acoustic piano, which ranges from the very low bass up past 4kHz — the very different sounds of the Minor’s drivers screwed that up completely.”

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“The rosewood gloss finish is just superb, never mind the price. Granted, Aurum Cantus did cut a few corners by using a black gloss for the rear and bottom panels, but even these parts of the speaker are not out of place, and the deep black gloss compliments the rosewood. Inspect the speaker carefully. Quality is instantly apparent, especially on the front sloped baffle that facilitates time/phase coherence.”

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“The joy of the Contour 30 is it is perfectly designed to work precisely where it should work: in mid-sized rooms. The loudspeaker is large enough to physically and sonically dominate small rooms, and is probably just not quite loudspeaker enough in really big rooms, but in a medium sized room it works nigh-on perfectly. I can’t help but think of Goldilocks and the Three Bearshere. In a smaller room, if you want this performance, go with a Special Forty or a Contour 20 (but probably the Special Forty) and in a bigger room, possibly go for the Contour 60 or the C2 Platinum. That’s the other secret joy of Dynaudio – the company has nailed consistency. There’s no batch variation in individual models, and the individual models have a consistent sound through the ranges. Many brands make that claim and some achieve that goal with a smaller and more high-end portfolio. Dynaudio smashes this one out of the park – if you like the sound of the bigger or smaller models but have a room that’s too small or too big, the Contour 30 fits. If you think this sounds like faint praise, guess again.”

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“Its presentation’s openness should be highlighted again here, as it greatly helps coherence and even makes the Clearaudio sound a little penned-in.So while the Elac does need a bit more subtlety and rhythmic insight if it’s to reach the full five stars, it’s fair to say it would happily slip into most systems and offer an enjoyable, insightful vinyl session.”

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