Trading Dynaudio Contour s5.4's for ???

I have the 5.4's and I wouldn't decribe them as thin. I only got them from here actually, a few weeks ago, and they're a lot warmer than the Special 25's they're replacing. I also have the little Contour SR's, and they're a little warmer still (with a Velodyne DD15 sub). The treble is nicer, smoother more detailed on the 5.4. Better than the S25 even though its the same tweeter. In fact the treble is nicer on the SR's than the S25's in my room, and the SR's have the lesser tweeter.

I have no problem with the 5.4's midrange. The S25's were definitely too forward for me.

For your interest, I'm using the BelCanto eVo2i and Arcam FMJCD33.

Hey Ian,

1st off, remove the MIT cables from the system, get some cheap $1ft speaker cables because you now have direct experience with how the MIT's can mess with a good speaker system. Your DALI experience also reflects how disasterous these cables can be with quality speaker systems. That is step one.

Another easy to check item is to make sure that your L & R distances are set the same on the Casanova, having them set to different distances (even .5ft) can greatly effect the sound for two channel playback. Creating strange phenomena like you have experienced with the DALI's and Dyn's.

Address these two issues first than we can look into room issues. I have direct experience with the symptoms you describe and they were fixed by addressing the two issues above.

Once these two variables have been removed, we can look at room interaction.

The speakers are in a large, irregular room. Front wall is about 22 feet wide. Room is 18 feet deep on one side, the other side extends into a 24 foot long kitchen. On one side of the front wall is a hallway leading to another room.

Room is carpeted. Speakers are about 12 feet apart. Between them is a small stand with a 50" plasma. In the one side of the rear of the room (where it doesn't open up to the kitchen) is a sectional couch (material, not leather).

The only thing in the way of sound is a wood coffee table (I know, far from ideal).

Anyhow, I don't think sidewall reflections are coming into play since the speakers are not close to any, and while I can see deep bass being affected by room nodes, I don't think the room is really coming into play when it comes to midbass or lower midrange. Other speakers in the same position (Revel Performa F50's, Dali Helicon 400's) had plenty.

But hey, I'm open to trying anything.

Ian

I owned Dynaudio 3.3's (the predecessor to your speaker) and ran them in the same room as my Vienna Acoustics Mahlers. In comparison, the Mahlers are warmer and meatier in the mids. Both speakers are open and transparent in the mids and highs. Each Mahler has two 7" midrange drivers (the same 7" ScanSpeak carbon-fiber midrange drivers used in the Wilson Maxx II) and two ported 10" woofers -- they have prodigious midbass and must be used in a large room, away from the walls, so as not to sound boomy. They also must be used with solid-state amps featuring bipolar output transistors (like your Bryston, Sim and Levinson) and stiff power supplies in order to control the two 10" woofers in each speaker, the impedence dropping to below 3 Ohms at various points under 100 Hz. I had best luck with Rowland Model 6 monoblocks (a supurb combo). Sumiko, the U.S. distributor, has used Kimber Monacle speaker cables to demo Mahlers, and I had best luck with Kimber Select (either 3033 or 3038), the Kimber cable geometry working very well to control the woofers (reviewer Anthony Cordesman confirmed this in his review of the Mahlers for Audio, available at Sumiko's website).

The Stereophile and Audio reviews of the Mahlers available on Sumiko's website (www.sumikoaudio.net) are both accurate in my experience and do a good job of describing the Mahler's strengths and weaknesses. In many ways, I prefer the Mahlers over the Revel Salons I use in my main system. Like the big Sonus Fabers, they have an inviting warmth that gives life and body to stringed instruments. They also have enormous slam and dynamic range, and beautiful cabinets.

Cinematic Systems: Thanks for your suggestion regarding the cables. I'll experiment with this.

Raquel: Much thanks for your post. I'll investigate the Mahlers.