I have had my Contour 60i speakers now for a couple of months. I am not consistently available to play an audio session so at this point I have only about 70 hours of run in time on them. I found them to be a bit bright, initially. After about 35 hours they tamed down a considerable amount. Since then I have noticed further taming in the upper midrange and lower high frequency range. Soundstage and imaging are absolutely amazing and I do not want to lose any of that. So, next step was to provide more room treatments. I added a center treatment panel (positioned between the speakers and covering about 80% the width between them). That made a very significant difference. Vocals, string, and wind instruments are better than ever. I also pulled them a couple inches further from the wall than where I had them. That, I believe, played a role as well. The front of the speaker is now at 36" from the wall. Based on the changes in sound over the run-in hours of playing, I tend to believe they will continue to improve. At this point I am very satisfied and they are truly a first class speaker in every way, from build quality to sonic quality. I think that relative to other speakers out there these are priced at least $3K below market value. So much depends on what your individual tastes are for music reproduction. These speakers are "alive" but not "in your face, brash". You may prefer a very laid back or even dark sounding speaker. The Contour 60i is not that type of sound. The choice is yours, of course. The system you have should work well with the Contour 60i, so I don't believe that is any sort of issue. Try moving them further out from the wall, if you can, even just a couple of inches. Be sure to place some room treatment between them and most certainly at the first reflection point for either side (if you don't already) and I think you'll find a really good speaker on hand. Again, their soundstage and imaging characteristics are amazing and you should take that into consideration as a big role in what a speaker does for your listening pleasure. Hope this helps.
Okay, How Important Is Speaker Break In? (Dynaudio Contour 60i)
I have been running 25+ year old B&W Matrix 803 S2 speakers in my 2-channel system for about 15 years, and I finally treated myself to new speakers. Mock me for buying based on research alone, but I got a really good deal and just unpacked my beautiful Dynaudio Contour 60i's. The Dyn's are not broken in, just starting to play around with different songs, but I am expecting an improvement out of the box, and not getting it. They are no more revealing, and slightly harder and more jangley in the mids and highs. The bass is of course much better with the big Dyns, but the B&Ws with the Dyn Sub6 subwoofer I was running were better. I have very good equipment so it is not a matter of driving bigger speakers (ARC Ref preamp and Bryston 7bSST2 monoblocks). Unless speakers get A LOT better with break in, I thinking these Dyns may be converted back into cash. Thoughts? Thanks.
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- 65 posts total
- 65 posts total