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Floorstanders dynaudio: Contour 3.4 LE or Contour 30 or Excite X44?

Hi,

I am looking for a new pair of floorstanders for my living room (ca. 4,5 x 8 meters). What would your recommendations be regarding the following 3 Dynaudio speakers:
Contour 3.4 LE (I'd get a new pair of these discontinued speakers for ca. 3.300$)
Contour 30 (I'd get an almost new one at ca. 5.600$
Excite X 44 (I'd get a demo model of these for ca. 3.300$
The speakers should be good alrounders, suitable for rock, classics, folk and jazz. But the focus would be on the performance in classical music with larger orchestra. The speakers should be relatively easy to drive because my budget for the amplification is rather narrow. Among the listed models, I already had the chance to listen to the Contour 30 and some time ago also to the old version of the Contour (3.4s). I have never had a chance to listen to the Excite X44, but have read some overwhelming reviews about it and would be very interested in your experiences with any of these models or at best with several of them.

Why just Dynaudio?
I have a dedicated listening room where I am running a Dynaudio C1 MK II (with Bladelius Thor III amp and Bladelius Freja player). I love the C1s and so my first choice would again be a Dynaudio speaker. The C2 as option for the living room are unfortunately out of my budget.

Looking forward to your recommendations,
fritz_28















fritz_28
6 responses Add your response
xti16
1,525 posts
 
IMO since you have C1 MKII's I think the 3.4LE's would be closer to your C1's as far as overall SQ. I've heard the C60's at Axpona but not the C20 or C30. I've listened to both the 3.4 and the LE's but not side by side. I would say the LE's are a 1/2 hair more forward in the mids and highs. I have only heard the smaller excites.

That said I did own both the C1 and later the C1 Signature for just over 5 years. IMO the Confidence is the most natural sound in the entire Dyn lineup.

Good Luck
fritz_28 OP
8 posts
 
Hi xti16,

thank you for your assessment. Maybe the Contour 3.4 LE is indeed warmer and more natural than the new Contour series. I was actually a bit disappointed when listening to the Contour 30 at a local dealer. Though it has the same Esotar2 tweeter as the C1, it could not quite match the C1 in terms of naturality in the mids and heights (though the listening room was not ideal, very small). I am however not sure whether this would also result if comparing the Contour 3.4 LE with the Contour 30. 

Is there anybody who could contribute experiences with the larger Excite models (X38 or X44)? My problem is that I can't listen to them in comparison, the Contour 3.4 LE is not available at any dealer within 300 kilometers any more and there is also no dealer within easy reach that has the X44.

Best,
Fritz_28
xti16
1,525 posts
 
fritz don't get too hung up on the tweeter. After all Dyn used the Esotar2 in the S25 - Confidence - Sapphires and Evidence. All 4 speakers sounded completely different form each other.  It's how the tweeter is implemented as far as crossover points and cabinet design. 
andrex99
12 posts
 
Dynaudio C2's or Sapphires sometimes pop up and decent prices.

My guess is that if you used to C1's, you might be disappointed after a while with all 3 options, altough floorstanders. .
narumtr
12 posts
 
What about another set of C1s - Platinums, with a subwoofer (or 2) if you want to get a bit deeper?  You know you'll like the sound and a well blended sub can get you deeper than even C2s if you are looking for bass.  I've had good luck blending my REL with Dynaudio's for 2-channel (in fact I had a tough room and using the port plugs in the Dynaudio plus the well placed REL gave me far better bass than previous setups with speakers that went lower), and I've heard great things about JL Audio etc.  

If you use it at all for movies/tv you get the benefit of being able to use the .1 LFE used in movies etc.
fritz_28 OP
8 posts
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I am aware that the proposed 3 speakers will not be fully equivalent to my C1 system, but I can simply not afford two systems of that price category. The Contour 3.4 LE or the Excite X44 would for me be compromises with a currently very attractive price. For intense listening, I'd certainly most of the time listen to the C1 system - except for classical music with larger orchestra which is the only type of music where I really miss something with the C1. With a sub I already experimented with my current C1, but I was not satisfied with the result (far too slow response of the sub).
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