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Dynaudio Contour 1.3SE brightness?

Hi. I just auditioned Dyn 1.3 SE speakers. As impressed as I was, I was surprised by their brightness. Not something I associate with Dynaudio, nor do I remember it from the 1.1's I listened to way back when.

What stood out was definite sibilance. For example, on Transcendental Blues (title track from the Steve Earle CD), vocal t's and s's all had an exaggerated tttssss to them. Cymbals on some jazz CDs (ex, Årt Blakey, Night In Tunisia gold disk) had an exaggerated metallic clash. Same for the kick drum on Yello's The race (one of my favorite listening CDs). Overall, fatiguing despite the speakers otherwise brilliance.

Setup was a the Musical Fidelity A3 CD player and A3 integrated amp, and some Tara labs cables (sorry, don't know which).

In the archives I found ONE similar comment, but mostly just praise. Any explanations? Not broken-in speakers? Poor match w/electronics? (When I heard the 1.1s, they were matched with Classe separates). The truth about my CDs, revealed? Dynaudio realitly?

Thanks, I don't want to give up on these ones.... yet....
tkdawacsdcc2
vikkysingh
154 posts
 
When I originaly auditioned these speakers I thought the same thing. I was listening to the same equipment I currently have.
About a year later, still knee deep in my speaker hunt, I decided to give the 1.3se another shot. I auditioned them with Mcintosh gear and Cardas cabling and fell in love. I even directly compared them to Sinus faber EAII and Revel M20. The Sonus was close and the Revel was out of the running early (now THAT was a bright speaker).
I think the key for me was two fold.
One: Speaker positioning. Initially my first auditon had the speakers too far out in the room negating the modest but adequate bass output of the Dyns. In my later audition the speakers were about a meter away from the back wall. In this posistion the midrange opened up and the bass output increased. The neutrality of the speaker was never bright. In fact the speaker became musical and exciting.
Two: Cabling, the Cardas of course is known as a warm musical cable. I suspect it aided things a bit. Please audition the Dyns again. I think they are one of the best, and perhaps if you're like me you;ll think they are the best.
Happy listening!
blackie
221 posts
 
It's the Musical Fidelity gear that you are hearing the brightness in, not the speakers. The 1.3se is one of the best monitors I've heard along with the Sonus Faber Electa Amator II. Very neutral tonal balance.
mfish
35 posts
 
please see my Dyn1.3SE review on this site: 1.3SE
rmml's avatar
rmml
204 posts
 
I don't have a 1.3 SE but a 1.3 MK II, I don't know how much power the Musical Fidelity puts out but remember the 1.3 SEs like all Dynaudio speakers needs lots of clean power to sound their best.
If you are hearing sibilance it could either be lack of power or some of your upstream components are inherently bright, and you're finally hearing them from a ruthlessly revealing pair of speakers.
dandreescu
12 posts
 
I have a pair of Dynaudio 1.3 MK II and Musical Fidelity A3 cdp/A300 integrated amp, analysis plus oval 9 cables. The speakers did sound bright when new. Their initial location, in a room with high celing and hardwood floors did not helped either...In about 2 weeks I moved them in a carpeted smaller room and tweaked the placement a little. The problem was gone and now I am a happy camper...
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