Dynaudio Contour 60

Just went through the same thing going from Magico S3s to S3 mk2s. You will need to fine tune the speaker placement after new speakers are broken in.

Some years back I received a new pair of speakers that sounded awful. Yet I had previously heard this model and really liked them.
After some trial and error I discovered that one of the speakers was internally wired backwards (out of phase). By inverting the speaker cable connections at the speaker terminals everything snapped into place. I later corrected the problem inside the enclosure.
Don't be afraid to try inverting the speaker wire connections on one speaker first and then on both the speakers to see if that helps.
Some equipment is phase inverting and with some speakers it doesn't matter.
Worth a try.

I just went through the same thing trying to replace my old Beethovens. I really thought buying a class a speaker that listed at 5 times the price was a no brainer and in your case staying with the same brand, even line it’s surprising. I don’t know if the contour is a Chinese box or in house. The C60 outwardly looks like a bargain compared to the kanta2 or persona3f that cost the same. I have found placement changes can make profound changes in a speakers personality and it’s free.

theyre tall and supposedly dynaudio tweaks the xover to steer the tweeter but try tilting them. I have way more money in hifi than I planned and was actually considering the C60 to replace my $80k dsp’s, now a home audition is in order.

Solecky said:

Just went through the same thing going from Magico S3s to S3 mk2s. You will need to fine tune the speaker placement after new speakers are broken in.

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+1 Hang in there!! Complete break-in first before making any other changes. Your dealer should have a pretty good idea of how many hours this should take. (My Magico S3 Mk2s took about 500 hours, of which the first half were pretty ugly.)

david rossmann said:

Slightly unnatural musical timbre of all instruments.
Veiled timbre of musical instruments.
Every sound seems to reverberate slightly inside a cheap wooden box.
No 3D space at all, nor horizontal nor vertical.
The musical space starts and ends on the speaker surface.
Impossible to get lost in to the recording.

I did extensive listening with 3 people, two of them are musicians, and everyone totally agrees that the loss in
sound quality is unbelievable compared to the Contour 3.3.

Totally disappointed.
I don't like the audiophile hobby, i just want to listen to music. I do not want to replace the amplification. By spending 9.000 Euro (i got the contour 3.3 for 1200 Euro) i'm expecting at least a small improvement.
By sure i do not expect to loose every joy in to listening to music.
What i'm doing wrong?
Thanks for any help or advise.

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There is a good possibility they need more 'break in' time. My Dyn C1's needed 450hrs. But at 125hrs they sounded horrible. No lows or highs. That lasted about 25 hrs. They only got better from there.

Thanks you everybody for your advises. Cable polarity was not the issue. Let's them break in more time. Something similar happened to me with the Border Patrol dac. The first day it was just ridiculous. After 4-5 days it was way better but, compared to the my cheap but good SMSL m8a, not worth the price difference. Let's see if with the the contour 60 the break in time will do such an incredible difference. Thanks again for your advises.

P.S.
Why the hell they let the client make the break in process? I mean speakers are not shoes! music is highly social, hundredths or even thousands of people go to the same concert...why with speakers or headphones suddenly everything is sold as a very personal experience? Anyway... lets' see.

Loved the sound of Contour 60. Don’t change anything until 500 hrs . Give them some time to break in .


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Hi David, welcome to the forum.

I heard the 60's and thought they sound great with more liveliness and top end energy.

If you bought the 3.3 new, you should remember going mad waiting for them to break in. If not, and, you bought them used, Dynaudio takes a tremendous amount of break in time. If you stream or have a tuner, I recommend letting them play while at work or other out of the home periods to get more hours on them.

Also, if memory serves, aren't the 3.3 a sealed enclosure with a larger than 6" woofer? Or, I may be thinking of the old 3.0. It took a monster amp to get those things going in a sealed enclosure. However, I digress, LOL

Be patient, I think you'll eventually have a happy ending to this.

david rossmann said:

Hi to all, that is my first post here.
I just bought a pair of new Dynaudio Contour 60 to replace my old Contour 3.3.

After 100 hours of burn in following are my impressions:

Slightly unnatural musical timbre of all instruments.
Veiled timbre of musical instruments.
Every sound seems to reverberate slightly inside a cheap wooden box.
No 3D space at all, nor horizontal nor vertical.
The musical space starts and ends on the speaker surface.
Impossible to get lost in to the recording.

I did extensive listening with 3 people, two of them are musicians, and everyone totally agrees that the loss in
sound quality is unbelievable compared to the Contour 3.3.

Totally disappointed.
I don't like the audiophile hobby, i just want to listen to music. I do not want to replace the amplification. By spending 9.000 Euro (i got the contour 3.3 for 1200 Euro) i'm expecting at least a small improvement.
By sure i do not expect to loose every joy in to listening to music.
What i'm doing wrong?
Thanks for any help or advise.

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Hi David, Welcome to Audioshark and congratulations on your new Dynaudio Contour 60s.

I know exactly what is going on here with your new speakers.

GSOphile, Octadyndude and Paul are correct.

Dynaudios are VERY well-known for needing a minimum of 300 hours and possibly as many as 450 hours of play to "run in".

This is a VERY consistent and well-documented requirement for running in brand-new Dynaudio loudspeakers.

Here's how it goes: initially, upon first purchase, they sound pretty good. At approx. 100 hours, they start to sound bad. From 150 to 250-275 hours, they can sound REALLY bad. After 275 hours or so, they will start to sound a LOT better. Dyns from about 10 years ago took 300 hours and at 300 hrs, it was like flipping a switch.."Bing!" And they would be "there" and sound glorious. I"ve heard the later models can take up to 450 hours or so.

So, at 100 hours, you are just getting into the "they sound REALLY bad, I can't stand it, I'm going to sell them" phase. This phase will continue for at least another 150 and could be as long as another 300 hours. I've been through this myself twice from installing upgraded Dynaudio tweeters, so I know the phenomenon very well. I've also experienced "the switch has just flipped and they sound glorius" first-hand a number of times.

Whatever you do, DO NOT sell them. I can't tell you the number of guys I've known over the years that have bought Contours, Confidence C1s, C2s, etc. and got to this phase, and despite other Dynaudio owners telling them to "hang in there, they'll get there", they sold them....only to really regret it later.

There is nothing wrong with how your speakers are wired interally, so DO NOT take them apart, you will just void your warranty. Dynaudio is one of the truly great loudspeaker companies, and manufacture with very high quality standards and checks during assembly.

With respect to positioning, of course positioning is important, but this is not what you are experiencing. You're experiencing the very well-known "Dyns sound awful during break-in" phase.

Once you get the Dyns past the break-in/running in" phase, you will know it as they will sound absolutely glorious. As I've mentioned above, once they get there, it will almost be like flipping a switch. You can tweak positioning to your hearts content at that point.

This video by Ronald Hoffman at Dynaudio also gives some very good general advice about placement, listening position, roo modes, etc.
I've found this video from Bob Robbins to be the best practical set of instruction with respect to speaker setup and positioning. HIs guidance has gotten me closest to the ideal of having Stirling Trayle come to my house to do setup.
Hope this helps. Feel free to reach out with any other questions you may have.

Regards,
Stephen aka Puma Cat

david rossmann said:

Thanks you everybody for your advises.

P.S.
Why the hell they let the client make the break in process? I mean speakers are not shoes! music is highly social, hundredths or even thousands of people go to the same concert...why with speakers or headphones suddenly everything is sold as a very personal experience? Anyway... lets' see.

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David, please don't take this the wrong way, I mean this with utmost respect, but...it is what it is. They not only sound bad now, but they could sound even worse between 150-250 hours.

This may come across like "tough love", but ya just have go through this phase to get to the "really good stuff"!

If you think requiring 300-500 hours is bad, its not really, its all a matter of perspective.

My Conrad-Johnson CT-5 preamp, with all its massive Teflon capacitors took well over 1000 hours to burn in, about 1500 hours. It took me a good two years of regular play to get the CT-5 burned in, so from my personal perspective, 300-500 hours is a piece of cake.

So...hang in there. Patience will be rewarded!

"All good things will come to those that wait."

Best, Stephen aka Puma Cat

Puma Cat said:

David, please don't take this the wrong way, I mean this with utmost respect, but...it is what it is. They not only sound bad now, but they could sound even worse between 150-250 hours.

This may come across like "tough love", but ya just have go through this phase to get to the "really good stuff"!

If you think requiring 300-500 hours is bad, its not really, its all a matter of perspective.

My Conrad-Johnson CT-5 preamp, with all its massive Teflon capacitors took well over 1000 hours to burn in, about 1500 hours. It took me a good two years of regular play to get the CT-5 burned in, so from my personal perspective, 300-500 hours is a piece of cake.

So...hang in there. Patience will be rewarded!

"All good things will come to those that wait."

Best, Stephen aka Puma Cat

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It’s on how you define bad, it should still be tolerable just not preferable. Things do mature, but 1500 hours, I could be dead by then.


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UltraFast69 said:

It’s on how you define bad, it should still be tolerable just not preferable. Things do mature, but 1500 hours, I could be dead by then.


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Ha! Yeah, it was frustrating for a while there...burning in the CT-5. Fortunately, I had my Premier 17LS to listen to as well.

Thanks again for your advises and Puma Cat for the interesting links. In order to speed up the break in process the dealer asked me to put the speakers one in front of each other, invert the polarity on one of them and let them play for at least two-three weeks. Yesterday i followed the instructions and i discovered that i can play the music at relatively strong volume without any problem. By inverting the polarity the sound waves seem to "die" absorbed inside the speakers. The funny thing is that some recordings are completely absorbed and other ones much less. Probably as stronger the stereo image is, less is the sound absorbed inside the boxes.
A part from that it's the first time in my life that I push a car up the hill to see how it rolls down.

I had a pair of speakers the dealer told me needed break in time, the return policy was 7 days so of course I ate them. More often than not a speaker will be affected by the room acoustics and I just won't buy new without a home demo first anymore. That said your experience with those speakers is contrary to what dynaudio is known for

david rossmann said:

Thanks again for your advises and Puma Cat for the interesting links. In order to speed up the break in process the dealer asked me to put the speakers one in front of each other, invert the polarity on one of them and let them play for at least two-three weeks. Yesterday i followed the instructions and i discovered that i can play the music at relatively strong volume without any problem. By inverting the polarity the sound waves seem to "die" absorbed inside the speakers. The funny thing is that some recordings are completely absorbed and other ones much less. Probably as stronger the stereo image is, less is the sound absorbed inside the boxes.
A part from that it's the first time in my life that I push a car up the hill to see how it rolls down.

Click to expand...

Yes, this is a very good way to break in your new Dynaudios. Also, some of the "hours" you need are to burn in the components on the crossover, the inductors and caps, and the internal cabling and the voice coils, which are massive at 3". The air core inductors in the crossover generally use pretty large gauge solid copper wire and can take a while to burn in.

steve59 said:

I had a pair of speakers the dealer told me needed break in time, the return policy was 7 days so of course I ate them. More often than not a speaker will be affected by the room acoustics and I just won't buy new without a home demo first anymore. That said your experience with those speakers is contrary to what dynaudio is known for

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Actually, David's experience with Dynaudios is 100% concordant with Dynaudio speaker break-in behavior and time required. Of course the room acoustics play a role, but that is not what David is describing.

Thinking back, my Audience 82s took a long time to break in and as said, they did get worse before they got better.

My 42s came broken in after being used as Demos at a Show.

I meant dynaudio has a good reputation and the character he describes isn’t the dynaudio ‘house sound’. As to break in, I had a pair of audience 80’s but returned them b4 they had time to sound nasty.

Still breaking in. Tonal balance improved slightly. Today i tried to vary the positioning as much as possible. Tried to follow some indications and positioning techniques. Sound stage is still totally flat, blurry, dull. No way to hide the speakers. Simply crazy. Will continue to break in the speakers. If one day this speakers sound better as the contour 3.3 i will start to dedicate some time to alchemy.