The review pair of the Contour Legacy Limited Edition speakers arrived with plenty of play time already on ‘em and they were out their flight cases and playing music on the Barn’s A-Side moments later.
Dynaudio was founded in Denmark in 1977 and the Contour line first hit the market in 1986. I reviewed the Contour 60i floorstanders back in June of 2023 (review) and concluded, “When taken in as a whole with plenty of power to drive them as loud as you ever care to go, you can think of the Contour 60i as a front seat pass to music’s full force, grace, and power.”
The differences between those Contour 60i and these Contour Legacy Limited Editions is mostly everything that goes into making a speaker a speaker. Of course both are products from the same company so they share lineage, but these new Contour Limited Editions house higher end Dynaudio DNA as did the Heritage Special Bookshelf speakers which were also released as a limited edition back in 2021 to widespread acclaim.
Each pair in the Contour Legacy limited run of 1,000 pair worldwide are handmade, inside and out, at the company’s Skanderborg, Denmark factory. The Contour Legacy, “an intentional homage to the late, great Contour 1.8” according to Dynaudio, are a 2.5-way bass reflex design housing Dynaudio’s Esotar 3 soft dome tweeter paired with a pair of 18cm MSP (Magnesium Silicate Polymer) woofers, a tweaked/improved version of the woofers found in the company’s Evidence speakers. Frequency response is rated at 42Hz–29kHz (± 3 dB) with a 90dB sensitivity and 4 Ohm impedance.
The cabinets are covered in a sustainable American Walnut veneer and the Contour Legacy certainly look and feel the part of a finely made and tuned instrument from every angle, no matter how close you want to get. The Contour Legacy weigh in at a bit over 70 lbs. a piece and they have a stout, reassuring solidity when moving them around. They pass the infamous knuckle rap test, returning barely a dull thwack back (and a sore knuckle). When taken in as a whole, with Dynaudio’s 47-year history of making home and pro audio drivers and speakers, and put into today’s speaker market context where $14,000 is well below some companies entry level, it is fair to suggest that in these terms the Dynaudio Contour Legacy Limited Edition Loudspeakers offer a lot of bang for the buck.
Of course we’re here for another reason, related but different, and that is to talk about what it’s like to live with and listen to ‘em. This review is a one-off in that I spent a very condensed 20 days listening to the Contour Legacy in Barn as compared to my normal 2-month+ span. And the reason for the quick turnaround has everything to do with the Contour Legacy’s limited edition nature—they are obviously in short supply with a limited number of pairs created for reviews (as you can see stamped into the back panel) so I agreed to work with their busy schedule (which made mine that much busier too). All that being said, the following listening notes are shared with the same level of confidence in my findings as any other review I’ve published. I wouldn’t have written it if that wasn’t the case.
My personal Dynaudio history also includes reviews of their Focus 30 XD Active floorstanders (review), the Excite X14A Powered Speakers (more info), and the Focus 50 Active Wireless Speakers (review) so I know me a thing or two about the Dynaudio sound which helped put the Contour Legacy into a broader company context.
For most of my Contour Legacy time I paired them with the review Octave Audio V 70 Class A Integrated Amplifier (more info) and found its 50 Watts of output power when run in High Power mode more than enough juice to light up the Barn and rattle most of its loose parts with plenty of power left to spare. The Barn residents Grimm MU1 (review) fed the totaldac d1-unity (review) on the digital side while my Michell Gyro SE/Sorane SA1.2/EMT HSD 006 analog rig played the records. AudioQuest took care of all the cables and all the gear sat on my Box Furniture ‘Fallen A’ rack (see full Barn and system details). The review Luxman L505Z integrated (more info) also spent some time driving the Dynaudios and its 100 Watts into 8 Ohms and 150 Watts into 4 also had no problem shaking things up.
The debut album from Beings whose lineup includes Zoh Amba (saxophone, vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonium, piano), Steve Gunn (electric guitar), Shahzad Ismaily (bass, synth) and Jim White (drums) released on No Quarter back in June continues to light my fire.
Here’s Shahzad Ismaily from the Beings press release:
“The four of us really fell into something amalgamated that was really spiritually sound and really evocative, really environmental. And that doesn’t always take place, even if the players individually have those qualities. Everyone was able to find their space that was quite distinct from one another… and it really is part of why the group works so well.”
I would call Beings’ unified energy magical and this music exploded into the Barn with a blast from Amba’s sax and the wall of sound the band musters with dense, muscular, musical impact courtesy of the Contour Legacy. The ability to present music as not only a believable sound image but with a solidity and transparency that let me right through to each player’s mastery all added up to high energy, high impact delights. This degree of muscular coherence added pounds of pressure as compared to the recently reviewed and delightful in their own way Vienna Acoustics Limited Edition Bach Ultimates (review) which adds up to more drama, more scale, and more earthshaking excitement. Of course the Bach Ultimates are less than half the price of the Contour Legacy but I mention this mini-comparison to illustrate that sometimes more is more.
This band can move from quiet to mayhem in a flash and this system with the Contour Legacy driven by the Octave V 70 Class A kept perfect pace no matter how high and wild their united energy flew. I’ll also share that the Dynaudio’s character announced itself soon after I had music playing through them, like an old friend over for a visit albeit a younger and vibrant version. Nice.
Porridge Radio’s latest, Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me is still on regular rotation and it just gets better with age. Released on Secretly Canadian earlier this month, Porridge Radio is fronted by vocalist, songwriter, and lead guitarist Dana Margolin who explains the setting for this record’s recording:
“Our little house looked over a big hill,” remembers Dana, “there was a river running through it, it was big and bright and beautiful.” The studio itself was bright – full of beaming natural light from the large windows, a blessing for musicians used to the sealed tomb world of most recording studios, and for once the band were all able to record in the same room as the producer. Recording live necessitated the whole band becoming intimately involved in the creation of the album, it was all hands on deck. “We were a live band anyway, we’ve always been known as a band who do something very particular and very emotionally intense live, and Dom (Monks) knew how to get that feeling across.”
Emotionally intense also goes a long way in explaining the subject matter spread over this delightfully dense and well sculpted record. Track 6, “In A Dream I’m A Painting” goes from a skeletal simmer and builds to slow boil then to a dense all band members on deck blast only to quiet down again and here, through each phase of intensity, the Dynaudio Contour Legacy tell us their ability to swing as gentle as a breeze or blow like a hurricane while portraying each distinct voice—and there are many to be found here including typewriter, synth, bass, searing guitar, piano, drums—while Margolin sings “Nothing makes me sad now/Everything makes me happy,” over and over until we realize this is more hope than reality.
The Contour Legacy have that Dynaudio sweet silkiness up top that doesn’t lack in detail but does lack the kind of edgy shout some speakers exhibit that can break music’s spell and have you running the remote to turn that damn thing down! And this is another of the Contour Legacy’s sound outcomes—I found myself listening louder and louder still with more unrestrained joy than usual and I broke up before they did.
I’ve mentioned the track “Midost” from Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dogs’ 2008 album Party Intellectuals many times because it’s among the most ferocious tracks in my quiver of ferocious test tracks. It builds, and surprises, like the best revenge flick you can think of and this band with Ribot on guitar and vocals, Ches Smith on drums, percussion, electronics, and vocals, and Shahzad Ismaily (again) on bass, vocals, and Moog can rip it up with the best of ‘em. One later on into the evening day, I let “Midost” rattle all of the Barn’s loose bits, I like to think of it as the Barn’s volume warning indicators, and the Contour Legacy driven by the Octave’s 50 or so Watts of power delivered all the grunt, grip, and swagger of Ribot and Co. is as convincing a manner as I’ve had the pleasure to experience. While I’m not a fan of fight words when describing the sound of music, I can’t get away from ‘punchy’ when thinking about words that convey the Dynaudio’s physicality that has the kind of coherence and solidity I’ve come to associate with the Dynaudio sound.
To my ears and memory, these new Contour Legacy are the most exciting Dynaudio speakers I’ve had the pleasure of hearing and that excitement is due to the combined strengths of punchy delicacy, physicality and airiness, richness and refinement. Floats like a butterfly…
I’ve listened to “Midost” through dozens of systems and had the great pleasure of attending the album release event back in the day at the Knitting Factory so I know its ins and outs all too well. And when the good guys and bad guys meet up in whatever setting sets the stage for your favorite revenge scene at around the 3:30 mark, I know the system is doing its job when my head starts shaking ‘Yes!’ and my body soon follows with its own sway. Rich, dense, and detailed delivered to Barn rattling heights had me in its grip for the duration, where hifi turns into seamless sonic energy projector. I love when that happens and it happened at will through the Contour Legacy. Bravo.
As I perused my list of Favorite Speakers in search of relevant comparisons, I landed on the Perlisten S5t Towers (review) at $13,990/pair, about the same price as the Dynaudio. As I shared in that review, the S5t turned out to be my favorite speakers from Perlisten among those I reviewed for their “stunning combination of clarity, control, and full-bodied boogie.” While it’s been too long since the Perlisten left for me to offer blow-by-blow comparisons, reading that review from May 2023 reminded me of the S5t’s sound and I would say the Contour Legacy sing a bit sweeter and sound a bit more natural as compared to the Perlisten’s more resolving and detailed presentation. While I would not call the Dynaudio’s laid back (in the least), my sense is they offer a refined balance that makes music feel chunkier and richer in tone as compared to the Perlistens. Or perhaps a better way to say the same thing is the Contour Legacy sounded more comfortably familiar. All that dancing with words aside, there’s no loser in this group of two and I prefer to leave the shootouts to spaghetti Westerns.
I’ve been a fan of Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini since my days in NYC where I buried myself in contemporary classical music free from the (endless) distractions of the internet, yes I’m that old as the internet wasn’t the internet yet, and the purposeful choice of no TV.
From the liner notes of Maurizio Pollini & Daniele Pollini: Schubert, released by Deutsche Grammophon on October 25th:
In June 2022, Maurizio and Daniele Pollini went to Munich’s Herkulessaal to record a new studio album dedicated to three essential aspects of Schubert’s piano music: the sonatas, the cycles of short pieces and the piano music for four hands. This was a project of the heart for father and son, who shared a special love for the Viennese composer, and it was the first time that both had rehearsed and performed a piece for four hands together: the elegiac F minor Fantasy from the year of Schubert’s death in 1828. For the great Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini, it was to be his last recording.
While I’m aware of Pollini, the father’s, reputation for “classically poised, cool, perfectly balanced and voiced, but not overly affectionate” style as the Financial Times recently put it, I can’t help but hear the overt affection between father and son on the “Fantasia in F minor for Piano Duet D 940”. Call me sentimental and to add to the sentiment, this work was completed during the last year of Schubert’s life. Piano for four hands, especially in these four hands is a world within a world that can overwhelm, thankfully, the endless clatter of the one we walk through. Touch, tone, texture turned into air-borne vibrations can be equally rich, equally rewarding albeit condensed in music time. I’ve heard systems that make a piano, a single piano, sound as if the soundboard had been sawed apart and spread around the soundfield like some disjointed puzzle we’re left to put back together during the listening. Like work. Here, through the Contour Legacy I was presented with a rich unified whole, father and son dancing around and sharing in their mutual love of this lovable music.
When reproduction rings out true, as it did every day I spent with the Contour Legacy, entry to the magical world of music is a door always open, an invitation to loose oneself within.
Dynaudio’s Heritage line is meant to honor history and legacy while embodying the best the 47-year-old company has to offer. I hope I’ve been able to convey in words and listening impressions that my heart, body, and mind believe they’ve achieved their goal with the endlessly engrossing Contour Legacy.
Dynaudio Contour Legacy Limited Edition Loudspeakers
Price: $14,000/pair
Edition Size: 1,000/pair worldwide
Company Website: Dynaudio
Specifications
Sensitivity: 90dB (2.83V/1m)
IEC power handling: 200W
Impedance: 4 Ω
Frequency response: (± 3 dB) 42Hz–29kHz
Box principle: Bass reflex rear ported
Crossover: 2.5-way
Crossover frequency: (400)/3400Hz
Crossover topology: 1st/2nd order
Woofer: 2x 18cm MSP diaphragms
Tweeter: 28mm Esotar 3
Weight (PCS): 32.5 kg
Dimensions (W x H x D):208 x 995 x 345 mm
Dimensions with feet/grille (W x H x T): 208 x 995 x 352 mm
Finish: American Walnut
