New Dynaudio Special Forty Finishes and Contour i Series

I've long has a soft spot for Dynaudio and all things Danish for that matter. Since visiting Copenhagen, Tivoli Gardens, and the Dynaudio factory in Skanderborg, Denmark back in October of 2017, I've been planning to take my family back to the land of cool cutlery and ubiquitous hot dog stands. 

CA Goes To Dynaudio In Denmark

Today I'll have to "settle" for some cool new loudspeaker updates. Dynaudio just announced the new Contour i family (20i, 30i, 60i, and 25Ci) and two great new finishes for the Special Forty (Black Vine and Ebony Wave). 

Important details:

Contour i

• Availability
  • The new Dynaudio Contour i will be available in the US by August, 2020

• Finishes
  • Walnut: open-wood veneer with a more natural look and feel
  • Grey Oak High Gloss: natural oak veneer stained in a striking grey color, covered in an improved high-gloss lacquer
  • Black High Gloss: black-painted cabinets covered in an improved high-gloss lacquer

• Models and Prices
  • Contour 20i: $5,250 per pair
  • Contour 30i: $8,250 per pair
  • Contour 60i: $10,750 per pair
  • Contour 25Ci: $3,750 each

Special Forty

• Availability
  • The first deliveries of Ebony Wave slated for June 2020, with Black Vine to follow shortly thereafter.

• Finishes
  • Black Vine
  • Ebony Wave

• Price
  • The MSRP of the new Special Forty is $3,500 per pair. 

Here are the details straight from Skanderborg.

Contour i

Dynaudio is excited to take the wraps off its new Contour i series – an extensive update to the multi-award-winning 2016 Contour range.

The family has been totally overhauled under the hood with advanced acoustic technology trickled down from the flagship Confidence range. And the results are plain to hear.

“We didn’t do it because we had to, we did it because we wanted to,” says Otto Jørgensen, product manager. “Basically, this is what happens when you leave our engineers alone with a speaker – they can’t help but improve it. We gained so much knowledge during the Confidence project that we simply had to share it with Contour. And we’re absolutely thrilled with the results.”

What’s new?

Taking it from the top, the brand-new Esotar 2i tweeter on all models gains the ingenious Hexis resonance-defeating inner dome, plus a new, larger rear chamber. Together they reduce distortion and provide a flatter frequency response.

The Contour 20i, 30i and 25Ci woofers all gain an updated Nomex spider. It’s the same structural design as the 2016 Contour (with varying-width corrugations for finer excursion control), but the new material simply sounds better – the result of many hours of listening in Dynaudio Labs.

Contour 60i has new woofers with a larger magnet system, an updated voice-coil design and a glass-fibre voice-coil former, as first used in the new Confidence range and the Dynaudio Sub 6 subwoofer. The result is tighter bass, even at higher volume.

And Contour 60i’s midrange driver? No change to the driver itself, but it does sit in a new moulded, resonance-damping enclosure derived from Dynaudio’s flagship professional reference monitor range, Core.

Contour 20i, 30i and 25Ci feature updated crossovers. And, because of the driver tweaks providing an inherently flat frequency response, it means Dynaudio has been able to remove the impedance correction circuitry for an even simpler board.

Contour 60i utilizes a completely new crossover due to the new woofers and new Esotar 2i tweeter. Additionally, the effect of the moulded midrange cup and the Nomex woofer spiders enabled the company’s engineers to shift the crossover frequency up. It now works better at slightly higher frequencies (up to around 300Hz). The frequency curve in this region is also flatter, meaning better midrange performance from a simpler crossover.

Even the internal damping is brand-new – using lessons learned from the Evoke and Confidence developments.

And, of course, the complete range was extensively optimized in Dynaudio’s world-leading Jupiter measuring facility before being subjected to countless hours of listening by the experts in Dynaudio Labs.

Finally, the finishes have been improved. The range will be available in three finish variants, all with enhanced surface quality:

Walnut: open-wood veneer with a more natural look and feel

Grey Oak High Gloss: natural oak veneer stained in a striking grey colour, covered in an improved high-gloss lacquer
Black High Gloss: black-painted cabinets covered in an improved high-gloss lacquer

The new Dynaudio Contour i will be available in the US by August, 2020.

Pricing
Contour 20i: $5,250 per pair
Contour 30i: $8,250 per pair
Contour 60i: $10,750 per pair
Contour 25Ci: $3,750 each

Special Forty

Dynaudio Special Forty (Ebony Wave)

Dynaudio’s award-winning anniversary loudspeaker, the Special Forty, has been given a makeover with two stunning new finishes: Black Vine and Ebony Wave. Black Vine offers a striking contrast of dark veneer shot through with vivid orange, while Ebony Wave provides a captivatingly sinuous take on the classic hardwood.

Both veneers are hand-crafted to Dynaudio’s exacting specs, ensuring total consistency between pairs of speakers. And the level of finish achieved is simply astonishing – they look as smooth as glass, and as lustrous as a piece of luxury furniture. Just as you’d expect from a nation of design-fanatics!

The MSRP of the new Special Forty is $3,500 per pair, with the first deliveries of Ebony Wave slated for June 2020, with Black Vine to follow shortly thereafter. 

Dynaudio Special Forty (Black Vine)