Article: Bookshelf Speaker Comparison

[Philharmonic Dennis]

Thanks very much for your excellent review Josh.  I haven't heard the other two speakers in the evaluation, so I obviously can't comment on your comparative observations.  However, I used to greatly enjoy working with Dynaudio drivers back in the day when they were available to the DIY community, and  I have no doubt that the Contour 20i is a superb piece of audio engineering.  

 

Quite frankly, I had never expected the BMR monitors to be used in a nearfield application, but I'm happy to hear that they hold up in that environment.  My primary design goal for the BMR's was realistic reproduction of larger scale works recorded in venues with natural ambiance. My experience (dating back farther than I would like to contemplate) has been that most speakers, and particularly 2-way speakers, tend to compress the sound stage and fail to provide the sense of space that we hear in a live performance.  That explains my choice of very broad-dispersion drivers and crossover points that equalize their radiation pattern.  It's possible that this approach has some negative impact on imaging for smaller scale studio recordings, but I can't think of any way to address that without sacrificing other qualities more important to me.  Fortunately, the loudspeaker market is among the  most competitive in the economy and  no one can complain of lack of choices.  Again, thank you for spending so much time with the BMR's and reporting your impressions in such articulate fashion.