What is real?

I talk a lot about the sound of speakers or components being “right,” and I want two give a little background on what I mean by that.

I grew up steeped in music and surrounded by excellent musicians as the son of a maestro guy, a conductor, composer and choir director. As early as 11 I was helping live-mix or record his large symphonic concerts, and I’ve got a very strong knowledge of the real sound of unamplified acoustic instruments up close.

Years of working in a recording studio and even more years of mastering and tweaking certainly have helped inform my ears.

There can be many goals for a budding audiophile to aspire to, but one of the most common and hardest to attain is the sense of realism from a sound system.

It may be true that if your goal is realism and you achieve that goal, poor or less-than-excellent recordings could become uninspiring, or downright unlistenable. That said, I’ve known a few Harbeths to sound real on an excellent recordings and yet somehow allow pretty much any recording to also sound good.

Anyway let’s get to the point here. I often find a speaker with serious “realism” qualities to be a small, sealed compact two-way monitor. Dunno why exactly, but I’ve got suspicions. Crossover science, for one, is so incredibly important in delivering a “holy $%#^ that’s a real instrument in my room” moment. Compliance, driver choice, dispersion, and other elements certainly factor in.

I opened the box containing these Dynaudio Contour S R wall-mount speakers with the usual kind of excitement that opening a Dynaudio box can bring — I have become a big fan of their drivers and speakers in general.

But I wasn’t prepared for what these tiny little speakers could bring. Cranking Avishai Cohen’s (the bass player) tune “Bass Suite #1” I’m hearing his acoustic bass walking up and down scales in all of its glorious bigness. I’m hearing the walls and boundaries of the hall Avishai is recording in, and the expansive decay when he slaps the edge of his bass percussively.

This sounds like a real bass, and I’m playing at fairly loud and realistic volumes. WOW. Dynamics, timing, midbass, air… I’ve been falling in love with a lot of gear lately and these little guys have to be the best deal we’ve got in their category right now. Outstanding.