The Contour 30i steps it up a notch from the 20i. Of course, it still treads the same path – one of honesty, transparency and sheer entertainment, but it puts it all in a bigger package.
Like the rest of the new Contour i family, the 30i has the all-new Esotar 2i tweeter – complete with the Hexis inner dome found throughout the flagship Confidence range and also in the Core series of professional studio reference monitors (trickle-down tech is an amazing thing, isn’t it…). Esotar 2i also gets a new, larger rear chamber. This, together with Hexis, helps to reduce unwanted resonances and smooth out the frequency response for even clearer, sweeter high-frequencies.
Dynaudio have endowed the Contour 30i with two 18cm MSP drivers, as well as doubling up on the rear ports. Behind the scenes they've tweaked the spider suspension (the springy ring that keeps the woofer in the right place when it’s at rest, and controls it in the right way when it’s moving). This one is made from aramid fibres, and retains the ingenious structural properties from before (the ribs are of varying width to give even finer control over the cone’s excursion).
Contour 30i continues to use aluminium voice-coils, too. Extremely light – but also bigger than the old-style copper units you’ll find elsewhere. Lighter weight allows larger diameters with more windings, yet low weight, which means more control over the cone movement. And that means more control over the sound – especially at high frequencies and high volumes – exactly what you need in a mid/bass driver.
And, as with Contour 20i, the flatter frequency response from the improved tweeter and mid/bass drivers means Dynaudio have been able to simplify the crossover. Not that it wasn’t elegant before – but now… well, we’ll let you judge.
The improved crossover no longer needs impedance correction circuitry to optimise its performance – that’s all now done in the driver itself, simply down to the physical properties of the materials we use. Fewer components, cleaner signal path, better performance.
