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Dynaudio Contour 1.1 vs Totem Model 1

I am looking for a pair of small bookshelf speakers to pair with a Cary cad 300 sei and these two are at the top of my list. There is a $1000 price difference in favour of the Dynaudio. But, if that were to be disregarded, which one is the better speaker. I have not heard the Dynaudio so I cannot make a personal judgement.
ssayeed
ssayeed OP
37 posts
 
Thanks for the ProAc suggestion. I'm actually familiar with and very fond of those speakers. Forgot all about them when I was considering speakers.
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mapman
15,679 posts
 
The Proacs seem very nice, but on a cautionary note, assuming the Proacs are tube friendly from a load perspective (most small monitors like these that also show good bass extension, like Dynaudios, tend to not be tube friendly in my experience, but maybe these break the mold somehow), they are only 86db efficient I read, which means that there may be challenges going loud enough to meet expectations, compared to more efficient designs, even with a soft clipping tube amp.
rogercr
15 posts
 
Wes Phillips from Stereophile gave the thumbs up for the Cary Audio 300 SEI and ProAc Response 1s and 1sc combo. Also, if I remember correctly, Dennis Had used the ProAc speakers to voice his amplifiers so the the Cary and ProAc combo will be a great match. I personally used the 300B SE Signatures with the Response 3 speakers some years ago and it was wonderful. Hope this helps.
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