Dynaudio "Special Forty"

[scapa]

Originally Posted by Sermorebeer

Hello all,

Been a Dyns fan since my 20's and this is my first post here. So be gentle to me.

I started a thread on another forum regarding the Special 40. One of the gentleman on the thread has posted his review:

"So I ducked down to Lifestyle Store yesterday for a listen to the special 40's. I was very impressed with what I heard. They had the Special 40's placed on some Dynaudio stands (3 or 4?) in their Devialet room (which by guess is about 3.5M x 4.0M and acoustically treated). Feeding the Special 40's were a pair of Expert Pro 220's configured in mono-block mode.

The first thing that struck me was the scale of the sound-stage it managed to produce - their was quite a lot of width and height about the music. In fact prior to listening to the Special 40's I had the privilege of listening to what would have been close to a $AU1M system comprising of top of the range Moon Audio electronics feeding a pair of Evidence Master Platinum's (bucket list stuff) and dare I say it, in the smaller Devialet room I thought the sound-stage thrown up by the tiny Special 40's was on par with the monolithic pair of Evidence Masters. I know that comment may beggar belief. Imaging was very good as you would expect from a pair of monitors in a treated room i.e. pin point.

The second thing that took me by surprise was the tonality of the speakers. I've always found Dyn's to be smooth, refined, and JUST on the warm side of neutral. Having owned a pair of C1's in the past there were times I was looking for a touch more attack when it came to the leading edge definition of some tracks. In contrast I found the Special 40's to be very agile and fast with the upper frequencies leaping out at you, grabbing your attention, while for a moment hanging in the air before an equally fast yet tactile decay. At this point these speakers certainly had my attention.

The mid-range was classic Dynaudio, palpable, neutral yet incredibly musical and effortless in it's coherence & alignment with the lively and dynamic performance of the Esotar tweeter. Which in turn brings us to the bass. Which again proved to present an interesting/pleasant surprise. I've always found Dyn's to lay a fantastic foundation when it comes to bass. Indeed some suggest in medium sized rooms one can get away without a sub when it comes to the C1. Obviously this is not the case with Special 40's. But to simply right off the bass performance as lacking due to the proportions of the speaker is to only tell half the story. I currently own some Focus 110's which when compared to the Special 40's appear to accentuate the upper mid-bass. This at times can result in a (fun and engaging) coloration of the sound. Not so in the case of the Special 40's. I found them to be very neutral through the mid-bass and what elements of sub-bass it could muster. If the track was poorly mastered you could hear it i.e. if there wasn't bass there it wouldn't compensate through the slight mid-bass bump I've come to hear in the Focus 110's.

Lastly, if I were to knit pick I'd suggest that to really enjoy the Special 40's at their best you need to stretch their legs. I felt I had to get the volume to slightly above normal listening levels to enjoy the Special 40's in all their grandeur. If your listening space allows you to do this, and your amplification is able to come to the party you will be rewarded with an incredibly dynamic and transparent musical experience.

Needless to say lads I put down a deposit for a pair. Apparently delivery will be in 8 weeks.

Caveat emptor: I'm not entirely familiar with the electronics that were being used and the room was well treated, but, clearly i'm quite smitten by these beauties.

Lastly a big thank you to the young lad at Lifestyle store. I love what Vinod and the team are doing down in North Parramatta. Not least because of their product selection, but because of their clear respect of both the customer and musical experience. Their rooms are beautiful, treated and appointed with some stunning components. I feel very lucky to be able to walk into a shop front and be able to have the sort of experience I had yesterday. This is to say nothing of the attentive and friendly customer service I also enjoyed. More power to them!"

By Galatic Soap

Very informative take on the 40s -- many thanks.

I'm thinking of putting in an order also, since my dealer won't be stocking them. They'll be replacing Harbeths in a small room, so I have some concerns about placement. May borrow a pair of the C20s as a proxy.

best,.

[ismelllikepoop]

dealers near by me in socal don't have the special 40 to demo, said on back order.

anyone get much of a discount on special 40's or the c20's, or is the price the price? Moved about a year ago so have to build new relationships with local dealers, but closest dyn dealer is about an hour away.

[johndoe21ro]

AFAIK price is dealer dependent but I'm just an outsider...

P.S. GalacticSoap is right regarding the volume level on Dyns. Dynaudio loudspeakers are usually a little bit dark and have a small mid-bass bump -> they seem to open up more only when the volume knob is a notch above the usual setting.
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[PHC1]

Finally had a chance to stop by and give the Special 40’s a listen. They were driven by a McIntosh MA5200 integrated. Much of their qualities were already discussed before so I won’t try to duplicate it in my post.

In a nutshell, I found no glaring faults with them at all for their price. It is not the type of speaker that may try to impress from the first note and that’s a good thing to me. I found the bass to be very articulated and resolved for a smaller monitor speaker like this, the midrange was rather pure and uncongested. With no traces of note hardness or upper frequency harshness, the Special Forty impresses me with a very generous soundstage that was wide and deep and after playing around with some mild degree of toe in and further tweaks with positing on the fly (some dealers look at me funny as I jump up and start moving their setup around ) the center image locked into focus with image density and proper weight that I find enjoyable.

Slight deviation from neutral towards the darker, warmer side to my ears with the pairing gear (McIntosh) but I find that more enjoyable in the long relationship with a speaker anyway.

Not a giant killer but for $3k one can’t go wrong with this musical and enjoyable speaker if looking in that price range and perhaps up even a bit higher. I’ve certainly heard much better at multiples of the price and have heard much worse sounding speakers that were more money than special forty.

I am coming back next Tuesday to try out different pairings of amps and may very well order a pair for myself. They impressed me enough to own them and not go chasing more expensive pair for my room. The special forty hit all the right notes and resonated well with me.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by PHC1

Finally had a chance to stop by and give the Special 40’s a listen. They were driven by a McIntosh MA5200 integrated. Much of their qualities were already discussed before so I won’t try to duplicate it in my post.

In a nutshell, I found no glaring faults with them at all for their price. It is not the type of speaker that may try to impress from the first note and that’s a good thing to me. I found the bass to be very articulated and resolved for a smaller monitor speaker like this, the midrange was rather pure and uncongested. With no traces of note hardness or upper frequency harshness, the Special Forty impresses me with a very generous soundstage that was wide and deep and after playing around with some mild degree of toe in and further tweaks with positing on the fly (some dealers look at me funny as I jump up and start moving their setup around ) the center image locked into focus with image density and proper weight that I find enjoyable.

Slight deviation from neutral towards the darker, warmer side to my ears with the pairing gear (McIntosh) but I find that more enjoyable in the long relationship with a speaker anyway.

Not a giant killer but for $3k one can’t go wrong with this musical and enjoyable speaker if looking in that price range and perhaps up even a bit higher. I’ve certainly heard much better at multiples of the price and have heard much worse sounding speakers that were more money than special forty.

I am coming back next Tuesday to try out different pairings of amps and may very well order a pair for myself. They impressed me enough to own them and not go chasing more expensive pair for my room. The special forty hit all the right notes and resonated well with me.

Very cool review, Serge, thanks. As you know, I'm a big Dyn fan.

My experience with Dyns over quite a few years now is they very neutral, but never cold or un-musical; instead they are very "pure and musical", as you have described. As they are so neutral, they do pretty much reflect the amplification gear driving them, so I'd expect them to be on the darker, warmer side with McIntosh gear. Other electronics I've heard them sound very good with are C-J, of course, as well as NAIM, Octave, and T+A. I'd expect they'd sound fantastic with Esoteric as well. You should also be able to get them to integrate with a REL sub very nicely, and obtain full-range performance. My guess is the Special 40s have good output down to about 45 Hz or so just by themselves. Bear in mind if you get them you will need to give them a good 300 hours of running in time, and they may sound worse at 150-250 hours than when new or when fully run-in.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Very cool, review, Serge, thanks. As you know, I'm a big Dyn fan.

My experience with Dyns over quite a few years now is they very neutral, but never cold or un-musical; instead they are very "pure and musical", as you have described. As they are so neutral, they do pretty much reflect the amplification gear driving them, so I'd expect them to be on the darker, warmer side with McIntosh gear. Other electronics I've heard them sound very good with are C-J, of course, as well as NAIM, Octave, and T+A. I'd expect they'd sound fantastic with Esoteric as well. You should also be able to get them to integrate with a REL sub very nicely, and obtain full-range performance. My guess is the Special 40s have good output down to about 45 Hz or so just by themselves.

Stephen, specs say 41Hz +/- 3dB. Sounds about right to my ears. Much easier to work with monitor speakers that do not overpower the room and my room where the system will be is on the smaller side. If I feel the bass lacking, unlikely because while the Special Forty can't plumb the depths of the lower octaves, what it does, it does honestly to my ears. It just signs off politely at the 40Hz or thereabouts without creating artificial bloat and fat, flabby bass trying to. Having said that, adding a small, musical sub will certainly help if need be.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by PHC1

Stephen, specs say 41Hz +/- 3dB. Sounds about right to my ears. Much easier to work with monitor speakers that do not overpower the room and my room where the system will be is on the smaller side. If I feel the bass lacking, unlikely because while the Special Forty can't plumb the depths of the lower octaves, what it does, it does honestly to my ears. It just signs off politely at the 40Hz or thereabouts without creating artificial bloat and fat, flabby bass trying to. Having said that, adding a small, musical sub will certainly help if need be.

Sounds good, Serge. I didn't know the specs, but 41Hz ± 3 dB is pretty nice for a monitor that size. My Contours 3.4s are flat down to 30 Hz but a much bigger speaker. Sounds like your requirents are such that just running the Special 40s full-range would make for a very nice musical experience. I don't know how many hours the demo pair you heard had on the clock, but well run-in Dyns can be VERY nice. A small sub like the REL T-Zero might be just ticket if you decide to run a sub....

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Sounds good, Serge. I didn't know the specs, but 41Hz ± 3 dB is pretty nice for a monitor that size. My Contours 3.4s are flat down to 30 Hz but a much bigger speaker. Sounds like your requirents are such that just running the Special 40s full-range would make for a very nice musical experience. I don't know how many hours the demo pair you heard had on the clock, but well run-in Dyns can be VERY nice. A small sub like the REL T-Zero might be just ticket if you decide to run a sub....

+1 on the REL sub. I have not heard their latest offerings and auditioning subs is not an easy task... I've always been impressed with their musicality and disappearing nature though so I don't doubt they are good.

Back in the day I went with the JL Audio subs and they were stupendously good too. Having a stereo pair with my SF Guarneri Memento's and two Fathoms dialed in to perfection had all the slam, impact, deep, tight and well articulated bass that I could have never achieved with a floorstanding speaker in that smaller room.

Big speakers with truly low bass capability just do not play well with smaller rooms. If one overshoots with a speaker for the room, not much can be done at that point. It will never sound balanced and I hate bloated, boomy bass. Once again, I find myself with a similar dimension room so I will take the tried and true path. Monitors like the 40's and a sub if need be.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

I don't know how many hours the demo pair you heard had on the clock, but well run-in Dyns can be VERY nice....

I believe they have had them for about a month now and they have been playing them a lot. Sounded well settled in to my ears.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by PHC1

I believe they have had them for about a month now and they have been playing them a lot. Sounded well settled in to my ears.