Have you listened to the new Heritage Special speakers?

[Beatlebum]

Originally Posted by nelson1952

Hi everyone,
I wanted to give you a quick update on my Heritage Specials. I received them about 8 weeks ago and have at least 200 hrs on them. I like to slowly break in equipment a little per day so I can fully hear the changes it goes thru. Right out the box they sounded pretty good. They never went thru unlistenable stages like some equipment I have broken in but slowly improved each week.
I just got thru listening to some Bach's Violin Concertos and was totally lost in the music. Nothing hash just beautiful music. So classical music sounds wonderful, Alison Krauss's voice sounds like a angel from heaven. Jazz and rock are served very well with the Hertiage Special's.

I have been setting up numerous systems over the past 40+ years ranging from very modest to some quite expensive systems. Currently I am using a $20k turntable setup and well matched tube equipment to drive the Heritages. My digital is a cheap cdp but sounds quite good.
In a nutshell Dynaudio has put together a very enjoyable speaker that fills my 14 × 18 room beautifully. The bass is full and tuneful and nerver lacking for my tastes. So yes Dynaudio has made a great monitor that I feel is worth the asking price em

and should serve me well for years to come. Just feed them well and enjoy.

Curious to know what tube amp or integrated you are using with your HS?

[robfine]

Originally Posted by Delija

@robfine
How large is your room?
Have you listened to Confidence 20's?

Copy/paste of my post from another forum - 3-4 weeks ago:

"Finally I got a chance to listen to the Heritage Special's for a few hours.

In short - they are very good speakers for smaller rooms, but pretty far from "Confidence killers" as someone could conclude from meny reviews and opinions online - both professional and user (on forums, FB groups...).

If you ask me - the difference in price is 100% justified.

They sound somewhat "lean" and unbalanced - to me. Yes, the bass is fast, controlled, precise, but it's missing both its body and the texture and that appears to affect the whole frequency range - from the bottom to the top. In some moments during the listening of double bass (e.g. "Ray Brown, John Clayton, Christian McBride - SuperBass" or "The Ray Brown Trio - Summer Wind: Live at the Loa" albums) I got the feeling almost like I was listening to the strings without a wooden body. The resolution is there, the details are there, but the full "body" of a sound is partially missing. And that is not how I felt only for instruments which play (very) low tones - it's pretty similar with other instruments. They are pretty well positioned in the space (although the soundstage depth could be somewhat better), but they are smaller in volume than they should be.

Just to add, that this exact description can be "attached" to many high quaity bookshelf speakes - that is something that I'm missing in sound when I'm listening to them. With Confidence 20's and also Contour 20's I don't have this issue. Of course, Contour 20's have their own drawbacks compared with both Conficence and Heritege, but if you ask me to choose between Heritage and Contour 20 - it's a tough task. Maaaaybe I'm closer to Heritage, because they really have significantly better resolution and transparency, but I wouldn't be too happy. With Confidence 20's - yes, I would be missing my Confidence 50's a lot and also my subs - but I'm sure that after some time I could adapt to their sound and to be pretty happy with them.

Of course, YMMV.

Just to add that the "test" system is pretty decent
Simaudio MOON P-8 preamp
Simaudio MOON W-7M amps
Simaudio MOON 780D v2 DAC / streamer
Métronome DSS streamer
Métronome Le Player 3 CD transport"

I’m not quite sure how to respond to your post because I’m not quite sure what you intended with your post. It’s really not in the nature of what is typically seen here ion AA. If you heard a particular pair of speakers, in this case, Dyn Heritage Specials, and wanted to discuss your observations and experience, good or bad, whatever they may be… more power to you. But that’s not really what you did. You addressed me, asked me about my room size, and asked me if I had listened to the Confidence 20’s. And then, for whatever reason, for whatever internal need in you that needed satisfying, and in so doing you couldn’t even make your comments in first person instead hiding behind the “copy paste from a forum 3-4 weeks ago” and pretty much proceeded to make an unsolicited attack on the speakers I bought and “my experience” with them as I described in this forum. I don’t understand what I wrote in my description of my speakers and experience that would warrant a comment to the effect that they are not “Confidence Killers”. I don’t believe I mentioned the word Confidence once in my posting. You then proceeded to say: “if you ask me, the price difference is 100% justified”. Again, you addressed your post directly to me. I didn’t ask you and I didn’t care when I got them nor do I care now.

I’m not going to waste time on the details of your review because they are not really relevant to me, the person you addressed your comment to, in part for the reasons included in my wrapping up thoughts. You mention that the “test system is pretty decent ”. I got nothing bad to say about Simaudio equipment in general. I’m guessing your making the point that the “test system” , at about 5x the cost of mine I’m guessing is superior to mine justifying your comments as being somehow more “correct” than what I am experiencing. Well, Simaudio Moon is great equipment. Great solid state equipment. I have tube-based amplification. Simaudio is a great DAC. But it is not an R-2R based DAC. Regardless of cost or anything else, fundamentally different operating equipment will cause the same speakers to sound different. So here is my one critique of Simaudio equipment. For whatever reason, for how much you spent — way more than I spent on mine, it apparently lacks the ability to make you happy. No one who has that level of equipment and it is part of a system that can really take advantage of that investment and quality would bother to take the time to write a personal attack/critique of someone he doesn’t even know if he was happy. The only reason I can think of is that I am happy with what I have and said so and why. Nothing you have said indicates that with all that wonderful Simaudio equipment that it brings you any pleasure. My god, you can buy 4 of my speakers or more for the cost of any one of those several components you mentioned in that pretty decent “test system”. Maybe you have a system match problem just looking at cost alone. Maybe the TAD Compact Reference Ones are a more appropriate match for the “test system”. I’ve heard them and they do sound better than my Heritage Specials. Tell you what- you get the TADs, I’ll keep my Dyns. Hopefully you’ll be happier and maybe get a chance to really read the posts on AA and see that the people who frequent this forum show a level of courtesy and respect to each other that you couldn’t manage in your post addressed to me. I harbor no ill-will toward your notwithstanding your post. It’s not worth the energy. But let me say this, instead of taking out whatever frustrations you have with your very costly and very nice system for not bringing you the happiness my much less costly system brings me, on me and others, maybe stick around a bit (but keep the kinds of comments you tossed at me to yourself). There are a lot of really nice people who are really knowledgeable with systems ranging from barely hitting 4 figures to those into 7 figures— and as a rule they would be more than happy to help you with suggestions to help get that lovely Simaudio equipment you say you have to sound in a way that will make you happy. And then your posts will be much more appropriate for AA.

[Weirdcuba]

Well done rob. Don’t know where he was coming from with that. Enjoy the new speakers!

[clpetersen]

Hey Rob - enjoyed your review/opinions of the Heritage specials. It certainly seems Delija formed a different (subjective) opinion. Seems like a perfect case of 'one man's meate is another man's poyson' - an olde English expression - opinions vary.

As an impartial reader, I did not get the sense that Delija was disparaging the Heritages, just voicing his opinion. In fact he had many positives and really only one negative. If Delija expected the Hertigage's to match a full range floor stander, than that was unfair - but I did not get that sense.

yet another opinion -
enjoy the speakers!!

[Delija]

@robfine
I'm sorry if I've hurt your feelings.
That was not my intention.

I'm just somewhat confused with so much praise about Heritage which was not there for new Confidence line when it was launched on the market and still there in no much praise for them. And yes, pretty often people say (write) they are better than Confidence 20's, especially in Dynaudio FB groups.

Based on all that - I had pretty high expectations. I've waited for months for my dealer to get them. Basically my idea was to form one more system based on them in somewhat smaller room, but not too small. I didn't have a chance to try them in this room because they were already sold in advance - I was pretty lucky to hear them at dealer's place.

I was not provoking you - I really want to know whether you had a chance to compare them with Confidence 20's and I'm also curious about the size of your room, because smaller room can make a difference in aspects I 've described. And there is always subjective part - what we want from our system.

[nelson1952]

Beatlebum,
I am using two tube amps. A 100 watt amp snd a push/pull 15 watts mono block 2a3 amp. Both sound wonderfully musical in my room. If I was to choose one the 2a3 just sounds so good. The Hertiage doesn't need a powerful ss amp to work. Both my tube amps are sublime.

[scapa]

Mine finally arrived yesterday. Hooked up to my Yggy/C22/MC275 VI they are presently making some remarkably beautiful music in my small room. I view them as a solid upgrade over the Special 40s and Harbeth M30.1s I've had in this system up til now.

Technically superb, musically mesmerizing, beautifully made. Outside of the price and the ultimate bass extension not much to quibble with, IMO.

I have also owned the C20 and Special 24, although that was years ago and with quite different source and amplification. All three are fine exemplars of the best of the Dynaudio house sound, but the Heritage Specials do the best disappearing act of the three, and seem the least fussy about positioning. So far.

[coz]

I'm using with a Jadis Orch Black 40w a/b tube. I just received last week but sounds great so far.

[Masterlu]

coz… Welcome to AA!

[robfine]

Sorry that I disappeared from this string for a bit. Big things at work overtook else for a spell. I did not talk about any comparisons to the C20s because I never compared them head to head. These are limited addition and I had an opportunity to hear them in my room with my equipment and they never left. I did listen to the Harbeth 30.1 but not in the same room or with the same equipment. These are really beautiful. Sounding speakers. They have their limitations of course, especially low base extension, but on test recordings I can hear tones down close to 40 hz which I find pretty amazing considering their size. They are very resolving but not punishingly so but they are incredibly musical. If I try to have a session to analyze them I usually quickly forget what I was doing and get lost in the music. The Specials, in my room and with my equipment (which I am very proud of and pleased with but would not be considered to be at the high, high end (high-end, definitely yes)) have that great ability to fairly often “transport the listener” out of the room and to where music is being made. While it’s been a long time back, I recall similarities to my Quad EL 63s, super quick, but still warm- and very realistic and… with that transporting ability. For similar equipment to mine and similar room, I would highly recommend them.