I admit that your written description of the ATCs appeals to me (except for the agressive part). The cabinet is filled with three kinds of acoustic absoption. I'm disappointed. Dynaudio Connect Wireless Transmitter. Standmount boxes perched on 600mm stands in big rooms will nearly always have this colouration. Want to experience the real Dynaudio sound reproduction for yourself? I just love to sit there and look at them. They’ll do great with that type of music, personally I use Contour 20s, and I listen to nearly everything except country. I listened to the Special 40's at AXPONA.... Bowers & Wilkins 705 Signature loudspeaker, GoldenEar BRX (Bookshelf Reference X) loudspeaker, Counterpoint Natural Progression NPS-400 power amplifier, The FTC Proposes Eliminating Its "Amplifier Rule", Re-Tales #5: Pro audio and hi-fi cross over, Analog Corner #289: Ortofon Anna Diamond MC phono cartridge, Moonriver 404 Reference integrated amplifier, Revinylization #14: The Grateful Dead's Magnificent Eight, Gramophone Dreams #45: T+A Solitaire P headphones & HA 200 DAC-headphone amplifier, Acoustic Geometry Room treatments (before & after), My current and likely the last home audio setup, Recording of February 2021: Newvelle Records Season Five, Recommended Components: Fall 2020 Edition. Which dynaudio stand is a good match for special 40 (6,10 or 20?). I do like the graphics--are they any different INSIDE than the regular LS-50 wireless ? The Special Forty's internal wiring of OFC copper is sourced from van den Hul, and electrical connection is via a single pair of high-quality binding posts below the port. I've heard both (in different systems, different dealers) but since a month went by in between visits, I cannot say for sure that the Dyn S40s sounded twice as good and warrant paying $3,000 vs. $1,500 price tag. 1321 Dynaudio Confidence 30 High End Floor-standing Loudspeakers. The Buchardt, by contrast, is "well-sorted," and any small compromises in its design lead to result that, overall, very much belie its $1000 price. And if I had the disposable income to shrug off a 5 or 6 figure mistake, I could correct it just as easily. But they are simply more fun to listen to and they give me a more “real” experience that I can listen to for longer with less fatigue. Dynaudio Confidence C1 Platinum All speakers are priced in pairs The most refined and best sounding Confidence C1 ever With the new Platinum version, the current Confidence series has been updated with an aesthetic evoking the fascinating finish and visual appearance of Dynaudio's latest flagship loudspeaker, the Evidence Platinum. If you don’t like these speaker’s extended treble and find them “edgy”, you will hate most ATC, Focal, B&W, KEF and many more speakers. They may very well have been voiced in the crossover to compensate as many other speaker manufacturers do. The central image of the noise signal was narrow and stable, without any splashing to the sides at some frequencies. 900. I also note that you mention an overly-emphasized upper midrange in several different places in your review. I have listened to the Special 40. Well, I recently bought a Denon PMA-1600NE off a PFM forum member, and when I went to his home to pick it up he had his pair of Dynaudio Special 40's hooked up to it to demo it for me. https://www.stereophile.com/content/dynaudio-special-forty-loudspeaker Dynaudio Contour 20 review Ordinary looking, but class-leading performers Tested at £3750. And voices are just sublimely smooth with perfect body, compared to the ATCs which are leaner and slightly grainier though the mids (in comparison). 01/06/2020 Dynaudio Confidence 50 Review £9000.00. . Try Contour 20’s, in addition to getting a better amp. Oftewel: simpliciteit is troef. They do most of the things audiophiles love..huge soundstage width, decent depth, precise imaging, detail without being etched or bright, smooth tweeter and a rich midrange that excels with the human voice..smooth, clear and spacious and HOLOGRAPHIC with the right amps, cables, stands, etc. There's also what Dynaudio calls an "aero-coupled pressure-release outlet" under the voice-coil to minimize resonances, while the neodymium magnet is small and light. The stands' central pillars are filled with a mixture of sand and lead shot, and the speakers were decoupled from the stands with small pads of Blu-Tack. You try another amp. The Buchardt Audio S300 MKIISE is a very interesting speaker. Dynaudio Confidence 20 Stand mount Loudspeakers. (Same question for C20) Posted on: 09 January 2019 by Kevin-W ... Contour S1.4, Contour S3.4 and now my current Confidence C2 Platinum. i believe this is an important distinction to make when reviewing speakers. They were playing the Nils Lofgren "Keith Don't Go". many speakers have an exaggerated sense of air and sparkle and many people like that. With a claimed LF spec of 45 Hz, they practically defy physics for a speaker this size. I am 65. Het bedrijf is de toonaangevende producent van handgemaakte high-end luidsprekers.. Gepassioneerde muziekliefhebbers maken speakers voor in de woonkamer, de professionele studio en voor in de auto. Bass is equally good. Did you ever think that maybe your preference is for rolled off highs? Less prominent, maybe not as open, but smoother, rounder and very colorful it aimed straight at your heart. It is unfortunate about the cabinet resonance. The Special 40 seem to me like the best of both those speakers. 7 and 8), the left and right speakers' in-room responses were well matched above 500Hz. And with it’s easy to understand when you consider how well the speakers were received: "The Special Forty is one of the very best compact speakers in the company’s forty years history." Dynaudio has come up with two new looks for the Dynaudio Special Forty: "Black Vine" and "Ebony Wave". We learn and move on... unless we want to stop learning. 4822. I am not too thrilled about this resonance problem though. They’ll do great with that type of music, personally I use Contour 20s, and I listen to nearly everything except country. What I have ended up doing is this: I use three hardwood footers that raise the Dynaudios about an inch above the surface, two in the front corners and one in the middle at the back, and at the same time, I place a stone on top of each speaker, in the middle but a little toward the front. Dynaudio put in some very good drivers, as well as a beautiful cabinet finish. 04/24/2020 New Dynaudio Series Contour i Dynaudio has updated the 2016 Contour series and is now launching the new Countour i family. 04/24/2020 New Dynaudio Series Contour i Dynaudio has updated the 2016 Contour series and is now launching the new Countour i family. That 17cm mid/bass unit still uses the company’s traditional MSP (Magnesium Silicate Polymer) cone – it’s a one-piece cone using the large dome in the middle to aid rigi… I ended up with the ports open, which gave the best bass extension without comprising definition. Grilles are provided, but I didn't use them in my auditioning. Agreed ....... Pairing the Nocturnes with a powered sub-woofer(s), would most likely increase the loudness capability. I decided to test drive them for myself while practicing mediocre hygge to see if they’d live up to Dynaudio’s fancy marketing buzzwords. Maybe. I was pleased with the extra detail and bass extension (after my Excite X12s), but after listening a week or two, I wrote their customer service rep, assuming there must be a problem with my pair: they sounded consistently hard and forward in the upper midrange. Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 12:12 am Posts: 163 Location: Gatineau, QC, CA Has anybody been listening to these speakers, what do you like/dislike. I bought the Red Birch. The LS50 Nocturne were recently reviewed by TAS. My head says that this cannot be correct and the Special 40 will outperform the Evokes, but there are few absolutes in hifi! The folks at Dynaudio built their latest bookshelf speakers with varsity coziness in mind. Tuesday, June 12, 2018. If you believe that an acoustic guitar that sounds the size of a tennis ball is hifi, then you are in luck. Two finishes are available: Grey Birch High Gloss and Red Birch High Gloss. Summary. Before I bought these I tried both the KEF LS50 and the Buchardt S300 MKII SE. Dynaudio Confidence 20 are driven by Accuphase E-370 Integrated Amplifier and Dp-410 Cd Player#SoundSommelier#DynaudioConfidence#Dynaudio The Buchardt had loads of bass but the mid range magic I was seeking was lacking. Smooth and musical vs. incisive and dynamic and to me, somewhat aggressive. (Image credit: Dynaudio) Any speaker at this level demands a talented system and the Contour 20is are no different. The Dynaudio Evoke 20 is a highly capable and revealing loudspeaker that let’s you know exactly what’s going on in the music but does so in a warm, relaxed fashion, this doesn’t stop music that’s frantic or intense sounding the way it was intended but it means that less refined recordings don’t sound harsh or … How much can I expect a better amp to really cure my problem? I owned special 40’s, and they are a great all around speaker that do every genre quite well. But the charm of a special Forty, the flair, that was something the rather distant Contour 20 couldn’t reach. £17000.00. I had already asked for a pair for review before I flew to AXPONA; they arrived just as I was finishing up my review of the Wilson Alexia Series 2 speakers for our July issue. Not crazy bucks and great sound. Manufacturer: DYNAUDIO A/S Price (in Poland): 39 950 PLN ... in Munich. I'd like to review the LS-50W--the pretty ones please, with the android markings. The Evoke 20 is the larger bookshelf in the new series and a replacement for the outgoing Excite X18. You have researched the LS50 Nocturnes quite a bit. As is usual with Dynaudio designs—but unusual for speakers with flat front baffles—the Special Forty's crossover has first-order slopes. Of course that would increase the total cost. i've owned "bookshelf" speakers from Focal (1007), B&W (Matrix 805), KEF (LS50w) and others, and these are by far the most satisfyingly musical standmounts i've heard in my system. IT may arguably be easier to build a cost-no-object speaker than a mid-range model. These Speakers weigh in at only 10 lbs each yet they have rather largish panels. (If the owner finds the bass excessive, foam plugs are supplied to block the ports.). Both speakers are great and the fabled Dynaudio break-in period is real. Thanks, ... is troubling you, then you might want to try the Marantz PM8006 integrated amp, which has a midrange tone control whose action is centered around 900Hz. Shall I list the number of component choices I made years ago that I came to regret? The new KEF LS-50 Nocturnes are powered wireless speakers, for $2500 ........ Everything we always wanted (and then some more) ........ May be JA could review them? ... the Confidence 20 better still. To me it sounds more evenly balanced than the Special 40, without that unpleasant upper-midrange emphasis, and it sounds "open" rather than "congested." Linn and Naim lovers should love them. They sound really good, IF front-ended by some very good ancillaries from Moon or Mark Levinson. £125.00. I'm convinced. I note that both with pink-noise and on the in-room response, JA pointed out emphases in the upper midrange. And spatially beautiful. The time is NOW and something Special arrived.. As I explain in my 1981 essay on stereo imaging, while dual-mono pink noise is certainly not music and doesn't present a "soundstage," it is supremely capable of revealing a pair of speakers' precision of imaging. Straight out of the carton, the Xeo 20 offers numerous ways to get going and if you’ve got nearby mains sockets and a sturdy pair of stands already in place – Dynaudio recommends its own sand-fillable Stand 20 (£475 per pair), but there’s also back plate provision for … Product Name: Stand-mounted Confidence 20, floorstanding Confidence 30, 50, 60 Manufacturer: Dynaudio Review Date: November 28, 2018 01:00 MSRP: $13,000/pr - Stand-mounted Confidence 20, $20,000/pr - Floorstanding Confidence 30, $27,000/pr - Confidence 50, $40,000 - Confidence 60 First Impression: Pretty Cool But the Aerials, to my ears, were seriously lacking in bass weight. It incarnates and conveys what Dynaudio stands for. Dynaudio Contour 20i Standmount Speakers (Pair) £3999.00. Special indeed Actually, when I unpacked the Special Fortys, I was reminded not of the Contour 20 but of Dynaudio's no-longer-available Focus 110, two of which reside in the office of Stereophile publisher Keith Pray. Listening Don't start throwing more money into the system until you have determined where the problem lies. I will say from audition the 40's sound good but they are not close to the Contour 20's IMO. I own both the Special Fortys and the ATC SCM19 v2 currently. It is commonly held that Naim and Dynaudio go well together, so this thread can be a single place to put any Dynaudio-related discussions. Another is to strive for a sound that pleases you, regardless of whether its balanced or neutral. However, this is rarely a fix. They who are not busy being born are busy dying. DYNAUDIO EVOKE 20 standmount speakers + Clean, smooth sound without being overly dry nor analytical; good midrange presence with room-shaking bass. Dynaudio Connect Link. Anyway, I will keep this post short. None of these approaches can be implemented effectively solely by looking at measurements. The engineers worked on improving airflow and damping behind the 28mm tweeter dome - the idea is to reduce back-pressure as the diaphragm moves, increasing detail and lowering distortion. Here we are in 2018 (as I write this) and last year in 2017 Dynaudio released the new Special 40 Speakers to celebrate 40 years in the business. My Dynaudio Contour 3.3's take on ANY speakers in their price range with no trouble. Actually to me the Special 25's were still a better speaker than the Spec.40's but that's just me. The cone and its central dome are formed in one piece from Dynaudio's proprietary magnesium-silicate-polymer (MSP) material, claimed to offer "a precise combination of stiffness, stability, rigidity and damping." In addition because of differences in cable geometry and materials which, in turn, affect capacitance and inductance as well as the ability to convey signals effectively, different cables sound different with different components. I’d highly recommend listening to the Dynaudio Evoke 20 @2k, or the Special 40 @3k. "He not busy being born, is busy dying" ............. Bob Dylan :-) .......... "There is nothing so stable as change" ............... Bob Dylan :-) ........... Now for me, that saying is one slap in the face. Beautiful speakers. We can still use all the other capabilities of the Nocturnes, which I mentioned. A really good loudspeaker which never puts a foot wrong and sounds evenly balanced. They've never sounded harsh or forward, but neutral in the best sense of the word. If you have a small room or don't listen to music particularly loud, this won't matter so much. The Esotar Forty's other improvements aren't visible, as they involve a chamber behind the tweeter that is filled with damping material; a "pressure conduit" controls the air movement from behind the dome into the chamber. I have the Focus 160’s and will probably hang on to them when I get a pair of Contour 20’s (or maybe Contour 30 floor standers). Measurements on Soundstage also show off-axis flares between 2 and 5 kHz. Given where I'm at and what's available here, I'm considering an ATC P1 (driven directly from an NAD M51), or a Simaudio Neo 340i integrated. While the Focus 110 used Dynaudio's Esotec+ D 280 1.1" soft-dome tweeter, the Special Forty's ferrofluid-cooled, 1.1" soft-dome tweeter is the Esotar Forty, a descendant of Dynaudio's venerable Esotar2, used in both the Special Twenty-Five and the Sapphire. If that’s the case, then of course they are not going to call this out in the review because it’s simply not objectively true, and not true to the majority of other listeners who like those other speakers just fine and don’t find them “exaggerated”. Also, that would provide more bass extension and loudness. De Contour 20 is 44 cm hoog, 21,5 cm breed en 36 cm diep. The ATCs sounds like they have lower distortion overall (I’ve never heard a cleaner, clearer speaker than the latest gen ATCs) but that doesn’t automatically make them better music makers. The Contour 20 is an elegant-looking, two-way, stand-mounted speaker, and now I'm about to audition another: Dynaudio's Special Forty. Dynaudio has come up with two new looks for the Dynaudio Special Forty: "Black Vine" and "Ebony Wave". The Contour 20 is an elegant-looking, two-way, stand-mounted speaker, and now I'm about to audition another: Dynaudio's Special Forty. They paint on a large canvas and render dynamic extremes with confidence and punch. On another note, all the pictures on line, including here, show the Special 40 as straight-up red. I have owned a pair of the Special 40 for about 10 days now. Like the tweeter, the Special Forty's woofer has a voice-coil wired with aluminum, to keep the moving mass as low as possible. Dynaudio Connect Link. I'd also like a big tube amp with JBLs too. This demands that drivers behave well outside their nominal passbands—Dynaudio says that this was a design priority, that the tweeter's raw response "extends comfortably down to around 1kHz," and that the woofer "can easily handle frequencies up to around 4kHz." Are you going to buy them? If you like the equipment, nothing any reviewer says should really matter (within reason of course, like if someone points out a safety risk.) The Dynaudios fill my entire room with sound that extends outside, above, below and behind the speakers. Tested a full eight feet out into the listening space. £17000.00. Dynaudio Heritage Special. £295.00. Time sure does fly. We’ve spent years looking at how we could improve on the previous range of Confidence speakers. That's another way of saying that you can search for components that counter-balance imbalances in other components. I was also somewhat considering the 40s, along with the ATC SCM19. If you’re already thinking Dynaudio then certainly give those two a listen. Dynaudio Special Forty review: ... That drive unit array may look straight out of the £600 Emit 20 (or even the Contour 1.1 from over a decade ago), but it’s actually based on the drivers used in company’s high-end Confidence C1 model that retails for ten times this price. I understand that they need closer to 200 hours to really begin to sound their best. But for me, I've spent my dollars on a well designed 3 way speaker system that has no such problem. What dynaudio fans think? Congratulations on the Special 40, it's a great speaker! Dynaudio Confidence 20 Stand mount Loudspeakers. 900. Dynaudio Heritage Special. But the charm of a special Forty, the flair, that was something the rather distant Contour 20 couldn’t reach. The Special 40’s are indeed very special.