Dynaudio Special Forty

I just got a pair of these on Saturday. Can't find another thread on them.
I got to audition DS40 at a local AV store that hosted a gathering of reps from MOFI Totem Klipsch JBL McIntosh etc.
I was blown away by the sound of these speakers. Nothing else there came close. The low end on these is staggering. Granted they were being driven by Primare amps but my outlaw still sounds good with them. I ended up buying the pair that were at the store the next day.
At $3000 I can't imagine there's much better.
Now I just need to add a primare 35 and I'll be happy.

 

I am a big Dynaudio fan, have had the Excite X38's for six months or so and love them!!

 

Dynaudio makes excellent speakers.

 

Do you have any problem with the height of the tweeters? I've been looking at an ex-demo pair in the UK.

 

Have you noticed how these perform with the backs just a few inches from a wall? I have some built in shelves that I need to work with. My current speakers (B&W CM5 S2) have some foam baffles for the ports that help with the booming. At low volume it usually isn't much of a problem anyway, only when things start rocking. I actually like the speakers I have but the bass lines tend to disappear on the lowest notes - I'd love something that had solid response all the way down to 41 hz.

Someday the built ins will get ripped out, stands will get purchased and I'll experience true bliss.

 

The guy I bought mine from has his on a shelf and had no issue. They come with foam plugs. They recommend you place them a minimum of 0.5 m from any wall with them toed in. The more power you put into these the better they will sound. My amp is just about there and it has 110w at 8ohms and 165w at 4ohms.

 

Did you get the red or the gray?

 

Hi, I’ve got smaller and cheaper Dynadios from years ago. I’ve lived in a fair number of different houses, and every time they’ve sounded their best a foot or so from the wall, slightly toed in, on stands that put the tweeter at ear height. I’ve tried the foam bung and closer to the wall and it’s just not quite the same! If you’ve no option, it’ll be good enough to bung them.
Mine run off a Temple Audio Gold digital amp - which runs off 18 volts and maxes out at 25 watts... they sound great, and the amp replaced a much more ‘powerful’ mid range Cambridge Audio amp because the sound was so much better. Won’t go quite as loud, but loud enough for a party.

 

Have had the significantly cheaper Dynaudio Audience 52's for many a year now, which I really like. The Special 40's are certainly on my audition list when I come to upgrade.

 

Not at all, in my listening room from where I sit they are right at ear height. They do have excellent dispersion so if they are a bit below/above your ears it really would not matter.

 

Nice speakers. There's a lot to be said for two-way designs that extend the tweeter response down to go with a first order crossover. The more robust tweeter may leave behind a touch of delicacy in the high end, but that wide overlap and lack of phase distortion can be a pretty big plus for many listeners. Made in their Skanderborg factory too. I've always liked the DynAudio drivers and have an old set myself in a spare system, not up to the standard of these, but very good sounding.

 

Congrats, your definitely soring at heights with the eagles now.

 

When I saw your post I was thinking that you had a pair of Dynaudio Sapphires. Ive always wanted the blue model. I had no idea that Dynaudio came out with a Special 40 edition. Im a Dynaudio addict. I have a the 360 system in my truck driven by a Mosconi amp and Im amazed with the sound. What got me addicted to Dynaudio was back around 1994, I purchased a pair of bare Duntech Black Knight cabinets(d'appolito all Dyn 2 - 12", 2 7" mids and I installed D-260 tweeters) and through a connection in Fort Worth got all the parts to complete the speakers....I used caddock resistors and CFAC coils in the crossover. I still have them and used them as my main system until I moved back home from California. Around 10 years ago I bought a pair of Special 25's with the plan of buying another pair to use them in a standalone surround sound system. These speakers sound so good and I live in a Apt, I never set the Black Knights back up. My amp is a pass labs X5, home built Nelson Pass Bride of Zen preamp and I just upgraded the wires to Analysis Plus Silver Apex. Couldnt be happier with the sound of this system. I still would like to put the Special 25s' on a surround sound system(and find a matching pair). I wont until I build speakers as I also have stashed T330 D tweeters and D560D's to make another D'appolito...similar to the Duntech Sovereign's. Congrats, Its great you went Dynaudio, Ill never go back!!

 

Congratulations. I have read nothing but great things about the Special 40’s. For me, one of those, in the back of my mind got to hear one of these days, speakers. Dynaudio in general are very highly regarded.

 

I'm a big fan of Dynaudio. I've had Audience 72, 122C, 62 and Sub500 in my H/T system for some time now. My office system is a pair of Audience 52SE. My main two-channel system has a brand new pair (one week old today) of Confidence C2 Platinum. I still have the Contour S3.4 they replaced (as well as a pair of Esotar2 tweeters) but am selling them. I just haven't heard anything I like better.

 

A side x side, Special 40 x Special 25 would be really interesting.

 

I've spent considerable time with these in several different rooms and being powered by several different amps (Bryston, Simaudio Moon etc) and I really wanted to like them but I just don't. Sure, they go low for a bookshelf but they lack resolution and the bass seems to smear into the mids. Maybe the rooms were less than optimal but unfortunately they have never wowed me.

 

I have the red

 

Speakers are just like art. Subjective. To some they sound sweet to others like scraping nails on a black board.
The important thing is to be happy with the sound you hear because it's such a big investment.
Something the dynaudio rep told me was these speakers need lots of power. The more the better.
I've been playing around with the placement allot and it's helped massively. In fact dynaudio have a video on it.
I'm using the 1/5 method to good effect.

 

I think it might be more correct to say that they don't mind power and have excellent power handling (and very robust drive units) but I think Dynaudio Speakers often get the false reputation of being hard to drive. I don't think they are difficult to drive at all.

Dynaudio usually mate an 8-ohm Dynaudio tweeter to a 4-ohm Dynaudio woofer with an impedance compensation network in the crossover that makes the speakers easy to drive. I have used a pair of Dynaudio Focus 140's for many years with a Primaluna Prologue Tube Amp (EL34 output tubes). The amp puts out (just) 20 watts but the combination of amp and speakers could not sound more dynamic, zesty and lifelike. Most Dynaudio speakers are a nominal 6-ohm load with a flat, easy impedance curve. Almost any amp will drive them satisfactorily. The speakers are transparent enough however to reveal the sonic signatures of different amps. They sound different with different amps and will reward experimentation.

 

The Dynaudio rep was right!

I've been using Dyns for the last 15+ years now (and have a total of 14 Dynaudio speakers right now). They sound *much* better if you have an amp that can deliver ample power into 4Ω and remain stable at even lower impedences for large transients. When I had a pair of Contour S1.4 with a Naim Uniti Qute they sounded a lot different (better) when I added a NAP250 amp to the mix. I upgraded those to Contour S3.4 and they still sounded great with that amp.

Now I am driving a set of Confidence C2 Platinum with a Naim 250DR (~145 WPC @ 4Ω with 400VA headroom). They still sound great with that amp in a 11' x 17' room. However, I have thought about moving my system into the larger living room (14' x 22'), but now realize I likely need to step things up to a 300DR if I want it to work well for playing the larger orchestral works I like to play (i.e. Mahler, Strauss, Dvorak, etc).

Can smaller amps drive Dynaudios? Yes, if they are stable at 4 Ω, but if you really want your money's worth (and protect yourself from destroying them on loud music) better bring something bigger to the party.

 

Completely agree. I own also Confidence C2 speakers and am using very powerfull monoblocks of Electrocompaniet (2x180) as amplifier.

 

Dynaudio impedance curves (courtesy Stereophile):

The Special 40s impedance curve never dips below 5 ohms - easy load.


Smooth, easy curve lacking reactive peaks, modest phase angles - easy load.


Smooth, easy curve lacking reactive peaks, modest phase angles - easy load.


Smooth, easy curve lacking reactive peaks....


Ditto.

 

Ditto.

This is what a difficult load looks like:

 

Congratulations. Based on a few unboxing videos I've seen, they look beautiful. They're way beyond my budget, but I've been loving my Dynaudio Emit M20s for almost a year.