IMHO these are the best speakers you can find in this price range. They are absolutely stunning. Presenting music in a engaging way and with a big soundstage. Lots of air and and height. Congrats if you are one of the future owners.

These are certainly on my audition list as I get started rebuilding a modest system for the listening space I have allocated for this purpose. :yes:

I have owned a pair of Dynaudio 72 SE's back in the day and they were very enjoyable with my then BAT and McIntosh system that followed. :music: No glaring faults or omissions from their performance that I can recall, smooth and musical. Of course every new speaker should be auditioned and evaluated no matter the brand or heritage. :D

Wondering if anyone's demoed these yet? Haven't made the trek to a local dealer, which isn't super close.

Those should be very accurate monitors. And through in a pair of subs and amazing good sound. I have many Dynaudios based on that same tweeter and similar mid bass mid range driver. They do great in overlapping frequencies without the need for extremely complex crossovers

That and the voice coil design results in very clean accurate out put.

I'm very interested in these for a small-room system. Here's a recent writeup -- not the most systematic or authoritative but gives some idea of the speakers in a modest setup:

http://peteswrite.blogspot.ca/2017/0...er-review.html

best,

s

Sounds like the main ingredients are there and a sub could easily take care of the scale and bottom end. :yes:

These seem to be a slightly upgraded version of the Focus 160s, with lightly upgraded drivers, in an almost identical cabinet.

I am very interested in comparing these to my Focus 160's, and also want to audition the new C20's. They are going to have to sound really good to make me move away from the 160's. IMO they are one of the best ~3000 monitors, period.

You can say that again! :)
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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

You did a fine job G.S. Hopefully 8 weeks will fly by.