Dynaudio "Special Forty"

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by PHC1

+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.

Agree with everything you say. I'd start out with running the Special 40s full-range, and then see how you like things. Your points about bass output and room size is a very important consideration. That was one reason I mentioned the smaller REL; it should be easy to integrate, flesh out the lower end w/o overpowering the smaller room. The other thing I found to my surprise was how the lower mids and mids improved by adding my REL sub. BTW, the Special 40s will sound REALLY good with Gumby!