Dynaudio 25th anniversary speakers

has anyone out there actually heard the Dynaudio Special 25 ?

I heard them recently at a dealer. I thought they were considerably better than 1.3se, even though they were not completely broken in. They were obviously deeper than 1.3, but it seemed to me they controlled the music better. Overall, very natural and neutral presentation. Combined with a rel sub, they did a terrific job with orchestral music.

Sounds like no one has really heard them enough to give detailed comments.

The specs sound like they go lower than I expected. Even lower than the Confidence's which are floorstanders - of course these are just specs. Any feedback on the bass compared to floorstanders?

While paging through the November Stereophile, I noticed the ad for these speakers.

I must say that in my opinion, they really dropped the ball in the looks department. Of course, they may very well look better in person than in the picture. I sure hope they do. To me, they seem UGLY!

I am not a very big fan of the direction Dynaudio has taken in general over the past few years. While their speakers were never a bargain, I always found them to offer strong performance. The kind of speaker which could serve as a very long term partner. The kind of equipment that you build the rest of your system around.

However, recent models have gone way upscale in price, yet my listening experiences have left me cold. I have gotten not much of a reaction at all from them, which is probably the biggest curse one can commit. Others would argue that the speakers are merely reproducing what is being fed to them. But, what I feel when auditioning newer models is "vanilla". I am not sure people normally spend $10K to $85K for vanilla. Rather, people buy stuff they fall in love with, even if other people feel the equipment sonically bad. At least there is some reaction...

Just one man's opinion. I am still a longtime Dynaudio loyalist, and don't want a great company to lose what they have established.

I auditioned the Special 25s a couple of months ago at ProMusica in Chicago (thanks, Ken). At the time, I owned a pair of 1.3SEs, and my audition of the Spec 25s was enough to convince me to sell the 1.3SEs, which I have since done. The 25s were not fully broken in, and were played on lesser electronics than what I use at home, but they had a remarkable rightness that made the entire reproduction chain simply disappear. They use the driver technology from the new Confidence series, and the new Esotar 2 tweeter, and are more sensitive than the 1.3SEs (but then, so was my mother-in-law). The 25s definately DO NOT require a sub in a small to medium sized room - they are extremely articulate in the bass, and sound like they go down strongly to the low 30s in-room. Besides, I doubt there's a subwoofer made that could keep up with them, and I own probably the fastest one in existence - the Talon ROC 2002. The mids are seemless, the highs sweet and detailed. I recently sold my pair to Confidence 5s, and still own the Confidence 3s. The Spec 25 is a superior speaker overall than the C5 (at $10,000), and gives the C3 ($8000) a run for its money. I always considered the C3 a better balanced speaker than the C5, with stronger bass. Obviously, the newer technology in the Spec 25 pays dividends, and saves money (hard to imagine coming from Dynaudio). If anyone is planning to buy used C5s, I strongly recommend they audition the Spec 25s first, or buy a used pair of C3s instead. My 25s are on the way, and who knows, my C3s may be up for sale soon.