Dynaudio Special 40 in the house

Hi folks, I just got a pair, and hear a certain distortion in the tweeter with female voice on certain notes.  What could this be?  Crossover, tweeter?  Not sure, but it bothers me.  Just bought a week ago.  Burning in at only moderate levels, w McIntosh gear.

Fritz speakers are amazing...esp st his price

I think the crossover is pretty impressive. When I heard it was first order I expected to see one capacitor, and maybe one inductor for the woofer. I was surprised to see how much more is going on on this board. I believe there were 4 indictors and maybe 6 or more capacitors, and of course a few resistors. I have not seen a schematic yet but plan to draw one up myself if I can't locate one. Since I know it is first order, I assume all the other LC components are for precise impedance matching of the drivers as part of the critical phase design. The components are not the highest quality, but they appear to be more than adequate. I like that all the inductors are air core. I wasn't sure if I would like the first order sound at first, but I do. I realize any multi emitter system will have interference issues, but they don't seem objectionable here. The fact that both drivers are playing together over the wider transition band provides a rich midrange with a very smooth transition of timber between low to high and seems to work well in this case. I am still learning about this, but apparently it requires some very special drivers to play together this well. It is probably simpler to just use a steep 4th order crossover and not have to worry at all about the two drivers blending. It would be nice to try alternate crossovers in this box and hear the difference. I am curious.

Man I have ripped these speakers probably more than anyone. I am a big Dynaudio fan but the special 40.... man how do say this. Take the woofer out and look at the crossover, and think about what you see? What you see is a a crossover that was so skipped on that the the parts in the $120 Overnights Sensation listed on Parts Express out class it. What you think you hear as laid back, and you can test this with spoken dialogue, is nothing more then a very smeared crossover in the vocal region. Very boxy you have found with some spoken dialogue, especially if the actors are further back in the sound stage right? This speaker sounds great with most music though if the singer is projected forward in the sound stage right... but double duty with home theatre and it’s unbarrable boxiness (as others have pointed out). My advice is to return them. I had these side by side with the Fritz Carrera be ($3000) and they absolutely embarrassed the special 40. The Ascend Sierra NRT at $1000 put the special 40 to shame also with more resolution, speed, and low end output.

Just bought a set myself. Very impressive! I have never heard a tweeter that sounded this good, and what a surprising amount of good clean bass from such a little box! Hard to detect any coloration to my ears, but then I'm no audiophile ;)

@techno_dude I have Special 40s as well--I love them!! I have a Marantz PM8006 integrated amp (using as a preamp) and a Bel Canto REF500S amp. I'm going to upgrade my preamp soon and was wondering about the C47 and Bel Canto combo. I'm really impressed with the flexibility of the C47---my other preamp possibility is the Rogue Audio RP-5. But the RP-5 is not balanced. Thoughts?

@techno_dude,That is an impressive amp. I have heard these speakers with Moon preamp/amp and they sounded pretty impressive with a great midrange. These are some nice loudspeakers. Have fun!

Source and preamp, McIntosh C47. Amp, Luxman M900u.

@techno_dude, Congratulations on your new acquisition.What is your amplification and source?

The special 40 is supposed to have the most advanced tweeter they have right now until the new Confidence line comes out. Dynaudio has said it has a lot of the technologies in the esotar3. So I’m not surprised it sounds very smooth.