upgrade path from my current speakers? (Dynaudio Special Forty)


Hi,

have gone through a rotation in the last couple of years, LS50's, Sonus Faber Lumina V's, Heresys, Fortes, Harbeth 30.2's and Habeth Super 5's

none of these sounded good to me

recently landed on Dynaudio Special Forty, loved them, upgraded to Heritage Special, really liked them also but went back to the Special Forty

this is the sound for me by far, nothing else has come close to pleasing me

I'd like to get to a tower that provides more bass and dynamics maintaining this sound profile

Contour and Confidence are on my short list

what else should I be looking at?

 

 

audiocanada

The sound of these 40's just resonates with me as super lively and energetic, hard to quantify why I love these and not the others

Ideally if they made this in a tower version I would be done

I can acquire any electronics to achieve my goals short of silly money, I've been using a variety of high quality amps , integrateds, and dacs up to Lumin X1 , Luxman 509, Benchmark, and Mcintosh , still own all those pieces and currently streaming bluesound node x to RME preamp/dac with NAD C298 power amp

I feel like all my electronics have always been up to task

room is not the greatest and never will be, that wont change I'm afraid

if feel very close to ending my journey, the little Dyns have everything I want in small package......just seeking bigger

I will try and actively seek out auditions this time around as getting towers into my walk up town home is hell

might be worth noting again that I also enjoyed the Heritage very much, the other speakers not at all, so Dynaudio seems to have something in the DNA for me

Funny you mentioned the sound of the special 40. I went through the exact same scenario. Found a good deal on a pair of Heritage speakers. I had  them awhile but they just did not engage me like my 40’s I sold th Heritage and bought an another pair of 40’s. I keep several speaker and amps as I like to change up sometimes. My PassLabs and my 40’s are my best combo.

Given that you like the dynaudio sound, I would think the confidence series would be the most natural path. I've had a chance to hear them a few times and they sound really good, the only negative I heard is i thought they lost a lot off axis 
 

I have a pair of the HS’s after auditioning the SP40’s in my home. My Pass Lab INT 25 sounded great w the 40’s but not as good as the HS’s. I brought in a PL X250.8 amp and now the HS’s jumped to a new level with more of the Dynaudio sound. I noticed the cymbals and highs grabbed my attention and became real. The upper bass was fast tight w incredible dynamics. What turned these amazing speakers in to was adding a sub that could keep up the HS’s so I added a REL S510 and spent time dialing it in. It filled the lower register and it doesn’t miss a beat w the HS’s. I’d like to try adding a second sub as I’ve heard it’s even more incredible.
this setup competes w $20k floor standers.   

I have to agree with @ghdprentice. You are focused on the speakers, but there’s a lot more out there than Bluesound , RME and NAD. Bring your RME into a dealer and ask them to demo it against some other dacs and see what you think.