#audiovision

The Special Forty (USD $2,995)

First up was the Special Forty, a speaker I’ve been looking forward to hearing since its announcement earlier in the year. The form factor is strikingly similar to my current Merlins - 6″ woofer, 1″ soft dome tweeter, compact cabinet with classic proportions. However the Forty boasts some of Dynaudio’s latest Esotar drive units, as well as a bass reflex design with claimed LF response down to 41Hz.  

This is a really fun speaker. The sound is surprisingly big, bold, and full-bodied for such a compact design, and the dynamic alacrity and gusto of the Esotar drivers is on full display. Brahms Symphonies (Berlin Phil/Rattle/EMI) were suitably lush and red-blooded, with a juicy yet detailed midrange that gave massed strings weight and nuance. The top end was fast and sweet, and integration between the tweeter and woofer was very smooth - much better than I’ve heard from past Dynaudio efforts. (It might not be a coincidence that they’re employing a relatively simple first order design with high quality parts.)

All this fun does come at the cost of neutrality, and there was one particular bothersome coloration. When playing Colin Carr’s spectacular live recordings of the Bach Cello Suites, the bottom end of the instrumented excited some sort of resonance in the speaker, to the point where it sounded like any notes on the instrument’s C-string had what cellists call a “wolf tone” - a sympathetic resonance of the instrument body that causes a note to boom uncontrollably. Taking a look ‘round the back, I noticed a pretty huge bass reflex port. Given the small cabinet volume, I’d venture it’s a fairly high-Q tuning that favors output over damping. There’s no free lunch, and while I’m looking for something fuller than my critically-damped Merlins, this was too far in the opposite direction. It might be easier to overlook if the boominess affected a narrower range of frequencies, but to my ears it’s a broad resonance that gives music too much bloom in the critical lower midrange and distorts the size of instruments. Dynaudio supplies foam port plugs that could be worth trying, though Chris mentioned these kill a lot of bottom-end extension and output. 

Overall I think the What Hi-Fi? review of the Forty sums it up pretty well, with the exception of the bass/lower-midrange coloration. This is a sweet and fun speaker that doesn’t pull any punches and should mate very well with typically leaner-sounding solid state gear. If you’re looking for a more old-school sound that favors fullness and romanticism over neutrality and precision while still having a good dollop of high-end qualities, this could be your ticket. It plays way bigger and bolder than you’d expect based on its compact size, and the glossy finish and understated design are quite attractive. 

The Contour 20 (USD $5,750)

Next up was the Special Forty’s big brother. Chris uses these as his own reference, and he said the quality of the larger, tapered-back cabinet is a step above the Special Forty. The woofer is a tad (1cm) larger, the baffle is reinforced with an aluminum plate, and the crossover is more sophisticated. 

Immediately it was obvious that this is a more neutral speaker than the Forty - it’s more precise and focused, with none of the low-frequency bloat. It’s also a drier sound, and a lot less fun. I honestly had trouble warming up to it. Yes, the soundstage was wider and deeper than the Forty, the midrange more detailed, and top end slightly more extended. But I also felt the integration between drivers wasn’t as smooth and organic as the Forty, which utilizes the type of simpler crossover design that I almost always prefer. The lower treble had a slightly pronounced quality that made the tweeter stick out on the face of the speakers from time to time, and the dynamics were less organic, something I often hear from higher-order networks that tend to suck some of the life out of the sound. Listening for just a few minutes, it became clear to me why Herb Reichert’s review in Stereophile felt so vague and equivocal - while the Contour objectively performs well, it just doesn’t feel very engaging to me.

Different strokes for different folks, and I’m sure there are many who would prefer otherwise, but for my money I’d take the flawed-but-fun (and much cheaper) Special Forty over the clean-but-cerebral Contour 20. That said, there would be another speaker on this day that would steal my heart... but more on that in my next installment. 🙂

Big thanks to Chris @ AudioVision SF for setting me up and graciously hosting the audition! They have a lovely selection of gear culled for true music lovers - check them out if you’re in the area.