Dynaudio Heritage Special

[watchnerd]

Well, I guess now that JBL is re-issuing / re-imagining things like the JBL L100 Classic, Dynaudio decided to get into the "retro remake" business, too (arguably even more so than the Special 40) with this new Heritage Special:

https://www.dynaudio.com/home-audio/heritage/heritage-special

https://www.stereonet.co.uk/news/dynaudio-heritage-special-bookshelf-speakers-announced

It's an interesting mix -- the drivers are pretty state of the art for soft dome / poly materials, but the cabinet and crossover (1st order) look as old school as it gets.

The cabinet a little "British" to me, although that 75 mm voice coil destroys that illusion.

The "Heritage Collection" badge might imply more of these are forthcoming, a la Klipsch.

 

[MZKM]

That‘s one huge faceplate for the tweeter.

 

[watchnerd]

That‘s one huge faceplate for the tweeter.

Yeah.

It's copying the old T330D, which was similarly huge.

 

[Steve Dallas]

^ It's a waveguide!

 

[watchnerd]

I'd love to hear one in person to see how it compares to my slightly bigger Contour 20.

$6000 / pair if I want those retro looks.

 

[TankTop]

Yeah.

It's copying the old T330D, which was similarly huge.

It’s an Esotar 3 in a T330D housing, new guts in old skins. It got tuned using Jupiter unlike S40 so it should be an awesome speaker. Hopefully they fixes the cabinet resonances and port chuffing, only things I hate about the S40.

 

[watchnerd]

It’s an Esotar 3 in a T330D housing, new guts in old skins. It got tuned using Jupiter unlike S40 so it should be an awesome speaker. Hopefully they fixes the cabinet resonances and port chuffing, only things I hate about the S40.

Yes.

The woofer also looks similarly old, but isn't under the covers.

That being said, I'd be curious if it's better than my Contour 20.

In theory:

-Contour 20 has bigger, better cabinet
-Heritage Special has slightly better tweeter
-Sensitivity and power handling almost the same
-Sharper crossover on the Contour -- for good or ill

I bet they'd sound pretty similar unless they intentionally voiced the Heritage Special to sound different.

 

[TankTop]

Yes.

The woofer also looks similarly old, but isn't under the covers.

That being said, I'd be curious if it's better than my Contour 20.

In theory:

-Contour 20 has bigger, better cabinet
-Heritage Special has slightly better tweeter
-Sensitivity and power handling almost the same
-Sharper crossover on the Contour -- for good or ill

I bet they'd sound pretty similar unless they intentionally voiced the Heritage Special to sound different.

Dynaudio is saying the Contour is better but Porsche claimed the Cayman couldn’t handle as well as a base 911 and that was a lie. That said a bigger cabinet is in my opinion always better. I think the Contour i is a significant improvement though with Jupiter tuning and other minor upgrades.

 

[watchnerd]

Dynaudio is saying the Contour is better

They are?

Where did they say that?

 

[TankTop]

They are?

Where did they say that?

I guess that’s not exactly what they said, I’m corrected.

quote - Otto J, AVS

“
The first thing to note is that internally we don’t put as much effort into weighing our drivers on a linear scale, as many of our customers do. We focus on what we want to achieve in each product. We sell speakers, not woofers. So it’s not really as simple as drawing a line, and placing our woofers on that line. That goes for the speakers themselves too. But let me put it this way: We have a “mainstream” line of products, where we focus on delivering what we believe is the best possible overall performance. This is where we focus the development of new technologies, and keep an open mind to achieve it. The progression on thise is pretty linear, Emit>Evoke>Contour>Confidence. Emit is an older design, the latter three use variants of similar woofer designs, with outside magnets for instance. And then we have an active lineup with a similar progression, but leave that aside for now.

Next to this, we have some “editions”, or specials if you will. These are products where we allow ourselves to have a little more “fun”, where we might go a little more into extremes in one direction, accepting more drawbacks in one area to be able to peak higher in others. These don’t have to fit linearly into the “mainstream” line. In the case of Heritage, we put some limitations on the concept to fit a storyline - must use “old contour” cabinet, must use inside magnet woofer etc. Then we allow ourselves to go outside the progression in the “mainstream” line, to maximize the performance within those limitations. For example, the Heritage uses a simpler cabinet than Confidence, but more expensive crossover components.

This is all to explain that you can’t weigh all the mentioned woofers on a linear scale. But you do have two “families”: The “oldschool” ones: C1/S40/Evidence/S25/Heritage, and the “new” ones, Evoke/Contour/Confidence (you could add Focus XD and Core to this group). As we just have shown,”oldschool” does not mean “dead”, they just have a different set of priorities that don’t really fit our current goals for our “mainstream” line. But in the case of S40 and Heritage, we “borrow” some materials from the mainstream line to linearly improve them, while keeping the basic philosophy of the design intact.

I hope that answers your question.”

 

[Pearljam5000]

I wonder if they're better than their pro model, the Core 7.
Obviously it's an active monitor vs passive, but I'm sure there are some similarities

 

[watchnerd]

I wonder if they're better than their pro model, the Core 7.
Obviously it's an active monitor vs passive, but I'm sure there are some similarities
View attachment 95628

I can't imagine anyone actually cross-shopping these.

Aside from the active vs passive angle, the Core 7 is designed for nearfield listening.

The Heritage Special isn't.

And the cosmetics are directionally opposite.

 

[Pearljam5000]

I can't imagine anyone actually cross-shopping these.

Aside from the active vs passive angle, the Core 7 is designed for nearfield listening.

The Heritage Special isn't.

And the cosmetics are directionally opposite.

These days the lines are blurred between professional active monitors and hi fi speakers, if SQ is the most important factor then I would definitely consider them.

 

[watchnerd]

These days the lines are blurred between professional active monitors and hi fi speakers, if SQ is the most important factor then I would definitely consider them.

If you're serious (and not just being hypothetical), you will probably be one of the few people in the world comparing these two.

I have Dynaudio active monitors in my office/studio and I can imagine replacing my LYD monitors with the Core 7s.

My living room has Contour 20s....this would be a possible upgrade/sidegrade to the 20s.

But, again, nearfield vs midfield.....totally different design.

"Sound quality" isn't some static thing independent of the intended use case.

Desktop nearfield vs stand mount living room are really different engineering goals.

 

[Tonygeno]

I run three Core 59s midfield in my home theater. Fantastic. For stereo, I use Focus 60 XD's wirelessly. Also, fantastic. I am a big fan of Dynaudio ACTIVE speakers.

 

[watchnerd]

I run three Core 59s midfield in my home theater. Fantastic. For stereo, I use Focus 60 XD's wirelessly. Also, fantastic. I am a big fan of Dynaudio ACTIVE speakers.

The Core 59s are designed as midfield monitors, so that use case makes sense.

Whereas the Core 7, Dynaudio lists "broadcast trucks" as one of the suitable use cases -- that's about as nearfield as it gets.

 

[Tonygeno]

The Core 59s are designed as midfield monitors, so that use case makes sense.

Indeed it does.

 

[watchnerd]

Seriously thinking about side-grading from the Contour 20 to this for purely nostalgic and retro fashion reasons.

Not, it's not rational in the slightest, but neither is my turntable or reel-to-reel deck.

It tickles my homage button for either various Dynaudio speakers I've owned over the last 10 years, or ones I wished I had owned when I was younger (e.g. Special 25).

 

[restorer-john]

These days the lines are blurred between professional active monitors and hi fi speakers

Maybe to you.

 

[restorer-john]

I just love the look of these new Heritage Dyns.