Dynaudio Special 40 review vs KEF LS50 vs Tekton Impact Monitor vs ATC SCM 11 

Here is a creator who understands that users value their time. Nothing unnecessary added while detailing all the pertinent info. Great review!

Love it. The S40s get trashed on ASR but blew me away in a demo on stands in a treated room. I could definitely hear the cabinet resonance at loud volume but the tweeter and bass extension and slam are just amazing for a 2-way bookshelf. Such a shocking performer. For comparison, $10K Revels floors floorstanders I heard right after left me cold with their excessively clinical high end. Contour 60i, as well. If my room was smaller I would probably pick up a pair and just run room correction and boost the mids a little.

A happy scm11 owner here. It is nothing like the others I have owned and tested. Now chasing the gorgeous 20sl. Great review by the way.

bass in Special 40 is indeed more and deep ... but nothing special from quality point. ATC and LS50 don't go so deep but have much more refined bass, with more texture. Hights on S40 are a little bit love and hate thing. I have to love them at the beginning (one of the reason to bye them) but after a year or so come to conclusion that this is just unrealistic too much of a details. Yes, it sounds airy, sapcy and very interesting but this is not realistic. Good for electronic and synth music but not so for jazz and acoustic staff. Now listening to the bigger ATC SCM 40 i am even more convinced about this. ATCs in general are extremely realistic sounding speakers. Yes ... for some kind of music even boring, but for other kind you really see the instruments in front of you.

Hey! what a fantastic review! i subscribed to your channel as your speaker comparisons are second to none; to the point. this particular review is fascinating as i have always been attracted to the ATC sound but there are not many reviews, objective reviews out there of the ATC 11. your comparison between these 2 "champs" is intriguing, to say the least! i will be able to stretch my budget just short of $2000US for a new pair of speakers... i could almost buy the ATC 11...but not quite yet. I was able to listen to the the Special 40s through Crutchfield's "listen and compare" website (which is a pretty cool idea!) and found their sound superb! maybe you can point me out in the right direction towards a nice pair of speakers around $1800US... for classical and jazz. anyway, keep up the GREAT work, your really thoughtful reviews.... one thing (if you allow me to) i don't like about your reviews, is the "what you hate" part... i can understand there are things you would hate in a pair of speakers, an amp, etc... but sometimes i feel you force this section too much. sometimes there is really nothing to "hate" about a particular product. perhaps just with the "what you don't like" would be enough. anyway, it's just a constructive comment as i love your work and wish you the best of lucks. in fact i can't understand why don't you have a ton of subscribers yet. i have pointed out your channel to several musician friends who happen to love Hi Fi, like myself! we all love your reviews. all the best to you! thanks!

Great job once again. I think I am becoming an audio fool. I am actually starting to appreciate your audio humor. At $3500 you can get the Tekton Electron SE (providing you have the room). Your audio break down is really on point. I luv what you are doing.

I think one advantage of the KEF over the Special 40 is that they are more forgiving in terms of height of your listening position. IIRC the Special 40 have an extraordinarily deep suckout when your seat/stands have the wrong height and you end up slightly below the tweeter. But since I haven't heard the S 40 I can't comment on how much this might effect the perceived sound. (After all Sonus Faber says they create such a suckout on purpose to balance out the frequencies as in their crossover region the human hearing is most sensitive.)

Great video. Thank you . These are made in Denmark . those glassy finishes cost significantly more than we think . Probably more than electronics , drivers of speaker itself.

This was extremely well done. I’m actually in the market for either the Special 40s and I had looked at the possibility of the ATC 11 or ATC 19. You answered a ton of questions with this review. Keep up the great work, I will have a Rel subwoofer with what ever I finally end up with.

The Kef’s are more spacious and transparent. Also more technical, better case, front and revolutionary uni Q design. Dynaudio is softer, more forgiving. Not very suitable as monitors, not clear enough. Overall the Dyn’s are nice, but too expensive.

I heard all demo but ATC sounded best !!

Hi i cant deside between evoke 30 with nad c399 and special forty 40 with eci 80d both same price. My room is 5,5m and 3,5m where i got tv, 17 square meters, i will use them on netflix tv rock music and tidal app. Thanks for helping

Extremely useful review and comparisons, thanks. Great that you take the time to make these 3 tables (test tracks, music genres and sonic characteristics) to make us understand what a component is all about and help us making a buying or audition decision based on what we are personally looking for. I’ve been looking for good bookshelf speakers for a few months now and the search has been very frustrating. The most important speaker characteristic for me is the natural, realistic reproduction of female voices. (One can easily get that, in a way, with headphones but I much, much, much prefer listening to my music through speakers). I’m kind of a newbie at this Hi-Fi thing but I have listened to reasonably priced models from companies like ATC, Magnepan, Harbeth, Dynaudio, Wharfedale, Q Acoustics, etc. and the sonic coloration over female voices in all cases was surprisingly high. This is in different rooms with different front ends. It seems that most audio reviewers are used to this coloration and don’t hear it anymore or take it for granted. And this brings me to an inquiry: of all the bookshelf speakers that you have listened to (at whatever price), which ones were the best at reproducing female voices in a "real life" way? The speakers I have right now at home are a pair of US$200 (used price) Cambridge Audio Aero 2 with their BMR driver. The more recent Aeromax 2 is supposedly a bit better. The BMR (balanced mode radiator) driver covers the frequency range from 250 Hz to 22 kHz and the traditional woofer covers the lower frequencies. These speakers are not as bad as the other ones I have listened to so far with regards to female voices but they have some flaws on their own (not very good at high listening volume for example) so I’m still searching. Anything out there that have impressed you, at any price? If we consider the price now, anything interesting below US$3000? Any feedback would be much appreciated! Thanks.

Thank you! I would like to see the Special 40 / Contour 20 / C1 comparison :)

Thanks for the review. You mention the Q Acoustics Concept 300, did you ever get a chance to review them or is a review coming up? If not what are your impressions of the Concept 300? Thanks.

While I hear good things about the Special 40, as you say, for 3.5k$, too many good choices, and too close to 4k to not make that leap. 2k you get the ATC11 and add a 1.5 sub, and you have quality audio well above the Dynaudio's.

Are these technically SCM v2 ? SO i heard your reviews right, you rank them 1)ATC 2)Tekton 3) Dynaudio? Basically the ATC is your favorite? The reason I ask is because i owned the special 40 and was really impressed with them, sold everything but may get back into the audio game and curious about the ATC now. Nobody talks about ATC in america, must not be distributed well here

Cool review my friend! I own a pair of Dali Rubicon 2s. I really love them. They work fantastic with my Yamaha A-S1100. I loved your review of the Dali Rubicon 2s. That's why i purchased them! Thank you! 👍. Anyways my friend! Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Keep smiling brother. 😃

Special 40s are indeed special.

Great video! I'm from the PH too and was wondering where you buy your products?

Great review.

I think you need to try some SCM19s 😎

Your score board is confusing arrow pointing high or low right or left just saying

Gr8 review! I thought the comparison part was really good. Not sure I'd agree with the 15 hours breakin...i own the M30 and the Special 40 both of them took around 4 to 6 months to open up. Average of 3 hours of playin per day so around 300 to 400 hours to sound better than they used to earlier.

Great review Thank u

Do you plan on reviewing the Dynaudio Contour 20j’s? I heard the Dynaudio speakers need a lot of break in time.

What a great video!.

Could the Special 40s fill a 25ft x 20ft x 10 ft ceiling room with a proper amp? I know that's a slot to ask for a bookshelf, but maybe speaker this is an exception?

How much better are Special 40s compared to the Excite X18s you reviewed recently (both being Dynaudio and all...). Could you maybe state where they are similar or where the biggest differences are? I think it would be interesting to know if one can get say 80% of the S40s sound from the X18s? Of course the drivers and x-over are different, but they carry a lot of design similarities, so just wondering... Thanks for the great review btw.

What is the best Bookshelf / floor stand Speaker you have ever heard of?

What's the price difference between ATC and dynaudio

Do the ATC SCM 11's allow you to play at softer volumes 70-85dB despite the higher power requirements? I heard they can't nearly as well vs the Special 40's. I want to pair it with a Parasound JC5 which uses 12 watts of class A before A/B. But if that wont allow it to work at lower volumes maybe the 40's?

Do you think Special 40 would be an upgrade for Dali Rubicon 2? How would you compare them?

Hi, In your opinion, how much better is the S40 than the LS50s in % terms? Thanks again!

Hi, This is a great video! I've got the cambridge audio cxa81amp - 80-watts per channel. Can these amp drive the S40s with good performance?

Man , you know them Tektons are better :)

I have been following you for a long time. I am on the eve of getting a bookshelf speaker. I am using dali zensor 3 right now. My amp, primaluna prologue two, which one should I choose? dali rubicon 2 atc scm 11 dynaudio S40 focal electra 907 be (not enough bass ) I am also open to different offers.

hey! thanks for the reply. I currently have an iota VXSA3 and an Iota VXPA3 paired together. I absolutely love the sound i'm getting! These amps are powering a pair of Revel Concerta2 M16... which I like, but I'm not crazy about as I find the bass a bit overpowering; they have space to breath, but they are a bit too warm/boomy in the low-mid register. at least for my taste. i love clarity, especially with orchestral music where instruments need to breath. and i love a nice vintage jazz piano trio with the piano in all its glory! again, any advice greatly appreciated...perhaps I should just wait and try to get a used ATC SCM11 pair, which it seems by your review, should be fantastic!!

Which amplifier did you prefer out of the ones you tried them with?

I’ve been trying to find a good speaker for my Cigar lounge, we play all kind of music, I am using Diamond 225 with Onkyo 9150 and a smsl Sanskrit 10th mkii . It’s good but alil boomy on lows and some times I feel like I want more I just want to buy that better speakers better Amp and leave it like that for years to come , I was Considering the Ls50but I heard that the Buchardt s400 are miles better , and then I seen a review for wharfedale evo 4.2 and the review say it’s better than B&w 707 s2 So what amp & speakers would be best on your opinion and do you agree that buchardt is better than your reference kef ls50 ... update ... I just seen that you have a review in Evo do I’ll see that hope it help.

i think ls3 falcon would be you end game speaker

Not really a fair comparison Dynaudio 3k, LS50 1K

What do you suggest on emit M30

For special 40 the “41 hz” isn’t a lot of bass.

“Tektons...perfectly ugly” 😂

Well, that was enjoyable!🤗🤗😬🤓😎 You sure have a lot of R'sss.🤔🤫😬🤗😇😇

If you don’t have a 3D soundstage with the S40 you’re using the wrong amplifier

The teckton are not the perfect speaker in term of sound, but they are perfectly ugly ! :D hahaha

Atc then dynaudio