Dynaudio Heritage Special Speaker Review

Dynaudio is a company that has been in the speaker business for more than forty years and prides itself on making most of its components in house, especially the drivers and most of the cabinetry. Through the years they have developed many beloved components for their top end products and have also distilled them down to the masses whenever they launch a special edition.

So they have adopted a similar format and take some of their finest drivers, an Esotar 3 tweeter and a woofer derived from the Evidence range and placed them into a more traditional walnut veneer speaker for us to sample.  Thus the Heritage Special (HS) was born. The catch ? Well there are two.. firstly it’s by no means cheap, even though it uses choice components. Second there are only 2500 pairs so if you’re waiting to get one, don’t !

And that’s the sum of my review if you may. If you’re a Dynaudio afficiando, just plonk down the deposit that had planned for the annual summer holiday and get this instead.

Now readers must be waiting for the “buts” so for that you’ll have to read the read of the text :)

These days I’ve learnt expressions like TLDR - too long don’t read so I’ve sort of summarized my conclusion above but you do need to take note of some things before you can get the most out of it.

First a link to the official site :

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

The cabinets are lovely to look at and feel, and you are taking ownership of not just a great speaker but some fine cabinetry too. I have personally seen how the workers lovingly assemble the speakers and you’re getting some sweet Danish workmanship here.

The speakers come in individual boxes and have a certain heft and size which is significantly larger than some more modern speakers. Despite its designation as a bookshelf speaker, I would definitely advocate using proper speaker stands. You can use their own speaker 20 or something with heft that you can fill with sand. Don’t scrimp on the stands, and the positioning.

They like to stay a little further away from the walls and a slight toe in helped in my room.

You’ll need to run them in for a while to get them to sing and out of the box that treble can surprise you.

It does smoothen out a bit after the run in but you’ll need to choose your partnering equipment carefully to get the most out of the speakers.

Firstly, if you’ve been using your standard AVR and some entry level speaker cables, you won’t get anything near the best of what it’s capable of.

I did the initial listening and run in with my Reference Series Marantz SR 12, and I was wondering what the fuss was about and I partnered it with my Kimber 4TC cables.

I then used my trusty PM 11S3 and things got a whole lot better. Now I also have the Hegel H390 available and then things clicked.

So how does it sound when you partner it well?

Let’s talk resolution.. the details available are very good. And you don’t need to turn it all the way up to appreciate it.

That’s important in a domestic setting where you have neighbors. But that’s why having a powerful high current amp is very important to get the most out of the speaker.

Get it right and you’ll hear and feel a very wide soundscape that sits a little behind the speakers and goes really deep. It is wide and even if you enjoy complicated orchestral pieces you’ll never lose sight of individual instruments. There is a lot of detail here.

Then there’s the scale. Despite missing out on the lowest frequencies, the larger cabinet and the huge rear port allow the speaker to respond positively to good power and reward you with scale and volume. So unless you have a barn to fill, you’ll not need any bigger speakers.

Some earlier models had an issue with the woofer meeting its limits but you can really drive them hard if you wish. Your ears will bleed long before the woofer meets its limits.

There is a good integration between the drivers but there are some caveats

As mentioned, you’ll need good components to partner with it. And good sources too. Partner it with poorly recorded bright tracks and the speaker will expose them ruthlessly. What you put in is what you get.

Which means that the sonic signature is a bit hotter in the higher frequencies than the other speakers I had on hand.

Since I had the Special Forties and the older Confidence Platinum C1 on hand I did a short comparison.

The s40 does a very good job for the money. But when you hear it side by side with the HS, you’ll be able to discern a difference.

However it’s a law of diminishing returns and whilst you can definitely pick up more details and the scale is bigger on the HS, you are paying more than twice more.

How about the older Confidence? Now this gets interesting.. off the bat you’ll definitely be able to discern which speaker is playing.

The older plays a little smoother but needs more encouragement to play hard and whilst it can go pretty low, the bass is a tad meatier on the HS. Both will demand quality partnering equipment, while the s40 can mix and match with budget amps, all three will give more when you feed it with a good source and solid currents from a decent amp.

So if you own the older two speakers and you’ve reach the limits of your wallet, then don’t lose any sleep.

However if you have the means and are on the lookout for value, this is a speaker you should definitely put on your watch list.

When you consider that the same drivers are used in far more expensive speakers further up the Dynaudio foodchain, you may then see the value. Add on the limited nature of the speaker and the lovely traditional cabinetry, and you have a winner.

Now the interesting thing was the use of the Hegel H390. I think the highlight of my listening session was the discovery of the synergy between the HS and the Hegel. 

The extra power afforded by the Hegel, the control as well as the extra resolution brought the speaker to a new level. The downside was that the total cost of my setup was effectively doubled with the addition of the Hegel. 

So if you want to get the best out of the HS, I would really think that a good partnering amp is essential and use some good gear to bring the best out of it. 

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 I have no financial interest or other interests in any of the items / events I write about.