It has been quite a while since my last blog but I have been tempted to put finger to key by these rather excellent new Limited Edition Dynaudio bookshelf loudspeakers. ‘Heritage Special’ isn’t just a name. It’s a salute to traditional high-performance Danish audio design.

Now at first glance you may think that these are rather expensive, but they may just be the best bookshelfers that you will ever hear. The first thing that struck me about these little marvels was how open and detailed they sounded and how they managed to image from way left and right of the speaker cabinets. This is something quite rare in a speaker, even at this price! Bass is effortlessly deep and taught as Santa’s belt. Top end is sweet and seductive. No one part of the music ever gets coloured by any of the rest making it so easy to hear and follow everything all at the same time no matter what type of music you listen to.

Slightly retro styling with state of the art drive units

To give these beauties a real workout I thought I would try my 2020 album of the year - The wonderful triple vinyl compilation called Door to the Cosmos from On The Corner Records.

The album’s title, a nod to the afro-futurist jazzer Sun Ra’s infamous chant ‘dare to knock at the door to the cosmos’, is the perfect invitation to delve into this vast celestial journey of sound. Door to the Cosmos can only be described as a tremendous 24-track compilation album from the innovative and exciting left-field imprint On The Corner. For their 10th full album release they have gone all out to honour their adventurous, Miles Davis-esque ‘call it what you want’ philosophy. With over 30 artists featured on the album, from long-standing label contributors to those new to the On The Corner family, all are devotees to the curation of future sounds – melding ancestral music with club culture and pushing genres. The recording quality is sublime throughout as well. A great work out for your hifi system! Just listen to the seven and a half minutes of pure joy that is La Negra Lorenza by Jose Marquez. Intoxication isn’t the word…truly stellar!! and that is just one of a huge number of amazing genre bending wonders.

Be warned these speakers are strictly limited to 2500 pairs worldwide and are selling fast, even in these Covid restricted times, so don’t hang around too long or you may just miss out.

“If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing Jaw-Droppingly”

The build quality is amongst the best that you see. Look closely at the tweeter. Dynaudio historians will notice the unmistakable shape of the legendary Esotar T330D soft-dome tweeter. That’s Special enough on its own – But as they say, If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing jaw-droppingly. So they have replaced the insides with the finest tweeter technology they have ever created: Esotar 3. You’ll also find it, along with its powerful neodymium magnet, larger rear chamber and resonance-defeating Hexis inner dome, in their top-of-the-line Confidence series.

Taking on mid/bass duties is something equally Special: the 18W75 XL Heritage Special MSP Woofer (bit of a mouthful that, but whatever). If you were truly eagle-eyed, you might remember its exponential cone design from the magnificent Evidence Platinum series. The difference is, the Dynaudio boffins have taken it even further: this driver has an improved voice coil (a classic internal-magnet design with aluminium windings, now on a glass-fibre former); magnet system (a hybrid design with both neodymium and ferrite magnets for even greater flux control); and spider (Nomex, as seen on Confidence and Contour i).

All this attention to detail produces what must be one of the finest stand mount loudspeakers that we have ever had the pleasure of listening to. They are never harsh or bright sounding as so many of today’s newer designs can sound. These are speakers that you can listen to all day long and never get tired of. The bass is deep and juicy but always perfectly controlled. The whole soundstage they produce is big and open, extending massively outside the boxes. Dynaudio can be well and truly proud of these. They truly deserve that “Special” tag in their name.

If you would like any more information on The Dynaudio Heritage Special loudspeakers then please contact Jon, Farid or Andy in the Cheltenham store.

Farid has even a pair himself!

Dynaudio can be found at the following Audio-T stores -