Three Words: Subtle, Confident, Muscular

FOR Bold, dynamic sound; excellent build and finish

AGAINST Easy to underestimate

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We have a confession. Our first impression of Dynaudio’s 40th anniversary speaker is more one of mild disappointment than anything else. It’s not that there is a lot wrong with the Special Fortys, just that they seem a little too familiar.

Dynaudio has made any number of two-way  standmounters of this size with drive units that look pretty much identical to the ones used here. Put aside the gorgeous finishes – the options are Birch in either grey or red gloss – and there seems little to differentiate the Fortys from any number of products the company has made in the past. And pretty much all of them were way cheaper than these speakers.

Things start to look brighter once we delve into the details. These speakers are indeed designed as something of a homage to the company’s past, but they’re not meant to be museum pieces. That drive-unit array may look straight out of the £600 Emit 20 (or even the Contour 1.1 from more than a decade ago), but it’s actually based on the drivers used in the company’s high-end Confidence C1 model that retails for 10 times as much.

All change