Special Forty - Image hifi

The German magazine imagehifi tests the Special Forty anniversary speakers in its latest issue. It’s another fantastic review of the Special Forty speakers, which is spread out over 10-pages in the magazine. We have translated our favourite quote for you to enjoy below.

“Initially the excellent articulation with voices was evident, for example with Lightnin’ Hopkins in New York – one man, one voice, placed deep in the soundstage image.”

“Jack Sheldon’s trumpet, the wonderfully vivid saxophone from Richie Kamuca, and a perfectly accentuated cymbal all thrilled me completely. And never before, never ever before, had I heard such a wonderful applause: that wasn’t a rain-like noise, it was the sound of real, warm hands, and me within the audience.”

“When reviewing audio, sometimes it’s simply the state of wellbeing or phase in life that makes us listen to more music. However, with the Special Forty it was definitely because this is an incredibly sophisticated music-conveying-machine. Can there be a higher compliment for a loudspeaker than dragging a stoic hifi reviewer away from work, closer to the music?”

“For the first time, I really enjoyed listening to the song Lapidu Na Bo by Mayra Andrade, which I’ve heard so many times on several much more expensive speakers.”

“And just as a reminder, this was still with a 25 watts tube amp. The prejudice of Dynaudio-the-amp-eater, thrown overboard into the North Sea!”

“Then, amazingly, the reviewer’s dog made a comment – funny but true, and worth a million in storytelling: the smoothness as well as the presence in the singer’s voice, the huskiness as well as the softness, the sex appeal in her voice was really giving me goose-bumps. Further evidence for the speaker’s hyper-real voice reproduction came from my dog: Playing Mayra Andrade he suddenly started to bark, because he sensed there’s someone else in the room.”

You can buy the new imagehifi issue with the full 10-page Special Forty review here if you know your German and want read the full review.

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Hifi&records aren’t the only ones who have reviewed the Special Forty speakers. 

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