Good to hear the Dynaudio Heritage Special has performed up to expectations. I have never doubted the ability of a high quality standmount such as the Dynaudio Heritage Special outperforming (inferior) larger floorstand speakers. It is interesting that the Heritage Special sounds larger than the Focus 260.
So did you end up with the Dynaudio Heritage Special since you just bought the KEF LS50 Meta speakers not too long ago? How does the Dynaudio Heritage Special compare to the KEF LS50 Meta ?
Once you have found the “right” speaker and experienced the quality sound, it’s hard to settle with anything lesser, such as your current Focus 260. I somehow suspected your Focus 260 to be the bottleneck in your system several years ago when you were doubting them yourself and questioning if they were the weakest link in your system. But now I guess you have answered that question yourself.
I could not buy the Heritage as it is still very expensive, and I still need to find a buyer for my Focus 260.
The Heritage sounds very different to the LS50Meta. The Heritage is a much more expensive speaker that can produce thunderous bass down to 41 HZ +/- 3DB.
But the LS50 has it’s own charm when it comes to vocals, but obviously is priced to perform within some limitations. You get a small taste of hi-end with the LS50 Meta, but not with the price tag of the Heritage. The Heritage on the other hand is a hi-end speaker, as suggested by it’s hi-end price.
The LS50Meta cannot take on floor standers, and would probably have limits at party volume levels, something the Heritage can easily handle.
I think the weakest link in my system is still the allo digione streamer, and my system with F260 sounded quite a bit better with a Naim ND5XS2 streamer I had on trial.
Take your time whether it’s the streamer or the speakers. No hurry. There’s no end to this game as we all know. Having said that, once you reach a certain level where you gear has some quality to it, you will have less inclination to swap boxes or other hifi gear. In other words, settle down for good unless one has a knack of upgrading the boxes every year.
I think I have reached a stage where I can finally concentrate on the music. No more looking at the hifi anymore. Nevertheless, you brought up a good point on the streamer as I am still using a laptop to feed the DAC. No streamer. A friend has been constantly urging me to get a quality streamer, stating that it will make a huge difference to my system. It’s not that I don’t believe him as I really do. However, I am really enjoying the sound quality from my system, very much even though it’s just through a laptop. I will eventually move to a streamer but there is no hurry to it really. Similarly like you, I am financially exhausted after some crazy hifi spending since last year, upgrading like a mad man with an almost complete rehaul of the system. I’m now taking things real slow and enjoying the tunes.
ps. The guy who advocates the use of a high quality streamer told me he is using his best power cord on the streamer (very expensive). It does appear that the streamer contributes a lot to sound quality.
well since the Heritage seems to be financially out of my reach - I decided to buy the Isoacoutics Gaia 2 Isolators for my Focus 260.
It certainly improved the performance of my F260, and miraculously removed the bad effects of the room. I knew my room was not ideal, but the thought of spending a lot of money treating the room was nauseating to me.
Well turns out the Isoacoustics could solve my problem easily !
The Gap between my Focus 260 and the truly awesome Heritage is a quite a bit less now…
As isoacoustics claim, there was more midrange clarity, better bass control and much bigger soundstage form my old F260, all the things that mighty Heritage that easily beat my Focus 260
That’s great news! Sometimes it is a futile effort to keep chasing rainbows and for this reason, it’s surely good to hear the progress you have made in your system.
The Isoacoustics isolators are surely good stuff. The higher-end Marten Parker series of speakers also utilise the Isoacoustics footers for both standmount and floorstanders. That surely tell us something about these Isoacoustics products. Some of these tweaks which are often overlooked by many can surely bring miracles to the system if properly implemented.
Since the F260 is now optimised and sounding much better, you can now forget about the Heritage and concentrate on other things. Or perhaps just stay put and enjoy the music.
I wonder if there’s anyone else who has tried the Isoacoustics isolators on speaker stands that are supporting standmount speakers. I’ll go and do some research on these isolators first. Will keep them in my shortlist in the event I want change something in my system. Since I’m already done with the hifi, it will only be tweaks from now onward if I have an itch to scratch.
Having said that, once you reach a certain level where you gear has some quality to it, you will have less inclination to swap boxes or other hifi gear. In other words, settle down for good unless one has a knack of upgrading the boxes every year.