Buchardt S400 Mk II vs Sony SSCS 5 in Bass

I found the Dyna Contour to sound better than the Special 40. I think it's a pretty sweet deal, with a great balance of detail, imaging and warmth. I never heard the Heritage. It seems that everyone is lacking bass with these small-ish monitors. Harbeth?

I do use a sub(B&W DB3). I also have a Schitt Loki max eq and though I dont need it much, it can and does correct and music I listen to. With any bookshelf I recommend a sub. I have a pair of LS50 metas and with my sub those things can rock. Another speaker I have and enjoy is the Goldenear BRX. Lanx, I think you would like the Dunaudio, no matter  which one you chose. They have the warmth of the 400’s with a punchier bass, and better treble

Thx for the recommendations.  When I raised to my budget to $2k-$3k, the following speakers were on my radar.  Dynaudio Contour 20i was origianlly in my list but was ruled out because Stereophile mentioned it is picky in the component matching and placement and took the reviewer several days to finally dial in.  Anyway, it is kind of frustrated to me that I need to go back to the list for another round of venture or raise my budget again to go for those like Altlante 3/5, Sourcepoint 10, or Qualio IQ.

It is also interesting you brought up the EQ.  I did use the EQ in Foobar2000 and find it quite effective.  I like it but I prefer playing music from the Streamer rather than laptop and my streamer does not have EQ.  

I sort of shy away from adding a sub, primarily because I do not believe a separated sub could easily match the speed and texture of the main speakers.  I had tried at least three times (SVS and REL) but none of the sub. I have tried provide me satisfactory results.

Stand mount speakers in 30-40 hz

• Dynaudio Special 40;                         $2050
• Dynaudio Confidence C1                   $3000
• Monitor Audio Gold 100 5G              $1800
• Burchardt S400 Mk II                         $2100
• Golden Ear BRX                                 $1750
• Proac Tablette 2000                            $750
• Proac D2R                                          $3000
• Dynaudio Contour 1.3 mk2 or SE      $900
• Dynaudio Focus 160                           $900
• Totem Mani 2                                     $1500
• PMC Twenty 22;                                $1700
• Amphion Argon 3S                             $1700
• Reference 3A MM de Capo i             $1500

I totally agree with skipping a sub. Interestingly 2 years ago my list was (whatever version I could afford):

Dynaudio, Totem, Buchardt, Revel, Sonus Faber (my 3x my budget list was the Martens, Sonner, Harbeth and Joseph Audio)

I pretty much couldn’t afford any decent SF, the Totems were lean, I didn’t go for Buchardts, and the Revels would have been the best bang for the buck. I am happy with my Evoke 20s but I would accept the Contours for sure.

The Dynaudio Evoke speakers have "big bass for their size" and they should be easy to power with any amp. They're more like entry-level speakers however. But don't sleep on them. 

I personally use Closer Acoustics OGY speakers. I don't think that anything could match their midrange clarity and bass speed for the money. The single driver (EMS LB5) paired with a plywood transmission line shines here. The Ogy just suffer a little bit in terms of bass quantity (compared to the Dynaudio Evoke, but they outshine the Klipsch RP600M in every single metric). 

Be careful with higher end bookshelf speakers like the KEF R3 or Amphion Argon 3S. They sacrifice bass quantity for bass/midrange quality. I suppose that they expect you to buy a sub.