upgrade path from my current speakers? (Dynaudio Special Forty)

Interesting question. That is a pretty large array of speakers. I think we need to look at the whole picture: all the electronics and venue. It would be really helpful… actually manditory (if we are to help) to see your system, there is a place to put your system, photos and identify your components under your userID. I suspect the problem may not be the speakers… it might.

What did you find lacking with each type?

Maybe nothing else since you like upper level Dynaudio sound.

But, yes, this may also be the case of match.

The sound of these 40's just resonates with me as super lively and energetic, hard to quantify why I love these and not the others

Ideally if they made this in a tower version I would be done

I can acquire any electronics to achieve my goals short of silly money, I've been using a variety of high quality amps , integrateds, and dacs up to Lumin X1 , Luxman 509, Benchmark, and Mcintosh , still own all those pieces and currently streaming bluesound node x to RME preamp/dac with NAD C298 power amp

I feel like all my electronics have always been up to task

room is not the greatest and never will be, that wont change I'm afraid

if feel very close to ending my journey, the little Dyns have everything I want in small package......just seeking bigger

I will try and actively seek out auditions this time around as getting towers into my walk up town home is hell

might be worth noting again that I also enjoyed the Heritage very much, the other speakers not at all, so Dynaudio seems to have something in the DNA for me

Funny you mentioned the sound of the special 40. I went through the exact same scenario. Found a good deal on a pair of Heritage speakers. I had  them awhile but they just did not engage me like my 40’s I sold th Heritage and bought an another pair of 40’s. I keep several speaker and amps as I like to change up sometimes. My PassLabs and my 40’s are my best combo.

Given that you like the dynaudio sound, I would think the confidence series would be the most natural path. I've had a chance to hear them a few times and they sound really good, the only negative I heard is i thought they lost a lot off axis