2. speakers
  3. 138043-1464

Harbeth 40.2 OR Spendor Classic 100 OR ??

I'm midway through the quest for the next set of speakers, and the purpose of this thread is just to check if there are any makes/models out there that I should be taking into consideration, but are not currently on my radar.

My current two finalists are as above, Harbeth 40.2 and Spendor Classic 100.

Both of these have displaced my previous "fav", the Vienna Acoustics Liszt.

In various auditionings, I've also been impressed by Audio Note AN-E and Shahinian Oberlisk. I know both of these models are "divergent", but I mention them not because they're also real contenders, but because I was really impressed by the timbral presentation of the AN--as natural as I've heard, and the spatial presentation of the Shahinian--as, well, spacious as I've heard..  At the same time, they both have drawbacks that rule them out for me.

I hope this list gives some idea of where my acoustic tastes align.  Is there anything else out there I should listen to?  I have heard Spendor D7 and ProAc D30, and extrapolating from them, ruled out their corresponding larger models.  I've also heard Devore O/93, and again preferred Harbeth, Spendor, as well as AN (his inspiration).

I'm not really interested in suggestions from the "usual suspects" pool--you know, Vandersteen, Magico, Focal, Revel, B&W, PSB, Monitor Audio, Dynaudio, etc.

BTW, to be driven by Belles Aria monoblocks in what I would describe as a medium-sized room wherein placement would allow for a good 3' away from front and both side walls.

128x128twoleftears

Showing 2 responses by pdreher

pdreher's avatar
pdreher
1,185 posts
 
I'm on my second stint with Harbeth 40.1's.   I had my first pair of 40.1's about seven years ago and regrettably sold them to try a pair of Daedalus Ulysses.   Daedalus cabinetry top notch and Lou Hinckley (Daedalus owner) is a very accommodating and generous with his time, but they just did't do it for me like the big Harbeth's.  The Ulysses bettered the 40.1's with regards to speed and dynamics, but the 40.1's won handily in the areas of tone, texture, weight/fullness and midrange magic. The 40.1's will never win a beauty contest and they don't sound sexy... but they just sound right to me.

Twoleftears, the bass response of the 40.1's is strong, but that is part of their allure for me.  If your listening room is not problematic with regards to dealing with bass, you can save yourself a lot of money by trying a pair of 40.1's vs. buying a new or used pair of 40.2's.  
pdreher's avatar
pdreher
1,185 posts
 
Mountainsong - I owned the original version Dynaudio C4 for a few years, but replaced them with Harbeth M40.1’s. I found the C4’s to be fast and exciting, but they could not compete with Harbeth M-40.1’s with regard to tone, timbre, weight and musicality. It wasn’t even close for me.

I’ve not heard the 40.2’s or the KEF Blades... but those would be the two I’d most like to hear with the Luxman amps.
More to discover