Speakers with the most detailed midrange? (non-ESL/planar)

+ 1 ATC. Their 3 inch super mid range dome practically owns the mid range and has done so for 30 years. Many have tried to better ATC but all I have been weighed, measured and found wanting. Still being installed by professionals in million $ facilities to this day.

I have heard Harbeth and could easily live with them although I use ATC.

Harbeth have a bit of coloration from the cabinet but it is pleasant. They don’t do full orchestral, big band or loud rock with quite the aplomb of ATC. Harbeth are however wonderful and easy to listen to! Great mid range and lovely classic FM sound.

You must audition Harbeth - they may indeed float your boat. The Compact 7ES3 is their best and most balanced sounding.

@woofer72

I use ATC EL150A with their P6 amplifier and new ATC built tweeter. I also have the C6 subwoofer which I don’t use for 2 channel stereo (not needed even in a large room).

The new ATC tweeter is worth having. Having owned for years the SCM 20, 100 and C6CA, I highly recommend the 150. All ATC are superbly balanced but the 150 is IMHO their best. The ATC 15 inch woofer is just superb. Not many think about woofer quality with ATC because of their mid range but IMHO they have the best 15 inch woofer on the market. ATC actually got started with Supertramp, AC/DC and other stadium rock bands of the late 70’s - based purely on the quality of their woofers that were used in arrays of bass bins. The woofers in their hi-fi and pro studio speakers are massive short voice coils in a long gap - ultra linear response. A big part of mid range clarity is down to the woofer performance - don’t under estimate this factor!

@woofer72

Not sure what you had in your old SCM 100 - there have been several tweeters over the years. The old Excel millennium tweeter was excellent - one of the best. The older vifa tweeter was sibilant but my quite old pair of SCM 100 may have lost ferrofluid (it dries out after a few years hard use with any tweeter). Not sure about the even older Audax...

The newest tweeter just integrates perfectly. It has no ferrofluid. I no longer think about a tweeter in a separate way like you would do with other two ways or three way speakers. It just sounds like sound even if your eyes know there are three drivers there ...the sound is just completely integrated.

I guess the tweeter was the last thing they eventually had to build in house to get the kind of quality they require. I find it surprising they could do better than Excel Millennium. I think it took ATC about 10 years to develop so it just shows you how very good Excel/SEAS products are!

@gosta

Yes the Excel line is SEAS premium line. It has a copper ring waveguide - so rather unmistakeable. Used in Linkwitz Orion and by Joseph Audio. It is a very expensive unit costing more than most high end speaker woofers/mid range and 5 to 10 times what most dome tweeters cost - probably why it is so rarely used - most people have never heard it.

@gosta 

Interesting. I have tried to like Monitor Audio. Certainly the detail is there but the lack of driver integration makes them sound so artificial. Just so obvious that you are listening to two or more drivers.