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What comes after Harbeth 30.1s?

A few weeks ago, I created a post where I was asking for advice to help a family friend create a home office system on a $6-7K budget. He ended up buying a VTL I-85 integrated amp which he really loves. After searching for speakers, he really liked my Harbeth M30.1s. He eventually bought my speakers but was going to pay in October. Unfortunately, he has had some unexpected expenses and won’t be able to pay me. So the speakers will be back in my possession next weekend.

The problem is that during this time, I started researching my next set of speakers. Of course, a safe bet was to stick with what I know and buy another pair of 30.1s whenever they pop up in the used market. Now that I will be getting them back, I’m still wrestling with the idea whether I should try something different. At this time, I’m only looking to buy used and not spend much more than what I can sell the 30.1s for. And to be honest, I will only be switching for the sake of trying a new flavor. I really like the 30.1s and something tells me that I might come to regret the decision. This speaker does pretty much everything right for my tastes and music preferences. Okay, if you put a gun to my head and force to me to share just one thing I wish was better, it would be a more airy presentation and little bit more open on the top. But otherwise, it’s hard to find fault with this speaker.

My room is 12 x 13 with almost 20 foot ceilings. Just like my friend, I’m limited on positioning options -- I can only pull out the speakers from the front wall by a foot at most. Another restriction (spousal commandment) is that I have to sell the 30.1s first to obtain the funds for the next purchase. So I won’t be able to buy something else, compare, and resell the one I don’t like as much. Secondly, I only want to buy used and well-known brands. The idea is that whenever the next upgrade itch strikes, I should be able to sell the speakers without losing more than 10-15%. And the final (whew!) restriction is that I have to be able to drive them with a tube integrated amp. I’m planning to buy a Qualiton a20i next month. This is the smaller brother for a50i which I also own.

So what do you guys think? Is this an ill-conceived, wrong-headed idea? Feel free to talk me out of it :)

If not, I would love to hear from people who have moved from 30.1s to another speaker in similar (or lesser) price range and are happy with their decision. An obvious next step is to move up to 30.2, but I’m not sure if it’s worth paying an extra $1000 or so. Or maybe it is that much better? C7ES3 is another option, but I fear it might be a little too much on the warm/lush side with difficult to tame bass especially when placed so close to the wall.

Another speaker I would love to try is the Fritz Carrera BE, but again I don’t want to buy new and I don’t see them in the used market that often. I know they have a 30-day return policy but that’s not the point. Knowing myself, I would probably end up selling them after a year or two, and don’t want to take the depreciation hit.

Proac Response D2 is another option, but I fear that it might be too forward for my taste, especially in a smaller room. If someone owns one and disagree, please chime in :)

Thanks in advance for your valuable advice!


128x128arafiq

Showing 2 responses by ryder

ryder
1,684 posts
 
Whipsaw, how did you find the Marten Parker Duo? Did you manage to listen to the Oscar Duo and Duke 2? The Parker Duo is the top-of-the-range standmount in the Marten line of speakers so I would expect it to sound better than the other two models, but I’m not sure how is the sound different.

I own both Harbeth SHL5+ and Marten Duke 2. Both have their own sets of strength and weakness, both good. I use different amps to drive the Harbeth and Marten as they are rather selective in matching (they sound off driven by the wrong amps).

Having listened to the 30.1 and 30.2 at the dealers several years ago, the things they do well, they truly excel. The Marten or any other speaker will undoubtedly offer something different. Better, is subjective and dependent on the listeners’ preference and expectation. Personally I find the Marten to show higher refinement, nuance and fine detail than the Harbeth in general which I presume is typical of quality high end designs(obviously I don’t regard Harbeth to be in that group although it’s fairly high quality). The sound quality is different in the way music is presented. FWIW I still find human voice to sound more like the real thing on the Harbeth although it’s a fairly close affair.

A Harbeth M30.1 owner on the Naim manufacturer forum moved to Dynaudio Contour 20 as he found the 30.1 to sound too polite. He was happy with the change.
ryder
1,684 posts
 
@whipsaw

Thanks for the post. Your response is surely useful, no further information on the Marten is required.

Apologies to OP for the thread hijack. I’ll make it short.

Three hours with the Parker Duo at the dealer, impressive. When I was at the Harbeth dealer, I think I spent about an hour listening to the SHL5+ and another hour or so on the M30.2 before I placed an order for the 5s. It’s surprising to hear that the Parker Duo sounded underwhelming at lower volumes. I have no issues with low level listening with the Duke 2(spec is rather similar to Parker Duo).

The Parker Duo should have much better bass performance than the M30.1/30.2. Although the Duke 2 is a smaller speaker in comparison to SHL5+ I actually find the Marten to go lower in the bass. On paper the Dukes go down to 38Hz while the SHL5+ only go down to 40Hz. The Parker Duo goes even lower down to 36Hz, perhaps with the help from the passive radiators. In summary, the bass of the Parker Duo is superior to the Duke 2 and SHL5+. The 30.1 is far behind.

I am glad we share the same observation on strength of the Harbeth. It’s really a strong trait where many higher end speakers fail to match.


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