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Speaker recommendations for narrow room

GF670

pfm Member
I'm considering changing my speakers (currently Harbeth M30.1), and looking for recommendations. The two reasons for changing are to have something with a bigger sound (if that makes sense!), and I would ideally like floorstanders from an aesthetic perspective.

Ideally, I want something fairly classic looking, for example Tannoy or Klipsch heritage (up to around 50 cm wide would be fine). One issue is that the room is narrow (just under 12 feet wide, and 24 feet long) and due to the layout the speakers need to be on the long wall.

This means that I need something that would work close to a wall (the Harbeth's are currently around 1 foot away from the wall, which is about as far as they can go).

I'm currently using Croft 7R monoblocks, but wouldn't be averse to changing amplifiers. It would be good, in particular, to have something that would work well with lower powered valve amplifiers. Any advice or recommendations would be great!
 
Tannoys sound ideal, Cheviots/Berkeley from the HPD range possibly, whats the budget?

Thanks. Budget up to around £4,000, but would be very happy with something cheaper (which would mean that I could keep the Harbeth's too).

Here's a picture of the room to provide some context:

DSCF6893-Edit by Osh, on Flickr

Note that the wide angle lens distorts the picture a bit, for example the sideboard in the far corner is over 2 meters long!
 
Thanks. Budget up to around £4,000, but would be very happy with something cheaper (which would mean that I could keep the Harbeth's too).

Here's a picture of the room to provide some context:

DSCF6893-Edit by Osh, on Flickr

Note that the wide angle lens distorts the picture a bit, for example the sideboard in the far corner is over 2 meters long!

Thats a great looking room, lovely mid-century sideboard floor!

£4k would get you most of the larger Tannoys, even some MG15s if you did not mind the size. Pretty much all the Monitor Gold and HPDs are designed to work up against the rear walls. I have some Stirling TWs which work really well right up against the wall, the distributed port really helps with this, although they are hard to track down.


System
by Robert Seymour, on Flickrw

Other than that, I had some Vandersteens (1C) that worked really well in that location, quite a few more models well in budget.
 
In that budget you could try several while keeping the M30, most below are available second hand only.
Some might need a short distance to rear wall.
Naim SBL
Rega RX3
Rega Ela
Russel K120
Linn Ninka/Keilidh
Castle Chester
Ruark Talisman
Neat Ekstra
 
Speaker behaviour in rooms is so unpredictable that I would recommend you get home demos before replacing the Harbeths. I have Spendor 2/3 speakers, similar to your Harbeths, and was very happy with the improvement in sound, scale (and appearance) when I replaced the stands with a pair of subwoofers. The dimensions and finish of the Harbeths shouldn't make it difficult to find a "matching" subwoofer if you're generally happy with the sound of your Harbeths and the idea interests you.
 
Thats a great looking room, lovely mid-century sideboard floor!

£4k would get you most of the larger Tannoys, even some MG15s if you did not mind the size. Pretty much all the Monitor Gold and HPDs are designed to work up against the rear walls. I have some Stirling TWs which work really well right up against the wall, the distributed port really helps with this, although they are hard to track down.


System
by Robert Seymour, on Flickrw

Other than that, I had some Vandersteens (1C) that worked really well in that location, quite a few more models well in budget.

Thanks! I lifted the carpet and found the parquet underneath so had it sanded and we went for a mid century look in terms of decor. Those tannoys look great - I really like the style. Good that they work near the wall too.
 
In that budget you could try several while keeping the M30, most below are available second hand only.
Some might need a short distance to rear wall.
Naim SBL
Rega RX3
Rega Ela
Russel K120
Linn Ninka/Keilidh
Castle Chester
Ruark Talisman
Neat Ekstra

Thanks. I haven't come across any of these before, so will do some research.
 
Speaker behaviour in rooms is so unpredictable that I would recommend you get home demos before replacing the Harbeths. I have Spendor 2/3 speakers, similar to your Harbeths, and was very happy with the improvement in sound, scale (and appearance) when I replaced the stands with a pair of subwoofers. The dimensions and finish of the Harbeths shouldn't make it difficult to find a "matching" subwoofer if you're generally happy with the sound of your Harbeths and the idea interests you.

Thanks. Yes, I am generally happy with the sound of the Harbeth's (vocals in particular are great), so could definitely consider subwoofers. More scale would be great, especially for orchestral music etc.

Agree with the home demo point - I had a home demo of the Harbeth's before buying them (in a previous house) which was hugely helpful.
 
Speak to Paul at RFC about building a pair of Legacy style Tannoys. He currently has a thread on Audioflat forum about such a build. From that thread the quality looks amazing with a fantastic finish. For what are bespoke pieces of furniture they seem to be very keenly priced.
 
Speak to Paul at RFC about building a pair of Legacy style Tannoys. He currently has a thread on Audioflat forum about such a build. From that thread the quality looks amazing with a fantastic finish. For what are bespoke pieces of furniture they seem to be very keenly priced.

Thanks. Yes, they are absolutely stunning, though I would need a set of drivers. I'm thinking that what I should do is look for an used pair of Tannoys, with a view to seeing how I like them, and possibly getting new cabinets etc in due course.
 
I don't think you'll substantially be able to improve on the harbeths in your room and with that placement. Don't underestimate what you have. My two cents.
 
I don't think you'll substantially be able to improve on the harbeths in your room and with that placement. Don't underestimate what you have. My two cents.
Indeed !
Those Harbeth speakers are very difficult to beat in terms of sound quality and timbre and only a few very expensive speakers can better them.
 
If anything, I'd be looking at pairing them with a different amp to give orchestral work more room to breathe. One of the more powerful lfd, luxman, or musical fidelity offerings e.g.
 
Agree, one of the best Harbeths, maybe even better in Graham version
No bas issues as with many Harbeth/BBC 3-way
 
Thanks. I definitely think that trying them with different amps could be worthwhile before making any drastic decisions.

I've often read that Harbeths do better with powerful amps, so I could try different power amps (I think my Crofts are around 55W per channel).

I had considered trying a Luxman integrated, but having looked at the dimensions they seem huge (deeper than the cabinet they would be going on). Lots of people seem to like the LFD amps as well, but I can't seem to find anywhere that sells them, so don't know what availability is like.
 
My own 30.1's are placed very similarly to yours. I recently moved from an lfd zero MK3 to an ncse mk2. It's definitely improved things on the bass end. A recent comparison with proac response floor standers in my room left me in awe of the harbeth/lfd combination, much as I love proacs. There's a guy in poland who's been trying to sell his top range lfd pre/power combo for ages. He's down to an absolute bargain price now, have a look on Hifi-Shark. I'd be all over those if I didn't have the ncse. Again, just my two cents.
 
A few month ago I sold my Leben CS600 and replaced it with a Leben preamp plus an old Quad 606 mk II. I kept the finesse of the Leben but got much more power (140 instead of 30 W) and sovereignty with the M30 playing in my 40sqm room. Hybrid with plenty of power could be a way to go.
 


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