Well you'll love Harbeths then...all I've owned worked beautifully within 25cm of the rear wall.Seconded
Who wants their speakers placed far out in the middle room ?
Apart from a few and those with dedicated music room.
Kudos to manufacturers which actually make good speakers that are working closer to rear wall
Well you'll love Harbeths then...all I've owned worked beautifully within 25cm of the rear wall.
I had 7ES3 like 8-9 years ago and not sure if the current model is that much different and I don't mean the XD. I think I haven't heard the Anniversary either but I guess you are not going for that anyway. There might be some changes in around 10 years but they still call it 7ES3 so not sure. But anyway, I bought them to listen to mainly rock, prog, metal and some metal back then and they can certainly do that very well if your front end is good enough for them. No fatique with those and I was really listening to a lot of bad recordings. They are fun speakers. But anyway you should try them at your home in your system before buying if you can IMO. I was using Exposure front end then and I still use them, even though top of the line gear now.You think a Harbeth Compact 7 ES3 is not forgiving on bad recordings? If this speaker isn't I can hardly imagine another speaker that is.
I will do yes. I will be auditioning on your setup as it happens as the shop doesn't sell rega and my Elex-r is similarly powered to xs3. Will home demo if I like it before purchasing.Please keep us in the loop on the B&W 705 S2, I am curious what your thoughts will be on them. Really curious how they would sound on the end of a Naim Nait XS3/ND5 XS2 setup...
That's about where my C7s are, and they sound great to me. Side walls are another matter.Well you'll love Harbeths then...all I've owned worked beautifully within 25cm of the rear wall.
When I was auditioning speakers last year I started with B&W 606s. They sounded great in the B&W demo at the Bristol Show and I was enthusiastic. When I demo’d them at my local dealer with my own Nytech amp they sounded awful: top heavy, not much mid and little to no bass. The dealer switched to B&W 705 S2 and they were slightly better with more bottom end but still overblown at the top and not suitable overall. I demo’d a pair of ProAc D20R and they were so much better than the others for my needs I ended up buying them after several more demos. This included a demo with the ProAcs driven by a Nait 3 which sounded pretty similar to my Nytech. Given the price of the D20R, demo’ing a DT8 (£2k) initially might be better for your budget. I should say that my demo was for a second system and my requirement involves only low volume listening for which the D20R excels.
I may well get criticised by someone saying why am I talking about a floor mounted speaker when the query is about small stand mounts. The reality is that the amount of space taken up by a stand mount speaker on a proper stand is almost exactly the same as a comparable floor mount. It’s only a visual and weight difference. Add in the cost of the stand and the floor mount can be better value.
I have not auditioned B & W or Harbeths, judging by peoples comments both speakers seem to excel in specific different genres of music. My music collections includes many genres of music so maybe I should ignore both makes when looking for an upgrade? Or am I simplifying things...?
I went through a big speaker test run a year or so ago. I could not believe the difference in presentation of everything I heard, more so than any other component.
Was trying to replace some lovely KEF ref model 2's (which I still have in another system).
I was put off B&W after auditioning some CM8's a few years ago but at the time I think it was because my amp was crap back then.
More recently suditioned Proac, Kudos, PMC and Neat floorstanders. All good but the PMC 5 23 and Kudos X3 impressed most if a tad bright. Had some small Tannoy legacy on dem too, great for rock.
Ended up with Harbeth SHL5+ Annie's..these are wonderfully transparent without the glare of the PMC/Kudos. Once I'd heard the Harbs everything else sounded muffled!!
Speakers are such a personal/room dependant thing ..you need to listen at home before you know what works best for you.