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Harbeth 40.3's. Should I buy them?

I've owned a lot of speakers. I've just finished auditioning a pair of Alta Audio Alec's. Not good at all in my system. I own a pair of Spatial X3 open baffle speakers. I really like them and my wife doesn't. I recently bought a pair of Buchardt S400 MKII's for a second system. I say second system because I have a dedicated 2 channel room 15' x 19'. Upstairs in a much larger room, the Buchardt's were anemic, fine, 2 Adam subs solved the anemia. Then just for the heck of it (and because audio is a hobby) I moved the Buchardt monitors downstairs in the 'big guys' room. The Buchardt's loved that room and my wife loved the Buchardt's except they are to small for the listening room and our listening tastes.

I'm tired of buying and selling speakers. I've been to a hundred audio shows and have "favorites". Harbeth have always sounded great, not a show stopper, but, at shows, they've been totally inoffensive, warm and engaging in the same way I like Audio Notes AN-e.
We play all types of music. My wife especially likes classical, leaning towards female singers but too, she'll rock out on Led Zeppelin, Ozzy Osbourne, Black Keyes, Journey, you get the idea. Me, classic rock but anything that soothes my soul works. I like to play loud. My wife - louder, but not teenager loud.

We have an awesome front end to work with. Allnic T2000 30th integrated (60wpc in triode 150wpc in pentode), Allnic H5500 phono and Allnic D10000 DAC.

Why wouldn't we happy with this speaker?

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Showing 1 response by joey54

joey54
431 posts
 

You might want to take a look at the Vandersteen Tree CT's. I was a Harbeth owner for more than 10 years, SHL5's and M40's and though I enjoyed them for a long time I became bored with them. Great with some music but not everything. That may have been due to my room, electronics or any number of things but I got to the point where I had stopped listening to music. My musical tastes are all over the map from R&R to Classical and there were some things that the Harbeth's did very well but I just lost interest. I stayed with Harbeth for a long time because they play well at low volume which became a priority for me,

I moved on to the Vandersteen Treo CT ($9,995) which also plays well at low volume but sounds great with everything I play. Now if I were looking in the same price range you mentioned, I would look at the Vandersteen Quatro CT with it's built in subwoofers. I'm not sure they would work for your Allnic Integrated as they need an external crossover. My Aesthetix Mimas Integrated has one built in and I know that Ayre and Aesthetix have built-in crossovers available as an option. 

I would say that whatever you do you should try and hear whatever speaker you look at either with your electronics at a dealer or in your own home. No one else can really help much as we all have different listening priorities. Good Luck!

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