SF Guarneri Homage vs Harbeth 7ES3

I would offer a different thought on the issue of sound coloration contributed by the speaker cabinet particularly in the Harbeth line of speakers. Every speaker will be colored to some extent with the box contributing to the coloration. In the case of Harbeth, they have adopted "thin-wall" removable front and back panels in order to create a low coloration, low inertia and low energy storage cabinet in true BBC tradition. The cabinet is sometimes called a "lossy" cabinet due to this design approach and is one of Harbeth's secret for natural sound reproduction(they also use their own proprietary Radial driver designed and built in-house in the Harbeth factory).

Like Daveyf has mentioned, it's really like comparing apples and oranges. I do not have experience with the Guarneri Homage but have listened to the lower range models in the Cremona line and owned the Grand Pianos. My experience with Harbeth speakers were the Monitor 30, Super HL-5 and Compact 7ES-3. To my ears, the Sonus Fabers are more colored than the Harbeth. Maybe the Guarneri is less colored and steer more towards neutrality. I share the same notion in that it is best the person listens to both speakers before deciding himself. Both speakers will sound substantially different from one another and listening preferences will determine which speaker would match one's taste more. The Guarneri Homage costs substantially higher than the Compact 7ES-3 and the build quality on the former is miles ahead in comparison to the plain ole' British boxes, a testament of exquisite Italian craftmanship at its finest. Both are great speakers by the way.

It depends on priorities but in a larger room I would prefer a speaker with large drivers(8" or bigger) over a speaker with small drivers + subwoofers although the latter is preferable in smaller rooms. Larger speakers sound fuller with greater scale, realism and dynamics. Nonetheless, I agree with Daveyf in that some attributes that are inherent in select speakers like the Guarneri can sometimes be more desirable than speakers that are able give more bass and volume. It was further noted in Stereophile that although the bigger Electa Amator and Extrema will play louder and capable of higher dynamics and deeper bass, the Guarneri eclipses these Sonus faber designs when it comes to purity of sound. The G was described as truly balanced and truthful to its source with a tonal, harmonic linearity that extends from the upper bass to the treble. From the write-up, it appears that the G is an extremely low-colored speaker that does not sound much alike with the other models in the lower range of Sonus Faber speakers.