move to a floorstander from Harbeth?

Jjss49 thanks this is very helpful. In the Proac line I was considering the DT8 and D20r mainly. What amps have you had the most luck with partnering with Proac?

I just went through the exact same thing. I had the C7ES-3 XD and replaced them with Graham LS6F floor standers. The Harbeths were great, but the Grahams better them in almost every way. Bigger soundstage, more transparency, and better bass extension; it was not a subtle improvement. My Coda CSiB integrated drives them beautifully. 

miter53 this is good to know. I would love to hear any graham speakers, never had the chance. They are also pretty pricey but I will check into that floorstander and see if it would be possible to swing it. 

@clarinetmonster2 hello. I’ll give you my two cents as well :)

I’ve owned Harbeth C7ES3-XD, SHL5+XD, M40.2,M40.3XD. Set them up in a few rooms and with lots of different source gear. I’ve also owned Spendor S3e,S8e,A1 (little babies). If you love the tonality and presence of the 7’s, which were my favorite out of the Beth’s I’ve owned - a very close 2nd were the 5’s, then I think you will be dissatisfied with the dynaudios, which I have also owned along with the 60’s, confidence 30’s and confidence 50’s.

You already appreciate and understand what the Harbeths do. There is a special transparency and immediacy to the presentation and the 7’s to me had the best soundstage at least in my office setting. 
 

Enter ATC:

ATC to me are higher performance versions of Harbeths. They are among the very few speakers I’ve heard that present a very natural midrange and perfectly integrated treble/ there is no glare or unnatural edge or artifice to be found unless it’s in the source gear, bad room reflection, and/or recording. All the dynaudios I’ve owned (including all of them from the original dynaudio ceo era contour range) also have a very nice midrange and tweeter but are not as natural sounding to my ears as the Harbeths or ATC. The tweeter in the Spendor A line is not as refined and will at best be a sideways move and at worst will sound closed in and muted compared directly to the 7’s or any ATC in the SCM “entry” lineup. If you want an end game speaker more than your budget that expands on the glorious virtues of Harbeths go and hear the newest lineup to the SCM Classics: SCM20. Also a used pair of  SCM40s are incredible (in your range) and will give you that natural sound of the Beth’s but more detail and a more present overall sound- oh ye the bass of the scm40’s is much much better than the Harbeth 7’s bass. The ATC scm40’s sound better over a wider range of material than the 7’s. Classic rock, classical, folk, acoustic, chamber, whatever the ATC 40’s will play it all.  I will say at times, the cabinet resonance of the Beth’s might rear up and smear the sound; the loose sidewall is a huge part of the natural sound from any Beth. I had  to place them on ton trager stands to reduce the sometimes weird sounding bass, and play around with positioning to reduce the sometimes wooly sound they produce.
ATC takes a different approach and have a much more inert cabinet that doesn’t blend into the bass and midrange driver and so presents a more even performance

As you know there is no one right way to “do” home audio and so all these suggestions are just that; ultimately we like what we like as this is a highly subjective individual endeavor. Good luck and keep us posted!

Happy New Year 🎆 

@clarinetmonster2 

I had the Harbeth C7ES3 for several years and sold them for the Spendor D7.2 which have been fantastic.  

Get the best Spendor you can afford- they are one of the few speaker makers that know what they are doing at a very high level that considers every speaker requirement like dynamics, clarity, refinement and sound stage.  Just superb.