@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 🎆