I haven't been this excited in a while!

@dhite71 

In December of ‘24 I bought a pair of what will hopefully be my last set of speakers.  The Sonus Farber Amati G5’s are almost everything that I could ever want in a speaker.  If you get a chance, try to hear a pair or two.

All the best.

@curiousjim 

Those or simply the Traditions are also on my list but are at a much higher pricepoint so that will be down the road.  I have always admired their design and been curious about the sound in my system.  

Glad they worked so well in your system, which looks great.  I really like those hybrid mono blocks.  I haven't ever had the opportunity to hear any PS Audio gear but have always admired the company. 

Curios of your experience with the Node + LPS compared to the N200.  I tried an N10 a few years ago compared to a Node2i and didn't appreciate enough of a difference to keep the N10.

Is it too late to say, "Thats what she said"?

@arafiq 

Well, I sent you a PM to continue our conversation from a year ago and just the mention of past speakers that were for sale and trying other speakers made the Audiogon police sniff a possibility of losing out on some fees and now I have to have a payment method to continue the conversation there.  This community is so solid and trustworthy and it is very disheartening to be treated like mischievous children.....ugh.  

I see you also had a negative experience with the Maggies.  I don't criticize Magnepan as I know many love the sound they produce, I just think that very few of us have the right room to allow them to produce this sound.  I have never experienced a speaker that was so sensitive to placement.  The sound change was remarkable as I moved them around in my asymmetrical music room but never sounded right.  When I moved them out to wait on a buyer, I set them up in my dining room for a little while as it is a symmetrical room.  They were still not in an ideal position but with much lesser electronics, sounded pretty good.  Audio Research has used them to develop their gear for many years, along with Wilson Audio and Sonus Faber.  I hope to find a dealer some day that has some properly set up to fully appreciate what they can do.

I have had the Harbeth set up since Thursday afternoon.  I have not given their placement much attention, I simply put them where the Sophias were and adjusted the toe-in to try and focus the voices in the center.  My space does not allow much movement as I cannot move my seat and the speakers have only about 5-10 inches of space around them.  I will go to Lowes and pick up an 8-pack of furniture sliders tomorrow to experiment with what area I have.  

The bass is big and punchy!  These M40.1s will rock when asked to.  On some albums they sound a bit bloated and heavy in the bass, I want to call this mid bass but of course I am not certain what frequencies are creating this.  It would be interesting to have a graph of the sound in my room like we see in pro reviews.

It is very obvious how I have lost the detail which the Sophias gave.  The voices and instruments are not as focused...everything is kind of smeared in the soundstage.  With the Sophias, on a really good recording the vocals were so realistic and made you feel like the artist was there.  I didn’t take note of the albums but there are some which the Harbeth also are super impressive in how musical and realistic they sound.  

I feel that I am still early in the adjustment phase of not only setting up the speakers but also my ears and brain getting used to the sound.  

I know that with the other Wilson speakers, it was an immediate NO.  They were bright/hot in my room and there was no denying this, it was annoying and no amount of positioning had any effect on this sound.

The Harbeth are different and very enjoyable, just too early to know if they are the overall sound I want to stick with.  

I updated my virtual system showing them. They are quite handsome speakers in my home with the wood floors and trim.