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speaker endgame upgrade recommendations coming from Harbeth C7ES-3 XD2?

Hello All,

After a few years now of going through a number of speakers I took a chance on some Harbeth Compacts and they have resonated me to a significant degree above and beyond anything I have owned recently,

my recent speakers include B&W 805 D4, Kef LS50 Metas, Totem element Fire V2, Dynaudio Heritage Specials, Dynaudio Special 40s, Wharfedale Elysians

The Harbeths to me sound far more musical, extremely so, vocals are truly lifelike to me and they just sound better to my ears than the others by a big margin

With that said, and now having somewhat of a baseline I want to see if I can get into an endgame set of speakers 20K price range that provide a significant upgrade

I suspect that larger Harbeths may just give me more of the same?  

I was thinking Tannoys, Fyne Classic Series, even maybe Klipsch Heritage, Devore O/96, a friend also recommended active ATC's and Dynaudio Confidence

Im no longer concerned with may of the attributes people chase in high end speakers, I just want something fun and musical to which the juice would be worth the squeeze dollarwise when upgrading

appreciate suggestions

thanks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

audiocanada
sounds_real_audio
1,100 posts
 

You are off to a g good start in improving your listening skills and there by improving your system, The least painful way is to choose speakers that can sound brilliant using a low power tube amplifier, (not talking 3 watts) . Less can be a lot more. 

This guy has recently reviewed some speakers and inexpensive tube amplifiers. check em out...

The Bucharest E50

https://fleetwoodsound.com/product/helios/

The Helios speaker

https://fleetwoodsound.com/product/helios/

Tube Amplifiers

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hi+fi.+300b+tube+amplifier

audiocanada OP
245 posts
 

thanks to everyone, great feedback thus far, I'll be taking my time on this one and more than likely landing on a few models

I never considered the  Dynaudio Contour Legacy, having owned the Dynaudio Heritage Special which was very nice but not for me I assumed the Legacy is a bigger but not better version of that?

Amplifier for the time being is an older Accuphase E-470 I purchased used on a whim for around 4k USD which I find to be silly good (replaced my Hegel H600) and almost theft at what I paid

I still have the Hegel and not concerned at all around amps as I can acquire the right amp super easily if the speakers dictate

 

 

mark200mph
869 posts
 

Go take a look at the top of the line teckton for 20 k you could get the beryllium upgrade. I have it and its 95% of my focal utopia grand,kharma grand ,magico q7 at 10% the price. Ulfberhts. Call tekton and have a discussion. Its quite tall.enjoy the hunt

goose
790 posts
 

A lot of this discussion gets down to the tonal value you enjoy.  I have listened to more speakers than you can imagine and it's about your room, equipment and tonal values you enjoy.  Can "musical" mean laid back and muffled and "resolving" mean too bright?  I have settled on the Vienna Acoustics Liszt speakers as the one that can do many musical styles very well and I haven't heard another that wants me to make a change at multiples of the price.  So it might be interesting to investigate their line up for a comparison.  Just my two cents.  

deep_333
2,460 posts
 

The merry-go-round is a case of persistent sonic disgruntlement....usually bad rooms that a guy might refuse to fix for waf reasons, etc...and/or sticking with some general ballpark of rinse-repeat lackluster speakers

 

Get off the speaker merry-go-round and stick with the Harbeth C7ES's. This endless speaker search is a symptom of an underlying neurosis!

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