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wilson benesch ARC vs. Harbeth compact 7ES? Advice

I am new to this board and looking for advice, as the local selection of equipment is quite limited. Wondering about WB ARCs vs. Harbeth compact 7ES. Clearly they look completely different. Without being able to hear them, myself, without taking the plunge o a long trip, anyone have any thoughts on the two, how they compare, etc? I am not in need of earth-shattering volume, but a pleasing system good at low and rarely moe than moderate volumes, mostly classical, acoustic guitar, and jazz, but sometimes Stevie Ray Vaughan or my own (bad) band.

Re: amplification, I am considering McCormack, Marsh, Metronome, Bryston, and MF among others, but this is an open book right now, and should be fun "reading." CD/phono source as yet undetermined. Going slowly...

Thanks for your input.
posty
hackmaster
102 posts
 
The Arc's are going to provide considerably deeper bass and a greater depth to the soundstage. The Harbeth's will sound more open and high resolution with a little more of an etched high end. The Arc's will have the better midrange of the two however. The Arc's are a more mellow and laid back sound, the Harbeth's a little more in your face. The Arc's run on 8 wpc. and up, virtually any amplifier is capable of driving them although we have found that Metronome, Chord, and ReVox are good choices for solid state, and Papworth and Unison are excellent choices for tubes.
thsalmon
348 posts
 
I would advise you to by all means to get the ARCs. The ARCs will outperform any other monitor, period. There is no "box" sound whatsoever, and the bass extension is quite remarkable given the size of the speaker. Think about Chord, Rowland or EAR amplification. I have extensive first hand experience with this speaker. Send me an email if you have any other questions about it, and I'm not a dealer (not to impugn Symphony Sound).
paulwp
585 posts
 
Well, I'm not sure anyone has heard both, or if they have what they were listening to. The Harbeth Compact 7 is significantly larger than the WB Arc, not really compact at all. It does not have an etched high end. Its midrange, delivered by an 8 inch woofer made from a proprietary material, is unequaled in clarity and accuracy.

Clear differences in design here. The WB apparently aims for an inert non-resonant enclosure. The Harbeth recognizes that it is impossible to eliminate cabinet resonance and uses a lossy cabinet with low amplitude resonances at non-objectionable frequencies. You would have to decide for yourself which design is most effective.

For your purposes, I would say that the nicest thing about the Harbeths is the way the bass and lower midrange holds up at low volume levels. One of my friends who reviewed the speakers for an ezine asked "whatever happened to Fletcher Munson?" because he was so impressed with the low spl bass.

If there is no Harbeth dealer in your area, you might be able to arrange for a trial from Wintertree Audio, the North American distributor.
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