I am due to hear several different models including the d2r which is slightly over the top of my planned budget so I will hear the ribbon tweeter. All the models are different in some way so I’m really interested to see how how they compare in my room.
I think that what you’ve written captures what I feel about these speakers. I’ve still got another demo day scheduled to which I’ve actually added the Proac tab 10 signatures due to their similarities to the Harbeth. After I’ve listened to everything I’ll take stock and no matter what happens I now understand the difference speakers can make in a system.
Edit: I did look at the neat brand but the shop I was speaking to asked me to shrink my demo list down and they would have had to be ordered in so wouldn’t have been run in at all so I went with what the shop had available.
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Thank you yes that explains things so much better than I could.
That is why people always say you really must hear speakers for yourself not rely on reviews or what other people say, with a possible exception where you know enough about an individual’s taste in speaker presentation to know theirs yours is the same as yours. The following copied from a recent post of mine in another thread: …many years ago when I did a mammoth audition of 13 speakers, all in the same quite high price bracket*. Considering that they all had received very good reviews, with most being the flagship of their respective manufacturers’ ranges, I was surprised and amazed at how different they all sounded - ten sounded so bad to my ears that I rejected within the first couple of minutes (yet at least one of those is loved even now by a number of forum members). Of all system components, speakers have the greatest effect on the sound character of a system. This is why I strongly advocate finding speakers that you love early on in system building, just ensuring the amp has enough control to make them sound good enough and that the source is half decent, then improve other components later.
(*Inflation equates to something like £2.5-£3k today, but there weren’t very many speakers priced significantly higher in those days, and at least some of those speakers if made today would be considerably more - the IMFs I bought then would sit somewhere between the PMC Twentyfive.24 and 26 in equivalent models today, so somewhat in excess of £6k.)
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I definitely understand now, I’ve always thought you should demo stuff but didn’t realise how true that was for speakers or how much difference the room makes as it isn’t as obvious with amp changes.
Yeah inflation has really changed prices comparing the when reviewed price to now can be a shock. I honestly think if you tried to save up a bigger budget by the time you looked again it would be the same speakers as they would have gone up to the new budget 
I completely understand what you mean, as I have had speakers which, without being necessarily too bright, were too exciting and in your face for long term listening (they were called Dynaudio Excite after all! 
) Back then I had only demoed speakers at the dealer’s room, which is a mistake that I will not be repeating any time soon.
I recently went through the process of auditioning several speakers, and have documented my experience in this thread:
It’s a bit of a long read and of course our hearing and rooms are different, so I will not make any speaker suggestions. But feel free to have a read.
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Try the PMC Twenty5.21i I would imagine they would be excellent…I had the little 20.21 for years they were terrific…even used them with the NAP500…to great effect. Now use the Vivid S12 which is a whole other ball game…
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I had read the thread but without the context of my demo experience so I’m now going to reread with hopefully better understanding.
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What is the size of your listening space? And what is the budget you allocated for the subject?
I would recommend you to also sample the
heritage special - DYNAUDIO
NEAT-elite classic
So my room 13’9 by 19’9 as with a lot of people my speakers are facing into the shorter measurement (I really wasn’t sure how to describe that). My listening position is quite close 6-8 feet from the speakers and they are about 1 foot out from the wall. My room is carpeted and there are a lot of bookshelves. Budget wise I’m thinking £3000-3500 at the top end.
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So we stayed with the Neat…
Hang on, or the other speakers being reviewed understated the mid range?
I suggest that as the review material was pop, and if anything that genre, in general, should sound exciting?
One might like an understated presentation, but not to the extent it makes pop unexciting?
If I understand your position correctly, speakers should honour the source material. I admit I’m not familiar with the material used - and good grief I’m aware how out of touch that makes me sound X) - but assuming it ought to sound exciting, why does that make the Fynes “false” or “exaggerated” for accurately representing it?
For the OP, I have heard some good Fyne speakers, I think they were the 500s you listened to. They were on the end of Rega amplification and a Technics TT. I don’t recall being blown away by them compared to my own far more prosaic Neat SX3s. It was a pretty short audition. I couldn’t say if they had their best chance of performing, and at the danger of recommending speakers I own, I’d also think about listening to some of Neat’s offerings, if they’re locally available. The Ministras are well within budget, are designed for close to boundary siting, so might suit your listening position too.
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Yes, that is a possibility, too: all l three other speakers may have suppressed that part of the spectrum relative to the Fyne - but the fact that the OP found the Fyne verging on fatiguing compared to the others suggests that it was the one with something out of balance, and she didn’t think it was top end sometimes associated with being fatiguing.
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I’ll say to you what I said to @sihctr , try some PMC twenty5.21i. They are terrific speakers and cost £2,800 with their stands. Your room isn’t small and I think some of the LS3/5a sized sealed speakers might struggle. They are certainly far more successful in my room than the ProAc Tablette 10 Signatures that preceded them and can give a scale and bass depth that the 10’s cannot. They are very well built, can go close to the wall and have nifty channels in the stands to hide the cables. They handle all sorts of music really well.
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I’ve got the proac demo set for next week after that I’ll see where I am and decide if I want to consider further alternatives neats offerings are definitely interesting and I may have to try the pmc. Also I just realised this is one of the few places I use my shorter handle that doesn’t make obvious I’m female lol
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The Tablette 10s are lovely speakers but I do think they will be too small for your room, especially as it’s quite a bit bigger than mine, which is 15’ by 12’ with the speakers on the long wall.
Going back to your original post, you certainly don’t want speakers that are exciting all the time. You want speakers that portray music as it is, exciting music as exciting, sad music as sad and so on.
The PMCs were a real surprise to me and in my room are just so much better. Unlike many speakers they have a single pair of terminals, so avoiding the whole annoying jumper lead angst that can come up with biwire terminals.
If you like the ProAc sound, the larger D2R or D20R are possibly a better bet than the Tablettes.
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Your gender is immaterial to choice of speaker! Ditto generally in the forum (other than someone getting the right personal pronoun when referring to you -and I’ve just realised I failed to use my more normal neutral approach of s/he when a member’s gender is unknown, so I will correct that!). I get impression that for whatever reason your gender is in a minority on the forum, so always nice to learn there are more of you behind the anonymity of avatars and forum names!
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I’ve taken to using they, it’s far easier.
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There’s no easy way of saying this but I suspect your source is at my level of amplification, not yours.
This doesn’t stop me wishing you good luck in sorting out the system to your satisfaction. I can’t help wondering how you might feel about the Focal Aria 906s with a NDX2 (or better) at the front end. Could you swing it for your dealer to bring one round?
C.
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