the acoustic energy 520s also to be considered. Big upgrade to the 509s for rather limited upscaled price. Splendid reviews.
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So today was the big ProAc speaker demo day! First I will say I get why people recommend the brand vocals are so clear. I listened to 5 models we went in size order:
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The tab 10 signatures- These were better than the spendors or the kudos last week but did not sound as good as the harbeths to me as I didn’t feel the differences were worth the loss of the warm vocal tone. Was honestly surprised by how clear they were.
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DB1- Better than the tabs added more bass back in which took away some sharpness from the vocals. Still not enough to make them a favourite though.
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Studio Sm100- I think my favourite of the stand-mounts though its a toss up between these and the next ones, which considering the price difference between them definitely makes them the best from a value for money perspective. More balanced than the previous speakers but still with crystal clear vocals was quite impressed by the bass so much better than my current focals. I liked them a lot but did wish I had the harbeths to compare.
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D2R’s- I liked these too but there wasn’t the obvious difference I was expecting due to the increased cost and much lauded ribbon tweeter. They were great and I think they may have expressed the emotion of the music better, though its hard to properly experience the emotion while trying to be analytical so I may be doing the sm100’s a disservice in this department. I was slightly worried that the emphasis on vocals which sometimes came across as sharp to me might be too much.
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DT8’S- The only floor-standers I’ve demoed I have to say I was nervous, as I felt overpowered by several speakers last week I thought they would easily be too much. But I was pleasantly surprised these had less emphasis on vocals than the others and felt the most balanced of the speakers I listened to, the sm100 and d2r may have better bass in how deep it punches but the dt8 has more of it.
The end result is that I’ve been allowed to keep the dt8’s for a week to acclimatise a bit so I’m going to see how I feel after listening for a bit. Edit: Forgot to mention that all the speakers were brand new so this week will also allow me to run the dt8’s in a bit
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Nice write up.
I was interested to hear your thoughts on ProAc speakers and didn’t want to comment before you had a listen (I like the Naim ProAc combo).
Whatever you eventually decide upon your approach has been spot on for me as it just boils down to what you like and you seem to have a good idea of that from the demos.
That said I was a bit surprised by your choice given stand mount heavy audition list so definitely try some bass heavy tracks with those DT8’s to see if they set off any room modes but that’s the beauty of a home demo.
Good luck and enjoy the ride.
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@dmu - thanks for posting this - a really interesting read, especially your thoughts on the two larger stand mounts. Proac are good value and I think the DT8s are a great speaker for the money.
Let us know how you get on with it after your week of listening.
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Really appreciate your little review - I’ve moved rooms and using my current monitor audio’s and to be fair they’re sounding pretty good - still waiting on news of when I might get the DB1’s to listen to. But definitely keep us posted on your findings this week?
Thanks
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If whoever your getting them from also offers the sm100’s they might be worth a go I was surprised they were nearly £200 cheaper than the db1’s. Though it depends how close you sit they are studio monitor style but I sit 6-8 feet away so you don’t have to be right on top. They are heavy as well apparently lol.
I, on the other hand, as a generalisation am surprised when people prefer stand mounts over floorstanders unless pairing with decent subs. Exceptions to my surprise are when very limited in budget and only ably to afford cheap speakers, and, possibly, in a very small room.
The OP’s room is a good size and should be well able to handle full range speakers, subject to good placement.
Unexpected snag with the proac’s everything I said about sound remains true better bass, clearer vocals based just on that I should love them. But the thing is I’ve lost all emotional connection with my music. To demonstrate the problem to my mum (I was wondering if it was just me) I played a track on both the proac’s then my sonos soundbar (because they can both work at the same time so even if its better at tv than music I can do a quick swap).
What we deduced is its removing some of the resonance in voices, some of which I feel is meant to be there. Maybe some would argue that this is “warmth” and “colouration” that is being removed because of the proac’s neutrality, maybe they are right but it seems like its even making singers accents less pronounced. Either way it just doesn’t work for me personally its a shame because I wanted to love them. I can certainly see why they are a favourite for some, for example intelligibility is great I can definitely hear lyrics more clearly. Edit: I also find it weird how different speakers can sound while all being called neutral for example I’ve never had this reaction to spendor speakers even if they didn’t work for me.
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Clearly not great as your search continues but your decision to demo rather than buy has proved very wise and confirms that speaker choice is even more peronal than other components.
Speaker cable may influence this although you must work with what you’ve got and clearly like already.
Good luck 
.
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I would try, if possible for you, Living Voice, Apertura, Harbeth or Sonus Faber. I have Apertura.
But could have been happy with Sonus Faber Olympica range.
These four speakers brand major on voices, natural decay, textures and nice tones. For me the Proac are more linear, less rich and textured. My dealer had both , Apertura and Proac. During maybe 20 years with Naim .
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Yes I’m seriously considering both Sonus faber and Harbeth. Unfortunately it looks like Apertura doesn’t have any dealers or distributors here at least not according to the manufacturers website. I’d never heard of living voice it seems rather specialist it seems rather difficult to even find a simple price list to see if they are above my budget or not 
but it’s still interesting discovering this brand exists.
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I don’t know the speakers but understand from earlier comments that they are brand new. No new speaker will give its best after just a day or two; many will change quite significantly during the first 50 hours or so and still not be at their best for another 150. I would take advantage of the 7 day offer, keep them running 24/7 and asses them at the end of the week. You might find the emotion comes as the speakers loosen up.
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I don’t think Living Voice would work very well with a 250DR amp (although I may be wrong), I think it might be too powerful for them.
Also speaker cable should be Copper Litz and Silver Litz, although I have tried Nac A4 into the crossovers then Kondo silver Litz from crossovers to speakers with my Nait 2’s and it worked OK and sounded very good. On parr to my AN P3 Silver.
The Living Voice Auditorium Series speakers are really for flea powered valve and SS amps like my AudioNote 300B P3 Silver which is only 8 watts, they also work OK with my old CB and Olive Nait 2’s which are around 13 watts.
Or something like an Enlium Amp 23R which is 25 watts or maybe a First Watt J2 at 25 watts.
dmu could always contact Living Voice and ask if they would work with a Naim 250DR.
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You must be right. I remember someone was enjoying Living Voice with Naim, but maybe it was a Nait or XS.
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That’s my exact experience when I tried the Proac Tablette Ref 50 Signature about 10 or 12 years ago in my system. The clarity, detail and 3-dimensional sound stage are excellent and they image like crazy but ultimately I found the speakers to sound lean and thin without much warmth or body in the midrange. I sold the Tablette Ref 50s after 3 months. I tried several amps with them including the warm and liquid Class A Plinius SA-100mk3 but to no avail. Similarly I wanted to love Proacs but just had to let them go. I"ve owned the Harbeth SHL5 and SHL5+ (more than a decade) so perhaps our conclusion or preferences may be derived from the same experience.
As others have suggested, do try other options as there will surely be one that will tick most of the boxes. These days I don’t listen to much vocals as 90% of the music that I listen to is instrumental, jazz fusion, guitar or piano based music.
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I forgot to mention that I find the tonality of the Tablette 50 Sigs to be inferior to the Harbeth as sound of instruments such as guitars, piano or trumpet etc. do not sound like the real thing through the speakers. The acoustic instruments sound more like the real thing through the Harbeth. I’m not sure if the current modern Proacs have shown improvements in tonal accuracy.
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It’s comforting to have someone have a similar experience especially with you mentioning your love of Harbeth’s sound, it does sound like we enjoy the same type of sound. I’m probably going to email the 1st dealer again soon and ask if it’s worth demoing the bigger Harbeths against the p3 in my room.
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I don’t have any experience with Your p3’s but would expect that the m30’s to vastly “fill in” the sound. I use M30.1 for several years with a250 dr. It sounds like it would address your concerns very well. Having said that, I found them to suffer more a foundational lack (bass) that is mostly noticeable when hearing other speakers. What music is there is handled very well and if not missed, they make for a very good speaker to just sit back and enjoy the music.
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We find that to be a VERY interesting observation.
The accurate presentation of vocal and instrumental timbre is one of the design objectives of the classic BBC monitor design philosophy - this may be why companies with a history of producing these speakers may get this so right, specifically Harbeth and also Spendor (but only really particularly in their ‘classic’ range).
Other design philosophies produce strengths in other areas in which BBC monitor derived speakers do no perform so well, it is, as always, an engineering compromise. Matching the enormous range complexity of the relative strengths of speakers to our own listening preferences is, we believe, why speakers are such a personal choice.
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Speakers are a compromise - they are all flawed (some more than others!) - sounds like your having fun … enjoy the process keep us in the loop…what I do know from experience is, once you find one that has synergy with your system and meets your fundamental preferences … you will be amazed how good modern speakers can be.