Your system in my opinion is really a Dream to achieve. I auditioned it a lot of time. My feeling is Monitor 30 are really good sounding according to match some requirements:
1 Being located far from the rear wall
2 Having one room with a lot of natural obstacles to the sound or absorber
3 being auditioned from someone who love a little round on the high freq and emphasis on the lower end
SCM20 to me is un unbelievable match with Naim, they are easier to accomodate and way better than 19. The real thing to take into consideration is that they have to be auditioned from someone who want to have realism and life experience. Impossible having something better that what recorded.
By the way I definitely prefer ATC; classic rock, folk guitar and piano are something that will burn you heartā¦with you chain flag day soundtrack will be unforgettable
These are exactly the strengths of the Harbeth speakers. Iāve been with the Harbeth M40.2 for more than 5 or 6 years, and all I say about them is that they are excellent with respect to vocal/midrange, smooth without bright, you can listen to them for hours without feeling tired. One thing is about bass, it may not be the fastest, but never overblown.
You also need to consider some good stands for the Harbeth, I have the Tontrager stands, which are not cheap, but they make a big difference to the Harbeths.
I would agree with CliveB. In my limited experience listening to various speakers throughout the years, I couldnāt find one that does human voice better than the Harbeth. Voices just sound more like the real thing through the Harbeth. The M30.1 or 30.2 is best in this regard whilst the SHL5+ and C7ES3 are better all rounders, in my opinion and experience. Some of the costly high end speakers also fail to match the Harbeth in this aspect of human voice reproduction.
You could consider the Spendor Classic 3.1, Iāve been running them now for about 3 months and they have an uncanny knack of being really detailed without being remotely bright or fatiguing, mid range is excellent as you would expect from a classic Spendor, the bass is not super fast as itās a ported speaker but itās very well balanced and controlled and goes surprisingly low. I took a pair home for an audition not expecting much but was completely taken aback as to how good they are.
Hi hifi-dog,
Yes actually i want to know the difference between āscm20sl Pro versionā and āscm20sl Hifi versionā, can you tell me if you know, thank you!
AFAIK there is no essentially different āHiFi versionā of the 20psl. It does come in nicely veneered bookshelf and tower versions for traditional use in lounges, but both have the same drivers and the same (20L) effective cabinet volume. There is a āproā version which is effectively the same but sports a less fancy cabinet. Hope this helps.
You can try Graham ls6 , they have the Harbeth characters and better in some aspects , Iām planning to buy them after a lot of search and just waiting for an audition in near future
I would like to come back to the room size issue. I agree generally with the view that the Harbeths require air around them and a larger space, but I am using the C7ās in a room that is 3x4 meters, firing down the short length. My listening distance at tweeter height is 2.2m. This is making best of a not so ideal situation, but it just about works, I believe. The Harbeths deliver at low volumes, which is one of the reasons for choosing them.
I would suggest the Harbeth sound would meet your listening criteria, but the P3ās maybe a better solution for that room size.
There are no guarantees on any one suggestion here, way up the advice and make a decision.
One of the big problems of speaker demoing at the moment has been that people have started to make compromises because of the practical issues of speaker availability due to Covid and shipment issues.
