For warmth and musicality, it’s hard to beat Sonus Faber. However, they are famously demanding speakers, which require powerful amplification and a lot of space around them. If you don’t have both, better to look for another brand.
Sounds like the Harthbeth 40.2, warm and musical but requires lots of space and amplification power.
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I suppose that’s one reason to be grateful I can’t afford the m40’s 
. My m30.2xd are great in the room I have but it sounds like the 40’s would be a bit squashed.
Dynaudio speakers need a lot of time to bed in and until they do, they sound muddy and cheap. They also need a lot of power to sound their best and you won’t know the difference until you have a muscular power amp to compare your own against.
Special40 are great in their price bracket, say at the end of a Nova. Listen to Esotar3, Heritage Specials, Confidence.
I am driving the P3ESR with a Nait 50 and have used a Nova with them, the Nova and XS3 share many of the same parts.
There is one happy user on this forum uses an Atom with them and is very happy, having said that my former dealer refused to pair the two
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I don’t doubt it. At least the samples I listened to were well used demo units and one of the transistorised power amps used peaked at 220 watts. So yes if I needed an amp that peaked at 1kW or higher say… I didn’t use that but then would not be practical for me.
However some of the commentary from users on the web suggest some think the Special 40 sounds best with low power valve amps… I didn’t listen with such amps.
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Silly person.
Yes, my former dealer, as a speaker there seems to be a lot of conflicting opinions about the P3ESR
Apparently it works for the P3. But people often say that Harbeth need power. Not true?
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Listening through a Nait 50 and has oodles of power
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It sure does, the Nait50 peaks at over 200 watts, you need to ensure you don’t damage less robust speakers when playing loud… though I don’t know what the Atom is peak power rated for, perhaps rather more modest?
Haven’t got a clue, that stat isn’t on the Naim website
The standard advice for the P3ESR seems to be (i) you need a powerful amplifier and (ii) they have to be situated well away from the front wall. My brother has a pair that are seated on his mantelpiece with only an inch or two behind, and driven by a modest integrated amp (I don’t remember which brand). To my ears they sound very good indeed, with no obvious deficits, though he rarely turns the wick up.
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I thought most speakers work best well away from front wall? I’ve yet to come by a speaker that doesn’t sound better away from all room boundaries. I haven’t tried speakers that are said to be made specifically to be close to walls though. I have my Spendor 183cm from front wall to baffle.
As a general rule, a sealed box loudspeaker will need to be closer to the wall, a rear-ported speaker further away, and more exotic designs such as an electrostatic dipole further away again. There’s a lot of variation, but most aficionados of, say, the Naim SBL, will say that not only does it need to be close to the rear wall, but the wall itself should be solid, and not a stud wall. The near-legendary Linn Kan should be so close to the wall that some of its fans cut away the skirting board so that the dedicated stands could be as close to the plane of the wall as possible (I still have my Kan Is, but I never went that far).
My experience with every speaker I’ve owned is that, within general guidelines, it’s all about trade-offs. Closer to the wall and you get firmer, but possibly boomy bass. Further away, imaging and detail improve, but at the expense of a thinner, lighter sound.
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And Audio Note speakers are even designed to be placed in the corner which would be challenging for other speaker designs. So it all depends on the design of the speaker and how it interacts with the room depending on where it is placed.
When I moved to a house with stud walls everywhere I thought that was the end for my NBLs and started looking for alternatives but with a bit of experiment I coaxed a very decent level of bass out of the NBLs with their backs 33.5cm out instead of the 5.5cm that worked with the last two rooms with solid walls.
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I have a similar sensitivity to high frequencies, although mine isn’t as bed as yours. I’m surprised nobody has suggested the JBL L82’s or L100’s. They both have an attenuator to roll back the highs so you could set them exactly at a level that feels comfortable for you. I brought the L82’s and I’m really pleased them on my all Rega setup. Some might consider JBL to not be comparable to other speaker manufacturers but do a bit of digging and you you will find the L82’s in particular are highly regarded.
… I forgot to mention there is a smaller bookshelf version (L52) if your amplifier can’t power the larger models.
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