Speakers known for great midrange.


I’m looking for a pair of stand mount speakers with great midrange. Smooth,and syrupy. Powering them with Pass INT-25. Any suggestions are appreciated.

128x128travisg

Is it fair to say Harbeth is not the best choice for an all arounder and perhaps better with classical or slow jazz?

I couldn’t lock myself into a one genre style speaker. But I love the looks, the wood, the sound they deliver with certain styles of music.

No, it's not.  There may be certain types of music where their strengths really shine, but that doesn't mean they are limited to those genres.  Get yourself some 40.X Harbets and you can totally rock out.  I listen to rock more than anything else and my Super HL5 Plus do just fine with rock.  

It's ironic that some folks think certain speakers are great "rock speakers". 

Take Klipsch for example.  They are super sensitive and people can get them to play really loud, so therefor they are "great for rock".  I have (and still do) owned many Klipsch speakers.  Played at high volumes (let's say 80db+), I think they are painful to listen to.  At moderate volumes, they are really dynamic and can do some special things with vocals and stringed instruments like acoustic guitar.

With the right room, treatment, setup, and amplification, they can sound great, but those stars rarely align and they usually get quite brittle in the highs when pushed hard, which is what it seems most people want to do with them.  Not to mention a lot of them aren't constructed that well and without some additional bracing and other measures, you'll hear the cabinets.  I love my current Quartets, but I've done some work on them, and they sound best when playing... you guessed it, jazz vocals, acoustic guitars, and the like.

Have had the pleasure of listening to Quad, ESL-57s completely rebuilt and brought back to spec by the besy Quad guy on the East Coast, (NH guy). They're  truly magical and will own my own set soon enough. I agree with the "better" British boxes. Spendor, Harbeth, Graham, Rogers... two under the radar speaker manufacturers not in business anymore that were/are EQUALLY fantastic are Symdex and Equation. Have owned both and currently playing a set of Equation 7, hand made in Belgium in the early 00s. Just simple 2/way smaller vented columns done as best as anyone has ever done. Ceramic tweeter & proprietary polypropylene mid-bass driver in Spanish Birdseye Maple. Have to say, been at this a long time & rarely do these come up but if you ever find a set, should move quickly. Extraordinary in every way but the mids (voices especially) are over the top great. Just my opinion. 

I own Harbeth 40.2 Anni’s and owned three pairs of Harbeth’s previously... zero quality issues.

Had tweeters fail with Dynaudio Confidence 2’s and 4’s and I don’t drive my speakers hard.

well said @big_greg 

agree 100% to all your stated observations on big harbeths, and klipsches too (my ears still have ptsd from loudly played klipsches from a decade ago hahaha)