Suggestions please: upgrade from Dynaudio S1.4

I've owned Dynaudio Contour 1.3SE's, Confidence 2 & 4, and now the Harbeth M-40.1's. While I appreciate Dynaudio and still own two pairs of Audience Monitors in secondary systems, I love my Harbeth's! They are great with tube gear and also better than the Dyn's IME in emotional conveyance of classical music.

For classical and piano, yes you may like Harbeth better. IMO Harbeth's are less neutral than dynaudio, and also less dynamic - so for me, that isn't a good thing. Looks like Pdreher feels differently moving to a Harbeth from a C4. I wonder if the room was big enough for them?

I do not feel the need to defend the Harbeths although I own a pair myself. Goatwuss has a point when he mentioned the Harbeths do not rock like the Dynaudios. What they do is they rock differently than the Dynaudios, and they do it admirably well with most types of rock music. It depends on what kind of presentation one is looking for in his/her rock music. All speakers can do rock music and it's just that some do it better(or differently) than others.

The Harbeths may be less dynamic than the Dynaudios but it can be little tricky to define which is a more neutral speaker. The benchmark of neutrality can be live music, and while most live music is very dynamic it does not do all the hifi characteristics with precision such as imaging, soundstaging etc. Live music is not overly warm, bright or analytical but has incredible slam and dynamics. Live music can also have a lot of body and density. No doubt live music is very dynamic(and the Harbeths as with most speakers fail to recreate that atmosphere) but try comparing the tone of instruments such as saxophone, trumpets, acoustic guitars on both Harbeths and Dynaudios and see which sound more like live music.

I am not sure why the topic of Dynaudios rocking harder than the Harbeths was brought up. The OP has mentioned that he mostly listens to classical orchestra and piano, and lower notes on the piano do not sound too good on the S1.4. It may be worthwhile to explore the Harbeth C7ES3 or the SHL5 as both excel in orchestra music. They sound very natural and unforced and are balanced across the frequency spectrum, which is a good thing for orchestral works. And the best part is Accuphase amps seem to match the Harbeths well. A few Harbeth owners are using the top two Class A integrated models to drive their speakers and they are extremely pleased with the results. In a nutshell the Harbeths are more organic and natural sounding than the Dynaudios, which in comparison are more precise and analytical. Both are great speakers that cater to individuals with select listening tastes and preferences.

Ryder - well said, a different tonal balance for people with different preferences. I mentioned the the rock aspect since the original poster already has dynaudios, and may be used to the way they play heavier music. I missed the part of the original post mentioning that the music is mostly classical. In this case, the harbeth's may be the better choice - but alternatively, maybe not... If the OP's only concern is bass dynamics and likes the S1.4 tonal balance, than maybe just a bigger Dynaudio is all that's required.

If on the other hand he said that he feels the Dyns are too cool sounding and is looking for more harmonic density in the midrange, than maybe a switch to Harbeth would be in order. (I don't think Dyns are too cool sounding)

I mostly listen to classical orchestra work and piano (the lower registers of piano never sounded "great" on S1.4)

The S1.4 is an amazing speaker for it's price, in fact for me, it is hard to find a better one within that price. It's shortcomings are evident when listening to acoustic instruments like piano, violins and specially cellos. The tone and harmonics are Somehow lacking and much to be desired. I still own and kept the 1.4s but have moved to the C1s for my main listening and I am quite pleased with the presentation which IMO, is much closer to the real sound by a considerable margin. I've also listened to the Harbeth SHL-5 which is an excellent speaker but the C1s presented a more convincing live presence for me. Other speakers to consider are from Verity Audio Parsifal, Vivid Audio, Sf Elipsa and Audio note. They are more expensive but so far those are the speakers which I felt is a step up to the C1s. Good luck!