wilson benesch ARC vs. Harbeth compact 7ES? Advice

Well, I'm not sure anyone has heard both, or if they have what they were listening to. The Harbeth Compact 7 is significantly larger than the WB Arc, not really compact at all. It does not have an etched high end. Its midrange, delivered by an 8 inch woofer made from a proprietary material, is unequaled in clarity and accuracy.

Clear differences in design here. The WB apparently aims for an inert non-resonant enclosure. The Harbeth recognizes that it is impossible to eliminate cabinet resonance and uses a lossy cabinet with low amplitude resonances at non-objectionable frequencies. You would have to decide for yourself which design is most effective.

For your purposes, I would say that the nicest thing about the Harbeths is the way the bass and lower midrange holds up at low volume levels. One of my friends who reviewed the speakers for an ezine asked "whatever happened to Fletcher Munson?" because he was so impressed with the low spl bass.

If there is no Harbeth dealer in your area, you might be able to arrange for a trial from Wintertree Audio, the North American distributor.

I would advise you to by all means to get the ARCs. The ARCs will outperform any other monitor, period. There is no "box" sound whatsoever, and the bass extension is quite remarkable given the size of the speaker. Think about Chord, Rowland or EAR amplification. I have extensive first hand experience with this speaker. Send me an email if you have any other questions about it, and I'm not a dealer (not to impugn Symphony Sound).

The Arc's are going to provide considerably deeper bass and a greater depth to the soundstage. The Harbeth's will sound more open and high resolution with a little more of an etched high end. The Arc's will have the better midrange of the two however. The Arc's are a more mellow and laid back sound, the Harbeth's a little more in your face. The Arc's run on 8 wpc. and up, virtually any amplifier is capable of driving them although we have found that Metronome, Chord, and ReVox are good choices for solid state, and Papworth and Unison are excellent choices for tubes.