SF Guarneri Homage vs Harbeth 7ES3

Daveyf, My room is large enough where it needs some more bass....I like it deep and textured. Midrange and highs are amazing...not sure anything else I have had can touch this level of performance and pleasure to the ears. I would say if I had some more bass performance this would be about perfect for my ears.

As1963, Just curious have you tried any JL Audio subs? Was thinking about two F-110's. I'll have to look into the T-2.

It depends on priorities but in a larger room I would prefer a speaker with large drivers(8" or bigger) over a speaker with small drivers + subwoofers although the latter is preferable in smaller rooms. Larger speakers sound fuller with greater scale, realism and dynamics. Nonetheless, I agree with Daveyf in that some attributes that are inherent in select speakers like the Guarneri can sometimes be more desirable than speakers that are able give more bass and volume. It was further noted in Stereophile that although the bigger Electa Amator and Extrema will play louder and capable of higher dynamics and deeper bass, the Guarneri eclipses these Sonus faber designs when it comes to purity of sound. The G was described as truly balanced and truthful to its source with a tonal, harmonic linearity that extends from the upper bass to the treble. From the write-up, it appears that the G is an extremely low-colored speaker that does not sound much alike with the other models in the lower range of Sonus Faber speakers.

Don, You might want to consider a couple of Martin-Logan Depths. I have not heard these with G's, but a friend uses them with his 'stats and they are very fast and can go pretty deep. I'm not sure if the JL's are fast enough to keep up with the G's.

This afternoon I looked for Ken Kessler's 1993 of the Guarneri Homage. At some point he talks about the Guarneri's lack of bass, which didn't bother him much because he thought whatever bass they have is so good that you do not need more...and found this passage fairly amusing:
"So, before I go any further, I want to qualify my remarks with a reminder: I do not give a damn about deep, thunderous bass. I find the obsession with sub-70Hz sonics to be not just juvenile but anal. And I can think of no lower life form than the kind of mutant who puts twin 15 inchers in the boot of his Escort, driving along with 125dB's worth of 40Hz grunge in each lughole."

I am not sure I fully agree, but I think he has a point here...

Daveyf, Decided to make up a subwoofer myself. I can play around with design and tuning for my listening space. Maybe a cost effective way to add that touch more bass performance I'm looking for from the sound.