Compact 7ES-3

Massive improvement. The 7ES-3 is a very good speaker. Sam Tellig bought both Compact 7ES and the LFD integrated when he reviewed each pieces separately in 2007 and 2008. The combinaton between the two was described as a match made in heaven.

I haven't heard the Silverline's but the Harbeth C7 is a true classic and one of the finest speakers ever made. It took me 2 years to find something that retained the beautiful midrange, coherence and musicality of the Harbeth but with more and better bass. You simply cannot go wrong with this speaker. Drive it with anything, place it anywhere and you will still get beautiful music. Unless you listen exclusively to hard rock, metal or dance music I'd say go for it.

Thank you for the responses. I have been ruminating for awhile now over the best speaker system for my situation. I have a large listening room now, but expect to move to a medium size listening room in the future. I have looked/heard larger PSB's, larger Silverlines, and emailed sellers about their for sale speakers. I even uncharacteristically backed out of a Klipsch purchase because my gut told me I was making a mistake. I realize I wanted "really good" on a budget, and I now realize that to get close to "really good" I need to pony up the dollars. If music didn't mean so much to me I wouldn't bother, but after losing my wife to cancer, after having my own close scrapes with health issues - I'm now at a place in my life where I want really good and not just an OK (set of speakers). I heard two models of Harbeth speakers and I'm now a believer. I may not be able to afford the pricey gear "upstream" as is discussed on Audiogon, but I can afford to squeeze my savings for really good speakers, speakers being the most important component in a stereo setup (IMO). I will now begin the hunt for a nice u-s-e-d set of cherry finish Harbeth Super HL5's (and appropriate stands). It may be a long hunt (o:

There are a couple nice pr. here on Agon right now. I use the SHL5s with sound anchor stands and have really only run into one problem with them.............Thats wondering how I can come up with the $$$ for the 40.1s. ;-) Good luck in your Harbeth hunt, and sorry to hear about the lose of your wife.

My Compact 7's are coming. The larger models are more appropriate for where I'm now living, but I do plan to be able to sell my house at some point in the near future and move to a place with a more Compact 7 friendly layout. Diverse opinions on audiogon and elsewhere about Harbeth's in an audio system. Some favor REL subs, others stress a certain make of amplifier as a pairing made in heaven. Ultimately it's my ears that matter, and I very much liked what I heard from the Compact 7's. I've yet to hear them powered with my Jolida JD302, but I have faith they will sound quite good even in my far less than ideal listening space.