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Harbeth 40.2 OR Spendor Classic 100 OR ??

I'm midway through the quest for the next set of speakers, and the purpose of this thread is just to check if there are any makes/models out there that I should be taking into consideration, but are not currently on my radar.

My current two finalists are as above, Harbeth 40.2 and Spendor Classic 100.

Both of these have displaced my previous "fav", the Vienna Acoustics Liszt.

In various auditionings, I've also been impressed by Audio Note AN-E and Shahinian Oberlisk. I know both of these models are "divergent", but I mention them not because they're also real contenders, but because I was really impressed by the timbral presentation of the AN--as natural as I've heard, and the spatial presentation of the Shahinian--as, well, spacious as I've heard..  At the same time, they both have drawbacks that rule them out for me.

I hope this list gives some idea of where my acoustic tastes align.  Is there anything else out there I should listen to?  I have heard Spendor D7 and ProAc D30, and extrapolating from them, ruled out their corresponding larger models.  I've also heard Devore O/93, and again preferred Harbeth, Spendor, as well as AN (his inspiration).

I'm not really interested in suggestions from the "usual suspects" pool--you know, Vandersteen, Magico, Focal, Revel, B&W, PSB, Monitor Audio, Dynaudio, etc.

BTW, to be driven by Belles Aria monoblocks in what I would describe as a medium-sized room wherein placement would allow for a good 3' away from front and both side walls.

128x128twoleftears
mindlessminion
99 posts
 
I will be curious what you ultimately decide as I have been fascinated with both of these speakers.  In college my brother-in-law owned a pair of SP1 which I truly enjoyed.  I have heard smaller Spendors at shows and again I liked.  I have never heard the 40.2, or Classic 100.  These speakers are on my short list - if and when I make a speaker move.
jperry
2,448 posts
 
If you can find it the Spendor 9/1 was a floorstanding SP 100.

Great looking speaker with no stand required.


larryi
3,971 posts
 
It would be helpful to know what ruled out some of the contenders.  I like a lot of the speakers you mentioned.  I notice that they mostly fall in the warmer side of the the coloration spectrum, and tend to deliver rich, well saturated, timbre rather than sounding lean and detailed.  This is my kind of sound too.  But, the tricky aspect of this sound is avoiding a sluggish sound that lacks appropriate micro dynamics.  Tell us what you want more of that some of the contenders did not deliver, or what they did that was somewhat off-putting.

Both the Harbeth and the Spendor have quite similar sound.  They can both over power small and medium sized rooms with their bass and sound a bit boomy.  They both need a bit of power and may not be suitable with very low-powered tube amps.  I know that the Harbeth is quite sensitive about the kind of amp it is used with and can sound lifeless with the wrong amp (I have very little recent experience with the SP100).
dodgealum's avatar
dodgealum
1,404 posts
 
If you like the Harbeth/Spendor sound but want something with greater dynamic agility and higher sensitivity you may want to take a look at Daedalus Audio. I had the Spendor S-100's for many years as well as a pair of Compact 7s. I've also heard the rest of the Harbeth line. Personally, I just love the Harbeth/Spendor sound--instruments and voices sound so real and natural. There is zero listening fatigue. They just sound "right" to me. The Daedalus speakers build on this with greater resolution, inner detail and dynamics--they sound easily as "real" but simply more alive. You may like....
salectric
750 posts
 
I owned SP-100 speakers for nearly 20 years and found them very satisfying on a wide range of music.  They are truly a "music lover's speaker."  I seriously considered some of the speakers on your list as possible replacements for the Spendors including the Devore O/96, Audio Note E, and Harbeth 40.2, as well as the Daedalus speakers mentioned by another poster.  Of those the Harbeth 40.2 was the most satisfying to my ears and would probably have been a worthwhile improvement over the SP-100 but not by a substantial margin.  

I ended up going with a custom open-baffle speaker using vintage drivers, but I suspect I would have been very happy with the Harbeth as well.
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