Harbeth-7es or Fritzspeakers carbon-7

I have owned Totem Totts, Spendor S3/5se and Fritz Carbon 7's. I had the good fortune to be able to A/B the Spendors and the Carbon 7's. The Spendor was accurate but "small" sounding and very location dependent. I was expecting that transparent "big room" sound-stage and did not always get it from the Spendors. The Carbon 7, on the other hand, sounded huge at the outset, and only improved with time. The sound-stage remained broad but focused even when I moved off axis. I was using an Audible Illusions M3B pre and a TAD-60 power. Workmanship was absolutely first rate on the Carbon 7's. VERY big sound in a small package. No gimmicks just thoughtful and intelligent design using the best drivers available. I cannot imagine Harbeth's bettering the performance of the Carbon 7's to the degree that would warrant their price differential.

Here's what I've gleaned from my time with em':

Harbeth's will have the advantage in terms of treble detail/extension along with better midrange clarity. If you want an expressive speaker that does a good job of capturing tone, this may be the way to go.

The Carbon 7's are fuller sounding and a bit more rolled off. Both speakers are colored, though the dynamics and bass prowess on the Carbon 7's surpass the Compact 7 ES 3's. The Carbon 7 sounds more full-range and is easier to listen to on crap recordings. If you want a speaker that won't discriminate too harshly against poor recordings, this is probably the route you should take.

As an aside: neither of them are the last word in bass accuracy (in terms of speed) or sound-staging. They also aren't built to be totally transparent speakers, which means they have a tonal color that imparts itself onto every recording. So long as you like the sound, this shouldn't be a problem. If you don't however, you could get tired from all of your music more or less sounding the same.

Well, thats all I got for now. Good luck!

Rumadian,

Thank you for your observation. I'm going today to listen to the Harbeths and hopefully Fritz will come by soon with his speaker. I will let you know my findings. Thank again.

Harbeths cannot come close to Carbon 7.

never heard the harbeths, but i just got some Fritz Groves 2 weeks ago and they are one of the best speakers i have ever heard.