Warm romantic & detailed


Good morning Gentlemen & ladies... 

I'm just starting to toy with idea of replacing my Focal 1038's... No matter how I treat my room, or what equipment I throw at it I just can't seem to tame the harsh highs on this speaker. 

I'd like to stay in the same price range of the Electra's (7/8k), I don't mind buying used, the musts for me at this point are: Warm, romantic, yet detailed... It would be beautiful to just sit and listen and not have ear fatigue after 15 minutes of listening. 

Can you please recommend something? 
jeffinnh76
I found a few speakers in my original planned budget. Of course things evolved for me after some demo sessions, and of course recommendations. As Mentioned: the Focal Spectral's checked all the boxes I was looking for. I demo pair was selling for 7600... The Sonus Faber heritage iii really blew me away, 10k with the stands included I thought this was a great deal. But after hearing The Harbeths I felt like that was a life changing experience for MY ears. 
i’m glad you like them I just could not believe the price when I saw them MSRP. Would you consider them to be warm and romantic? What made them life changing compared to the other great ones you heard?

Also curious how were spectral‘s compared to your other focals in terms of sound signature? Seems like the spectrals don’t get much talk in the community 
Congratulations and here's hoping these make you smile for a lot of years. Good work taking your time shopping.   
The Spectral’s beat out every part of the Midrange VS the Electra’s... Of course the Electra’s dug a little deeper in the bottom end, but what an extraordinary midrange the Spectral’s have. I even had the chance to compare the Spectral’s against the Sopra 3’s, and I strongly believe the midrange in the Spectral’s bested them.

I would consider the Harbeths to sound rich, full, engulfing. The bass was like nothing I've heard before... Don't get me wrong not one specific factein on the deep end bested any top end speakers I've heard, but there was just something about it that sounded so different that I absolutely loved. After hearing one track I walked out of the room seriously thinking about what I just heard, and if my mind was jacked up from a little more caffeine than I needed. I then walked back in, played 5 or songs and honestly I never wanted to leave that room. 

I was lucky enough to snag one of the first pairs of Focal Sopra No2s that arrived in the U.S. and have been smitten with them ever since.

Having said that, part of the reason the highs aren't harsh is the electronics I'm driving them with, a McIntosh MC452 solid state power amp and McIntosh C2500 tube preamp.

I have heard them driven by other amps and thought they sounded "thin" and the highs were too intense for my tastes.

With my current setup I can listen to them for several hours and not tire.