BTW, I purposely left out the C7ES3 model. Heard them at a friend's house a few years ago, and found them to be a bit too high energy for my taste.
Also, I sit about 7 feet away from the speakers.
Also, I sit about 7 feet away from the speakers.
Moving up the Harbeth line
I am a dealer and am local to you. Feel free to reach out - that emotional connection is what I build my systems around. If you don’t get that, it doesn’t matter how much detail retrieval you can achieve. I also prefer close field settings so it sounds like we might be a match lol. I would be happy to discuss your journey, share my thoughts, and have you over to listen to some tunes with beverage. Feel free to bring the Raven over - I’ve known Dave for seven or eight years now and would have no problem ‘playing’ with his gear. |
I moved up from toe P3s to the 30.1, and am happy. It is the natural sonic progression, with the same signature, coupled with the advantage of more bass and a larger soundstage. To be fair, though, I haven't auditioned the HL5+, and there are differing opinions of them. Many absolutely love them, while a small percentage find them to be a touch bright. No doubt that they would be a further step up from the 30.1/30.2 in terms of bass and soundstage, but the sound apparently isn't identical to the smaller monitors. The additional complication is the associated equipment. With all due respect to Alan Shaw, who is famously agnostic about amps (well, largely), they do make a difference, in my experience. |
In a 12x13 room and listening 7 ft away, the P3ESR should work well. I think that your Blackhawk amplifier at 20w/ch may not be providing enough dynamic headroom. However, I see that it has a built-in high pass crossover that you can engage for the main speakers while combining with a subwoofer. This would allow the P3ESR to play more dynamically, and you would benefit from a subwoofer adding bass extension. My suggestion is to start by adding a subwoofer to your system. See Raven Audio's description of the crossover feature: https://www.ravenaudio.com/product/blackhawk-mk3/ |
+1 @mspot As a long time Harbeth user I have owned the M30.1, C7 and many P3s. I think the M30 is too big for that size room. There is something about the P3 that after trying the others just keep me coming back to them! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqFIaiPT_kY |