Recommendations for speakers that sound great at lower volume levels.


I have a pair of Harbeth SHL5 Plus and they sound wonderful when I crank them up. But at moderate to low volume levels they sound disappointingly flat and unengaging - instruments are less palpable, bass has less bloom, and soundstage has less air and dimensionality. I drive my speakers with a tube integrated - a Line Magnetic 845 rated at 26 watts of power. My Harbeths are rated at 86db. Would a higher sensitivity speaker be helpful? Or how about a good quality small shoebox sized pair of speakers coupled with a subwoofer? Or not. What speakers are going to deliver music you can feel at low volume levels? What say all you wisened audiophiles?
128x128neptune123
Before I got the RAAL SR1a headphones low volume listening was a very big deal for me. So I tried a few things.

I learned that DAC direct to amp was not the best at low volume. I learned that very quiet electronics, such as Benchmark AHB2 amp + LA4 preamp are amazing at low volume. You are not going to get anything quieter than that, except for the new Topping pre90 preamp. With this very quiet gear my KEF LS50, Thiel CS3.7, and Audience 1+1 V3 all sounded very good at low volume. By very good I mean you can hear all the frequencies but at a lower volume. Not the case with nosier gear and DAC direct to amp (with what I tried).

If I had Harbeth I would use AHB2 on them.

Good thing is today a lot of gear is becoming very quiet such as my CODA 07x preamp and CODA #8 amp. It also sounds great at low volume.
Since loudspeakers can range from about 80db- 1 watt to 112db -1 watt,   I would still say that over 100db is high eff, 89-99 med, below 88 low eff. If it's not this then the term high eff would have no meaning at all.
A guy with Harbeth's driven by tube gear asking for advice? Do they sound dull in the evening listening in the nearfield?  Maybe too much of a good thing with tubes at low volume. Try a ss int at low volumes?
Perhaps your amplifiers are not very well defined att lower volumes. You shouldn't need much power at low volume so an amplifier with a rich tone....