A move from Harbeth to... Wilson?

I like a wide range of speaker brands.  Each has their own strengths and weaknesses.  None are really bad and I'd be happy to live with any of the top brands at their various price points.  I've just ordered a new pair of Wilsons as I love their ability to image three dimensionally.  Do they sound like live music .....no but then no speaker or recording does.

@jjss49 , great systems will reproduce them all. 

There is nothing wrong with Wilsons other than the price and a few questionable building practice's. I personally prefer Magicos because they are most definitely better made. The sound is remarkable similar between the two. For value you can not beat Harbeth P3s on stands with subwoofers. The subwoofers with proper digital bass management turn the little guys into monsters, every bit as potent as Sabrinas if not more. The limiting factor in most speakers is the power handling of the tweeter.. There is only so much you can get out of a 1" cup or dome. In a room the size of the OPs small monitors on stands make sense. These little monitors are so attractive because the small cabinets are so small and stiff they do not resonate. The enclosure disappears. The problem for them is the little woofers have to work very hard to make bass distorting everything else they carry. Subwoofers and crossovers with steep curves solve that problem turning David into goliath. I think the P3 is Harbeths best speaker. The Falcon is also popular but I have not heard them.

All these speakers are point source which means their acoustic power drops off at the cube of the distance and they are relatively omnidirectional causing more room interaction. I prefer line source dipoles because their power drops off at the square of the distance and their directionality is controlled in all directions limiting room interaction. They produce a larger soundstage which is more realistic.  

@mijostyn 

i agree 100%

line source speakers, especially tall ones, have a real magic to them in how they fill the room with sound with a more real life scale

overdriven smaller drivers always sound like water being shot out of a high pressure hose... no bueno...

@jjss49 , You may have missed my point. Even the largest Wilson has one little tweeter, no different than a Harbeth P3. Once you turn it's little woofer into a midrange driver by removing the bass the speaker will go just as loud as the largest Wilson as long as you add two 15" subwoofers with digital bass management crossing over at 125 Hz 8th order. The Only differences are price and enclosure materials. Once you get down to a very small enclosure it is much easier to make it non resonant. We noticed the possibilities right away with the Rogers LS3 5A back in the late 70s. The problem for us back then was our crossover choices were extremely limited and they were all analog. It was very difficult to keep the sub out of the midrange so we had to crossover lower down. The output levels were still limited. 

@mijostyn 

haha

ok now i am completely confused as to what point you are making

but i still agree.... 😁🤣😂😆