A move from Harbeth to... Wilson?


Hi gang, hoping for some thoughts. 

I'm very happy at the moment with my system, but getting a slight itch for an upgrade. So many options and directions I could go, but the one I'm pondering at the moment is moving from my Harbeth C7ES-3 speakers to Wilson Sabrinas. (The Sabrina X is now out, which may bring the Sabrina down to my budget... maybe.)

My room is approx. 10'6" x 15'6" with the speakers along the short wall and my listening chair is about 2/3 back from said wall. The C7s plus their stands are just about the right size for this room, and the Sabrinas on their floor spikes are similar in "overall" size, though obviously the speakers themselves are bigger.

Current amp is a Pass Labs XA30.5 which doubles down at 4Ohms (plus lots of headroom) and comes just within Wilson's "recommended" amplifier power. The room is on the smaller side, and I don't listen loud; I've never "wanted" for more power with the C7s. (Though every once in a while I wonder what a pair of XA60.5s would sound like in here, but that's an entirely different thread.)

Eh? Any thoughts?
128x128don_chisholm

@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.... 😁🤣😂😆