Harbeth sound with high wife acceptance factor?


I fell in love today with the Harbeth C7s.

Unfortunately, my wife did not.

She doesn't like speakers on stands, she doesn't like big speakers. But she did like the sound ;-)

Any suggestions for a small floorstander with Harbeth sound and better looks? We listened to the Dali Mentor 6 - the looks were great, the sounds was good, but it was just not as musical as the Harbeth.

Budget is around $3,000 - any suggestions?
ctkeene
We are fortunate enough that our house is large enough for all 4 of us (me, wife two kids) and even the dog to have their own private turf in addition to common areas.

My wife has no input into what I buy or put in my turf.

I have speakers in her turf though as well, as well in a couple areas of common turf. In those, I have to be a bit more compromising. :^)
@ mapman, Hi, I to have a man-cave, My wife helps buy whatever I want in audio, she loves music, she does voice her opinion on the sound, I like that thou, females do hear differently than a man, so when I am tunning a system, a compromise happens often, works very well toward the end result, I found men hear bass better, and the females hear the highs better, now this is just my opinion, they may be differnt opinions out there since every-one as a whole hears differently.
CTkeene - good that you finally settled down with the Devores. For what it's worth, I own both Harbeth and Dalis(SHL5 and Mentor Menuets). The Dali's midrange is no where near the Harbeth and sounded unnatural next to it.
A shop owner once told me she stopped selling Harbeth's because they were UGLY speakers and a "girlfriend repeller" (no joke). Since I like girls, I decided to heed her advice and go with something else.

Some of the best "advice" a boutique owner ever imposed on me.
I was the happy owner of a pair of C7s for many years--great speakers. The only other speaker that I have heard that is as "right" sounding are the Daedalus. I would suggest you take a look at the Athena's--a moderately sized floor stander that is beautiful to look at. If you like the Harbeth sound, then you will like the Daedalus sound even better. And the WAF could not be higher, unless you are looking for something with very modern styling.