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Harbeth M30 -

I currently own a pair of M30's driven by a McCormack DNA-125/MAP-1 combo, source being a UDP-1 Deluxe. The latter components were recent purchase (dare I say it, recent upgradess). It is a very nice musical combination, with great mid-bass and wonderful vocals (I listen to jazz, opera/classical and rock). Also, there is decent low end punch that is well defined

The Question:
Those who currently own Harbeths (esp. the M30) or have recently owned and upgraded, what is the next logical upgrade path? What was your next speaker choice and the underlying reasons for that decision.

My Choices
I am considering another (better?) monitor with fuller bass extension or, a full range of modest size as my room dimensions are not large. Price range, up to 4k used. Speakers I am considering,:
- older pair of Dynuadio Confidence 3,
- Totem Manis' II,
- Opera or Sonus faber (Cremona Auditor),
- Gallo 3.0 or 3.1's or,
- Verity Audio Tamino.
- Spendor SP100 or 9e

This above list is by no means exhaustive, just some of my initial thoughts.

Any further feedback or thoughts would be highly welcome.
Thank you in advance!
petek
glai's avatar
glai
442 posts
 
petek,

i own m30, avalon, quad esl.

most speakers on your list are lateral or downward moves. i used to own cremona auditor & thiel 2.4 and easily prefer the m30. the grass looks greener on the other side or the cabinets are fancier on other speakers

Try biamp or sub or better cables.
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
Sounds like the consensus is you have pretty good speakers and the M40s would be you next logical upgrade but I would discuss with Harbeth or you dealer whether you room is big enough to take advantage of the additonal bass capabilities of the M40, you could overload the room - but I'm no expert on that. With what you have, I would not make a move too quickly. Let us know what you do.
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
Oh, and obviously the Super HL5 is another worthy option with a bit more bass impact, and maybe even better in a room your size.
kensetsu
60 posts
 
Does anyone have experience comparing and contrasting these two speakers? Will the M30s with a good subwoofer outperform the Super HL5? Thanks!
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
I don't know because I have not tried it with these speakers, but my view is that subwoofers rarely (ever) integrate well with "satellites", they tend to sound incoherent to me (I'm not making a defintive statement, just suggesting that this is often the case). Where it might work IMHO, is when used with satellites that don't really need a subwoofer; that is they go down to 30Hz or so on their own, with the subwoofer filling in at the very lowest frequencies. In this this setup you sometimes don't even know the subwoofer is on - among other things it is essentially non-directional. So just based on theory (practice may prove otherwise) I would think the HL5 will be better in terms of providing a coherent seamless sound -- I assume you don't mean better in terms of producing the lowest note.
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