Recommend A More Dynamic Monitor Than Harbeth C7

Pani, you think we're talking dogma, I think we're talking tastes. You don't like the sound of the Arcs, and that's your personal opinion and preference, I have no issue with that. Just the same way that I think you oversell the ATC SCM 19 - it's not a recommendation I'd make to the OP for what he's looking for. But nobody is saying high quality systems can't play lo-fi recordings, or extract the "raw juice and energy" of the recording. My personal experience is simply that a bad recording is a bad recording, and a revealing, high-resolution speaker is going to give you exactly what's on the CD, for better or worse. It's not the role of any speaker to magically remove the effects of excessive compression, or change the frequency balance. You may still get, as you put it, "color, drive, and vigour", but if a recording is lousy it's lousy. It's not a fault of any brand of speaker if they can't change that. YMMV. Let the OP do his listening tests and decide for himself - it's his taste, not yours or mine, that matters in the end.

Bcgator, you are right!

BTW, have you heard an ATC ?

Yes, fine speakers, excellent for their price point, but I'm not comfortable saying they can outperform most $20,000 speakers. Others may feel differently, but $20K buys some pretty amazing speakers these days.

In my experience very few $20k speakers justify their price and sounds complete. Most of them are just big speakers with more drivers to justify the price. I respect companies like ATC which do not compromise at any price point. They build speakers for a certain purpose and then price it, not the other way round. To build such speakers they build their own drivers, their own crossover components, cabinets and amps (for active version). At a recently concluded AV show in Malaysia, a simple ATC active speaker costing $15k blew away many $300k systems and some. I dont use an ATC but they remain as my reference because they present the truth in one of the most honest ways.

Yeah, ATC may well be your boy, and your amps probably have the juice to drive them. In addition to more snap you'll likely notice much more dynamic impact and force to the sound that captures more of what you're probably sensing when you play. Great that you have somewhere to audition them.