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Before you give up on the Harbeth's you should get your new amps, optimize your setup and give the Compact 7's a serious workout. The Harbeths have a midrange like no other, and can be very addicting when setup properly. I have little experience with the Compact 7's except that after hearing them I went ahead and bought a pair of Harbeth Super HL5's. I have not heard the Sapphire XL's but I own a pair of the Sapphire Anniversary models. I am unaware of how the sound changed with the XL's but I have heard good things about them. With that being said the Harbeth's play on a different field than my Sapphires in terms of sheer musicality. Given that the Harbeth's cost about three times the price of the Sapphires, that is not surprising. I now own a pair of Harbeth Monitor 40's and a pair of Vandersteen Quatro's. I am not an audiophile and find it difficult to describe the sound using audio words, but the Sapphires are good all around speakers that play music well in the right setup. The highs are good and the midrange can be very involving, although it can be a bit chesty sounding with the wrong amplification. The bass is very good given the size of the drivers and it's faults are minimal and are only obvious against much more expensive speakers. In my main system they really hold their own against my other, more expensive speakers. I have used them with a Primare integrated amp as well as with a Pass Labs X250.5 and they portray music well but are just not in the same league with the Harbeth's in terms of sheer musical enjoyment. I am currently using the Sapphires in a vintage system with a Marantz 2270 receiver and they sound great given the context of the system. On a related note, I have never liked the Harbeth's on the Sound Anchor stands as they seem to rob the life from the speakers. All of the Harbeth's I have used have sounded better on wooden stands or on the SomethingSolid stands from the UK. I tried the Sound Anchors for the Super HL5's and sold them when I realized that my temporary homemade wooden stands sounded dramatically better. Harbeth now recommends the Skylan stands.
Joey54... Thanks for your input. I bought the Sound Anchors on dealer recommendation and have not tried my speakers with other stands. Maybe I will do so based on your experience. I appeciate your comments regarding your Sapphires and Harbeths. You seem to have quite a few pairs of very high quality speakers at your disposal! Mike... I live in Nevis, MN (pop. <= 400). That's about 35 miles SE of Bemidji. I grew up and went to college in Louisiana. When I was in grad school at LSU, my roommate was from Marshfield, WI. I went there with him for a few days and we visited La Crosse (hopefully I got the spelling right this time) for a day trip. I was really amazed at the topography and overall beauty of La Crosse and WI in general. So much so, that I made a decision to move out of the South and try living somewhere else for a while. This decision was based on my experience during that single long-weekend trip! Well, I ended up in MN, got married, now have kids, and it looks like I'm here to stay. La Crosse isn't all that far from where I live. I've got a week vacation in August planned and will be staying somewhere close to "the Dells" so I'll try to arrange for a visit to your showroom then, if not sooner. Thanks again... Jim
Hello Robin,My reaction is somewhat different than Mike's but still involves one step at a time. I would say first try one of AC Is subs with your Harbeths. It just depends on what range you prefer for your system. My previous speakers were Harbeth HL5s. Regardless of the presence of some bass I found the addition of a single sub was an absolute necessity for my satisfaction with the HL5s. A Force would be great. Overall my reason for changing to smaller main speakers is that with the size of the Harbeths HL5s plus sub I felt like I could get similar performance with a more compact set up with better imaging from the Satellites. Ok Ok, plus I'll admit my wife didn't like the boxy look. Regardless a sojourn to the demo room may tell you all you need to know. The demo period is also there for a reason and when used sincerely is a service that would be invaluable for comparing. Hope that helped a little, it does not answer the main question regarding the sense of air with Sapphire vs Harbeth but if you started with expanding the bass you could then compare the two main speakers in the full range system you want.