recent discussion on model differences...
Are Harbeth the only warm and euphonic speakers in town ?
I've looked far and wide especially for bookshelf speakers with prominent full mids and a lush sound. So far the only name that comes up is harbeth. Maybe Sonus faber but are there other speakers that have similar tone but are made by a different company?
102 responses Add your response
cal91 - I did strongly consider the SHL5Plus. Went to listen to them at a friends house and thought they were great speakers. A very different setup from mine though. He has very high power tube amps powering them and I have Pass INT-25 powering mine. He has a big house and I have a smallish apartment. Room setup was completely different. But given these variables the 30.2XD's were my choice for my music in any case. He likes symphonies. I like jazz. He likes opera. I don't (not that i don't, but I don't feed on opera often). Again, for my musical taste and setting the 30.2xd's just work better for me. I loved the SHL5Pluses though. They sounded like great "speakers" and the 30.2XD's sound like monitors (instruments). That said, I added an SVS 3000 Micro sub to the system a couple of months ago and it was a distinct improvement under let's say 55 hz or so for the down deep ambient space. Had I gone with the SHL's I would not have needed this sub. |
Alan Shaw would probably bristle at the OP describing his Harbeth speakers as euphonic - he’s aiming for naturalness and low coloration. Harbeth speakers certainly have smooth even response and tend to have some warmth in the lower mids/bass - The broad mids sound pretty true though. I owned 3 different models. Ultimately I sought more dynamics and liveliness. I recall one (Harbeth) retailer describing them as "sleepy".
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steveashe...You obviously are a Harbeth fan as am I. I'm wondering if you considered the Super HL5Plus and if you did, what made you prefer the M30.2? I recently moved to a very small apartment in D.C. and the Harbeths are completely wasted. The configuration of the apartment simply does not allow for them to give their best. I am using an old pair of Snell JIVs I had stored. As much as I hate to do it, I too will be selling my Harbeths. |
well, we try to be nice around here, not overly talk things down, some people are quite happy with lintons never know where folks are coming from, how resolving their gear is, what they are driving speakers with, and so on... 🙏 |
Why look past Harbeth? I have a pair of M30.1's for sale now on audiogon that seem to be what you seem to be searching for. My speaker transition over the past 20 years goes something like this: 1. Quad ESL 63's (wonderful). Look up reviews; as good as it gets. Mine were getting long in tooth and I knew they'd be a PIA to get repaired. Sold. 2. Harbeth C7ES2. A bit of a letdown compared to the 63's. Not bad by any stretch, they were my first Harbeths'. There was "some" magic that they brought to the party but I was spoiled by the 63's. I didn't feel the instruments were in my room, but I understood some of the Harbeth "house" sound. Sold. 3. Sonus Faber Electa Amator II's. More extended than the Harbeths. A beautiful composed sound. Gorgeous cabinets. Class. Owned these for about 5 years. Sonus Faber went through a change in ownership and I became concerned about being able to source drivers when I needed replacements. Sold. 4. Harbeth M 30.1. Midrange delight. Lush. Realistic. Acoustic instruments present in my room :-). Just super dee duper. Not much reason to change out but....I heard about the new XD's and - hey - I've had the M 30.1's for 5 years, just time to see what their latest model brought to the table. I'm spoiled by the Harbeth sound and although I've heard so many other great speakers that guys in my local audio club had, I continually came back to Harbeth. So the M30.1's are for sale as I bought a new pair of 30.2XD's earlier in March. I'm sure there are many fine speakers that might float your boat. The reason you hear about Harbeth so much is that they are amazing sound reproducers.
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If you want a warm sounding bookshelf speaker the Spendor A1 or 4/5 should fit the bill. The Harbeth P3ESR is a tad brighter ( metal tweeter ). I have owned all of them. I like a brighter speaker and the Harbeths are the ones that I prefer. It’s all a matter of your taste! BTW, if you want a real bargain you can get Falcons direct from the manufacturer. I just sold a pair of IMF-100s . They are the true BBC type of speaker. Check out the Q7! |
It always cracks me up with an OP is asking about bookshelf recommendations and we give him/her suggestions ranging up to the size of a small refrigerator. Not to mention the guy that has to chime in about how cheap crossover components are in most speakers. (Guess he never had to work in the manufacturing sector where products are designed to a price point.) |
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Iv owned the Harbeth, many years ago. Great British speaker but the Quested Studio Active or passive version all sounded better to my ears with better resolution and dynamics but still kept a warmer smoother tone like the Harbeth. Don’t be fooled just because the Quested are being used in Studio they have the pedigree level to compete with many Audiophile speaker manufactures.
Have a look at the Quested H108 Speakers same monitors Hans Zimmer uses in his studio but i use the same speakers in my music room with OTL Amplifier.
Very musical speakers and very underrated, one reason is Quested don’t actively market their products like audiophile companies do with paid review magazines adverts. |
@smodtactical I know they are not top-drawer or high dollar speakers BUT I wonder if you might enjoy the new iteration of KLH Model 5. I have them, Arendal Sound 1763 THX Monitor, Polk LS50 (from the 1990s or 80s), and a pair of the original large Advent loudspeakers. The KLH are not as bright as the Arendal Sound speakers can be plus I prefer their midrange (I think). They image and soundstage pretty well. The particular Polk speakers I have are not too bad in the midrange but are not so great at imaging, soundstage & bass. I will always love the OLA but they aren't perfect, I'm just not going to criticize them! |
FRITZ Rev 7 SE are extremely musical 🎼 and easy on the ears. Actually selling mine, Fritz Speakers REV 7SE | Monitors | Upper Saddle Riv, New Jersey 07458 | Audiogonhttps://www.audiogon.com/listings/lisafi7j-fritz-speakers-rev-7se-monitors
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JJSS49, I had no idea that you owned SP100's! I don't look at member systems very often, and I had thought that you owned Sound Labs. Now, looking at your system, all of the great gear that you have makes me dizzy! Your speakers are the R version, and the ones that I just bought are earlier, but later than what I owned previously as I can tell from the bass driver. They are amazing, and better than the 9/1's that I owned after that. I'm excited. |
awesome!!! ... sp100's are keepers... truly forever speakers... i may wander to others for a while but will never not have those again! i did the same as you, sold em off some years back, then immediately regretted doing so, hoped to get another pair back somehow, you and i have both succeeded in that! ... for you it will be interesting, now that some time has passed, to see now whether they still have that magic (in my case the answer is yes, in spades!)... enjoy!!! |
jjss49, You have far more experience with ProAc than I do obviously. I owned the Response 1s and Response 2, both of which I really enjoyed, but having also owned 2 Spendors, the SP100 and the 9/1, I wouldn't describe the ProAcs as warm. I do agree with the characterization of them as electrostatic-like though. Thanks for asking, I'm doing well, and coincidentally, I am waiting on delivery of a preowned pair of SP100's that I found here on Audiogon last week. I always regretted selling them, and I am looking forward to enjoying them again. |
hi @roxy54, hope you have been well... i agree with you that in general about proacs, pretty much all their higher line floorstanders and mini monitors in the response series have very high resolution and cannot be said to be warm in overall nature... more transparent overall, for sure the couple older models i cited (tablette 2000, and original response 2 standmount-- and to some degree their ’studio' series which was below the response series back in the day) are kind of anomalies in their line... the treble is dialed down and mid range/mid bass are somewhat dialed up, so the particular are warmer in tone overall, much more in the spendor classic camp i would say there is no doubt modern proacs with the ribbon tweeters - d and k series - and older small response 1sc, floorstanding response 3, 3.5, 3.8 and beyond are certainly not warm - in fact they had an almost electrostatic quality of precision and see-throughness about them i was a proac fanboy for a long while in the late 80’s, into the early 2000’s, been through most of their models in that period |
For the record 85% of speakers out there even with excellent drivers ,for whatever reason go cheap on the heart of the speaker the Xover that everything goes through , like Solen rated a 7 out of 15 ,even worse Harbeth has used capacitors from Taiwan $3 which are msybe a 6 why ? For mfg feel it’s good enough resistors 50 cents when you have great resistors like The Mundorf Ultra ,or Apath audio pat $30: each retail good capacitors $50-150:each ,vs $5 My point is you can buy a very good well engineered speaker and rebuild or have some rebuild it , that will transform the speaker .i just bought a Very good speaker not well advertised here Dynaudio their contour 3.4. I paid $2200 spent $1600 on the Xover parts ,wiring and WBT connectors ,if you had someone do it $1k labor or less and bests the new $7 k contour 30 with Ease , my point is you can have the detail and natural warmth and detail far better then stock even $25 k Magico s use average at best Mundorf Evo capacitors for example when their supreme line is far better ,for $20-$40 k you should be getting much better just by rebuilding the Internal Xover , |
+1 @jjss49 @smodtactical When you say "I've looked far and wide" did you miss the long list that JJSS provided? |
I have the Stirling LS3/6 and Harbeth Super HL5 Plus 40th Anniversary edition. The Harbeths have a little more detail. For me (in my system, with my room and electronics) I find the Stirlings easier and more fun to listen to for extended periods, especially if you like to turn up the volume from time to time (or all the time). They also seem to present a bigger soundstage than the Harbeths. They are more alike than different, but I prefer the Stirlings. |
I paid 50 buck for Vintage Mission Cyrus 781, not only a good mid frequencies timbre but a bass power over his scale price /S.Q. ratio... They fit on my big desk by the way...In an acoustically controlled small room they can compete with magnepan in a non controlled room bigger room .... Yes i am lucky.... I will die with them.... I am in fear to try an upgrade to exceed them at relatively low price ....Mission impossible.... And paying arounf 6,000 canadian bucks for a probably improving Harbeth model is impossible for me... 😁😊 Dont forget that room acoustic is the key in audiophile experience not a brand name in speakers gear....Or a specialized "tweaks" .... We wait for the time being for the speakers technology that will nullify room specific acoustic... Most of us are not there and i think this new technology is not on the market now...And if it is is not accessible for most of us now....I dont know... And most headphones had their own limitations : the connected two shells vibrate like the gear did and there is acoustical negative properties of the shell like any room has his negative problems to be solved by acoustic control....And dont forget the electrical noise floor of the house affecting speakers and headphones...
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