All competently designed amps of low noise and distortion will sound alike. Since amps look different the Mind believes they sound different. Remove sight and sound differences vanish.
Do Harbeth speakers really need a 4000 damping factor?
Just got Harbeth C7ES-3 XD and using them with a "lowly" Yamaha A-S801 Integrated Amp - which with previous speaker (Canadian made Enigma) sounded OK. The Harbeth - are glorious with vocals and even piano sounds good but Orchestration seems somewhat muffled to me. I read that "Harbeth likes to demo with Hegel" (and Sugden?) but also that "Any good Amp will do".... The question is what is a good Amp? Would a Yamaha with 240 Damping factor suffice or really something like the Hegel with 4000? I am mentioning the damping factor specifically since it was such an obvious difference. On paper it looks like this might have a significant effect (assuming to the positive) on the sound. Any first hand experience opinions are appreciated.
I’ve owned several Harbeth models and, while they are very electronics tolerant, I’ve found more difference in the stands and the interface between the stand and the speakers. For my taste, open-frame metal stands sounded best, or at least using a hard interface like casino chips between the stand and the speaker, as opposed to blu tak. But you should experiment with that. They will also respond to better amplification and sources as well. What stands are you using? |
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@ahal1 No, and no loudspeaker ever made does. |
I have the 7XD with a Leben 300XS and a Supernait 3. They both present wildly different characteristics. The Leben is a holdover from a different speaker and it sounds beautiful at low volumes but doesn't present a soundstage or have bass anything the the Supernait. If I were to ever get a tube amp with these I'd look above 40 WPC, but again that varies wildly with listening preferences and transformers, etc.
I don't know anything about the Yamaha amp you mention but in my experience you get what you pay for. As far as damping factor I'd say 4000 is a bit over the top and not needed for the 7. Never hears a Hegel amp either. |
You are aware that Harbeth shows with Hegel, right? I very much doubt they would choose to do so unless they perceived a significant sonic benefit. Whether Harbeths require high damping factor amplification I can’t say. I can say that when I switched from Well Majestic integrated with damping factor of 200 to Hegel H390, my Silverline monitors "came alive" in a way I’d never heard. That was a dramatic demonstration of the importance of proper speaker/amp matching. Needless to say, YMMV. |
Membrane motion braking current (Lenz law) passes thru speaker, wire, amplifier's output and the other wire. Would adding 0,002ohm (DF=4000) instead of 0.02ohm (DF=400) to speaker impedance make it sound different (damp/brake better)? Even if we assume 4ohm at low frequencies of 6ohm nominal impedance (1kHz) speaker, we get 4.002ohm vs 4.02ohm. As long as DF is decent (>20) it should be fine IMHO. |