Electronics for Harbeth, Especially Monitor 40 series

Maybe it's no coincidence. Perhaps a pair of Job mono amps would be the poor man's equivalent. Harbeth dealers generally seem to pair them with British integrated amps, and I know that Vinny Rossi shows with Harbeth, but those both sound very different from fast solid-state.

I never thought about at atma-sphere but it makes sense now that Ralph brings it up. They are fast and clean. If the speakers are impedance friendly and that's the sound you want, they are fine amplifiers in my experience.

@dan31, Vinnie Rossi told me at Newport that he listens to all Harbeths in the same near field type set up. Six-foot equilateral triangle. I've never heard them set up that way, but anything that would keep the tonality and frequency distribution while increasing imaging and jump factor sounds like a step in the right direction to me

Thanks Vinnie! Very interesting. I never thought a three-way could sound good at 24 inches - that's really close. Nor did I think that the 40s could get by with only 35 watts.

@Vinnie,

In an interview accompanying his recent TAS review, Paul Seydor says that he is always found Harbeths to be "notably coherent" and Alan Shaw replies that coherence is primarily a crossover issue. It doesn’t take much of a mismatch in level or phase for the listener to become aware that the sound is coming from three drivers. He has also said that the BBC got so many things right long ago that his recent work has focused on improving drive units (Radial) and crossovers. Guess that’s why they sound so good in the near field.