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Harbeth 40.2 40th Anniversary with Simaudio mono blocks

I would like to report my findings on driving my pair of Harbeth 40.2 40th Anniversary speakers with Simaudio Moon 400M pair of mono blocks, 390 Moon pre-amplifier and 260D CD transport.

I have a decent size room 25 X 35’ but irregular in its shape - it a condo so portion of the roof is high and whole construction is open between my room, living room, kitchen, and stairs - volume wise it is close to 1350ft2.
It is important to mention that the whole place is very well damped with several double decorative carpets, many record and book shelve units, tables, and heavy curtains.
Speakers are 10’ apart and 12’ from the listening sofa. Front of each is 5’ from back wall. There is no wall behind the sofa.

I have initially tried several amps from 30 - 650W a channel and have to say that I truly do not understand why would anybody even think about running 40.2s (and other Harbeths) with low powered amplification. I do not listen to music loud - 85dB at my listening spot is the loudest I go.
I am actually amazed how those large monitors came to life with Moon 400M - the scale, dynamics and sound staging is unbelievable!!! How can it be that those large boxes, set not that far from back walls, throw such an enormous, deep staging and lifelike imaging? Listening to Anna Maria Jopek, Allison Krauss, Patricia Barber, Nina Simone, Shirley Horn, transformed me to the concert club - first row seats!
Amazing Jeff Hamilton Trio "Live"album - track number 8, "Yesterdays", will challenge your speakers, amplification and room’s acoustic. Listening to that track on 150W amp was like driving BMW 750i on lowest octane gas - There was no depth to the sound, most of the Hamilton’s drumming sounded like me with a little stick hitting plastic box.
When 400W(8Ohms) a channel with 80.000uF capacitnace a channel got connected, the difference was night and day - way far from subtle. The performance gave me a goosebumps.

I have seen several Harbeth owners being disappointed by the sound of their speakers while driving them with 30W amplification. Can Fiat 500 outperform Mercedes S560? Or can you buy that S560 to feed it with 87 Octane gas?
All I am saying - next time you will be at your Harbeth dealer - ask them to hook up powerful amplification. Take the step even further - compare the powerful amp (300-400W) to the 50W one at lower (80dB) level and hear the difference for yourself. You do not need to drive 200MPH, to appreciate the 470HP of S560....

I have tired many speakers and amplifiers in my room - Pass Labs, Dartzeel, Hegel, Ars Sonum, Accuphase, Luxman, Cary Audio, Leben, Shindo, Wilson, Dynaudio, Reference 3A, Merlin, Spendor, Kiis, ProAcs, DeVore, Raidho and what I have accomplished now is by far the most pleasurable experience from them all....

If you want to know specifics, just ask and I will try to do my best to answer.


arturgorniak

Showing 6 responses by prof

prof
3,518 posts
 
I heard Shindo separates with DeVore 0/96s that I had in my dedicated listening room for 1.5 year.

I'd really like to hear about your experience owning the Devores, and also compared to your Harbeths.

I've been enamored by the Devore 0/96 whenever I auditioned them and Harbeths are one of my favourite speakers as well.  I owned the SuperHL5plus for a little while, and I've heard the 40.2 sound spectacular sometimes.

The Devore O/96 speakers did for me a lot of what the Harbeths did - beautiful, big, rich organic tone, but with an added "fun" and "boogie" factor that gave more dynamic life.

What is your take on the Devore/Harbeths?
Thanks.

prof
3,518 posts
 
Thanks for the detail arturgorniak!

Very interesting.

I'm used to owning speakers that really disappear and image/soundstage well, so that was one of my concerns with the Devores.  I never could get depth with the smaller O/93s but for whatever reason the O/96s seemed to do it quite well.  Still, they are generally known for the "wall of sound" imaging.

I've been very interested to hear the Devore Super 9s as well!

When I was looking to see if I could replace my big Thiel 3.7s with a smaller speaker I bought the Harbeth SuperHL5plus and had them for a while.  I'm a huge fan of the Harbeth sound and loved the tone of the SuperHL5s.   But in the end, strangely I could not get the image depth from them that I every other speaker has been able to reproduce in my room.  And I found my Thiels superior overall (though the Harbeth squeaked by with magic for vocals!).

I'd heard the Monitor 4.2s a few times, store demos, and really liked them.  But the last time I heard them,  about a month ago,  there was a track playing - vocalist, muted trumpet, bass - that completely astonished me.  I don't know that I'd ever heard such a combination of 3D dimensional imaging WITH the corporeal, round sense of life-sized body, to the vocalist and the horn player!
prof
3,518 posts
 

I simply can't live with a "dark" sounding speaker and in fact one of the things that impressed me in auditioning the O/96 was how open and airy it sounded, in two different AV stores!  Go figure!  There must be something about their design (tweeter/big woofer?) that makes them change personality for different rooms.   The measurements taken by JA do seem to suggest they could sound rolled off in the "wrong" room.

The Harbeth 40s would be on my list if only they were not the size and shape they are.  I have some limitations, ergonomic and aesthetic in my room, that make them a hard sell.  (Though they work well in nearer listening, which is a plus in my room).
prof
3,518 posts
 
I can’t even count how many disappointed owners of Spendor D7, D9 and Focals I have met......


I auditioned the Spendor D7s with hopes they retained the Spendor magic sound in the mids. I was very disappointed. The Spendor Ds were actually among the most fatiguing speaker I auditioned! Spendors!

prof
3,518 posts
 

Fair enough.

In my case I auditioned the O/96s numerous times, in two different stores, and I came away really loving them, both with tube and solid state amplification.  (No Shindo or anything  - as I remember: Nagra, Pass, Leben).

I auditioned a huge number of loudspeakers and for me the Devores grabbed me more than all of them, excepting Joseph Perspectives (I ended up buying the Joseph Perspectives).    The main issue I had was if the Devores would work in my room due to several issues (for one, they tend to sound best at 8 feet or further away, but I need them a little bit closer.   That's where Harbeths are more flexible).
prof
3,518 posts
 

Hi again art.

As a fellow audiophile with long experience, I’ve come to some of my own conclusions. I have found the mantra "big speakers for big rooms/small speakers for small rooms" hasn’t necessarily been the case.Depends on the room, the speaker design, the set up, etc.   (One of the most impressive audio experiences I ever had were MBL 101s in a hilariously shoe-box-sized room, that was treated to make them work well).

My room is 13’ wide and 15’ deep at it’s deepest, though has a wide room opening and overall the acoustics are excellent (I also had it renovated a while back with an acoustician). Every speaker, from full range floor-standing to monitor-sized, has worked beautifully in my room. Until recently I had big Thiel 3.7s (now I have the slightly smaller Thiel 2.7s as well as the Josephs. I only downsized for the aesthetic/ergonomic reasons, not due to any sound problems with bigger speakers) and I could place them between 6 and 7 1/2 feet away and they produced the most even, coherent sound I’ve ever heard. I would definitely not restrict myself to smaller speakers (though I own a bunch of those too).

But some designed won’t work as well of course. There seems to be something in the crossover/tweeter/big woofer design of the O series that require that 8 foot distance to snap in to focus (tonally, imaging, etc).






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