Harbeth 40.3's. Should I buy them?


I've owned a lot of speakers. I've just finished auditioning a pair of Alta Audio Alec's. Not good at all in my system. I own a pair of Spatial X3 open baffle speakers. I really like them and my wife doesn't. I recently bought a pair of Buchardt S400 MKII's for a second system. I say second system because I have a dedicated 2 channel room 15' x 19'. Upstairs in a much larger room, the Buchardt's were anemic, fine, 2 Adam subs solved the anemia. Then just for the heck of it (and because audio is a hobby) I moved the Buchardt monitors downstairs in the 'big guys' room. The Buchardt's loved that room and my wife loved the Buchardt's except they are to small for the listening room and our listening tastes.

I'm tired of buying and selling speakers. I've been to a hundred audio shows and have "favorites". Harbeth have always sounded great, not a show stopper, but, at shows, they've been totally inoffensive, warm and engaging in the same way I like Audio Notes AN-e.
We play all types of music. My wife especially likes classical, leaning towards female singers but too, she'll rock out on Led Zeppelin, Ozzy Osbourne, Black Keyes, Journey, you get the idea. Me, classic rock but anything that soothes my soul works. I like to play loud. My wife - louder, but not teenager loud.

We have an awesome front end to work with. Allnic T2000 30th integrated (60wpc in triode 150wpc in pentode), Allnic H5500 phono and Allnic D10000 DAC.

Why wouldn't we happy with this speaker?

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Showing 7 responses by yogiboy

@grislybutter

Glad you learned early. Believe you me, I doubt that many on this site haven’t made some bonehead mistakes including me! LOL

Since you are buying them used, why not give them a try? If they don’t work in your room you can resell them. If you were buying them new that would be a different story! BTW, I have owned many Harbeth models and always enjoyed them! The price of that speaker is over 24 grand and you can get them for 13 grand used . Go for it!

@grislybutter

Not all speakers are returnable without some kind of loss once the box has been opened. In the past 20 years and the many used speakers that I have bought and  never took any loss on any speaker that I have sold!

@grislybutter

Are you sayin’ that you take that much loss on something that you bought new or used? I can see that on a new product but not used!

@grislybutter

Like I said, you take a big hit if you buy new and then sell it. That’s why I only buy used. The last speaker I bought new I was lucky to get 50% of what I paid!

"I would have 14 days to return them. I would lose on shipping costs, that’s it."

At that price, up in my neck of the woods that purchase is called  a no brainer!