Harbeth 40.3 XDs

I’ve got HARBETHs so I can pass on some important thoughts on speaker positioning .and cables experience.

i would STRONGLY recommend that you consider moving them farther out from the side walls, and if need , permit a bit more leeway in moving them a bit closer to the back wall.

My personal experiences directly match what the OEM user manuals reflect: I have them set up toed-in about 1m-in from the sidewalls and 0.75m-out from the back wall . It’s the best set-up I’ve  found so far ,

per HARBETH user manual 

“ …. Positioning

A sonic compromise should be reached between placing the speakers near walls or positioned farther out in the listening area. When a loudspeaker is close to a boundary wall (floor, wall, ceiling or corner) the speaker becomes ‘acoustically coupled’ to the surfaces, just as if it is attached to it. The speaker would then no longer operate in free space with a predictable frequency response, but with a sound output that is elevated in the low-mid frequency range. Well stocked bookcases behind or beside speakers can greatly improve the quality of low frequency as can an asymmetrical placement of the speakers in the room.
 

Some listeners say that the most natural sound-stage is achieved when the speakers are somewhat closer to each other than they are away from the listener (above) – please experiment for yourself to see what sounds best to you.

Optimising your speakers in your room needs experimentation but the general rule is the more absorption in the room, the less the room influences the overall reproduced sound. Parallel surfaces such as opposite walls, floor, and ceiling encourage and sustain certain musical notes. Flexible plasterboard walls and wooden floors over cavities such as a basement or garage may resonate and cause a boom.

Echoes or reflections can be readily identified by moving around your room and loudly clapping your hands as you listen to the sound decay into silence. In the middle and upper frequencies, soft-fabric treatments are an easy solution to damping a ‘live’ room. Progressively add absorption and listen again until there are no obvious acoustic issues; don’t overdo sound damping – add just enough to tame reflections and no more!…”

PS : speaker cables …MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE JOURNEY 

HARBETH  claims to be speaker cable agnostic , but I found them to be quite the opposite.

I first tried with my prior incumbent NORDOST FREY (full loom) with a puzzling new irritating and fatiguing overly “sharp” , “ glaring”, and “ brittle”  performance in the  top- end Im guessing it’s the NORDOST Ag-over-Cu materials build .

i upgraded to CARDAS CLEAR REFLECTION all-premium OCC CU build , and presto …….outstanding audio  improvement and top-end glare etc, gonzo with added slam and dynamics across the spectrum. The HARBETH legendary class-leading midrange soars.

FWIW ,,

Addendum :

(1) Upgrade selection of speaker stands for HARBETHs

HARBETHs (,,,all models …) are a different design breed with thinner speaker box  walls, that need measurable open space and airiness to perform properly as designed,  and to perform at their maximum.

That is the segway provided by  Tontraeger speaker stands - bespoke “ open design” speaker stands with minimum direct contact points with the speaker at its four points ….. specifically a bespoke size is available for each HARBETH speaker model and it’s box dimensions.

Check out the extended tenons and recessed Tonebeds on each TonTraeger speaker post .below, Read up on them first (… they ARE recommended by HARBETH …) and I would suggest that you do budget for them ….. they do matter …big time.

https://www.tontraeger-audio.com/lang/en/reference-stands.html

Sample picture ( Note: the “open design” concept is the same on the beefy 40.3, but the post-legs height will be shorter and look more “squatty” because of its large bespoke larger speaker dimensions )

(2) PostScript Addendum: why HARBETHs need “open air” distance placement away from both sidewalls 

Simply put, they are arguably more sensitive to this than many other speaker choice options. They flourish and disappear in a crafted soundstage if they are properly placed catering to their design, and thus also able to tame the strengths and warts in  points of reflection .

Choose wisely