Spendor, Harbeth...why so hot ?

I own a pair of the Harbeth C7 ES monitors. Cost about $2200, or so, depending on finish. They are large monitors with an 8" proprietary driver, a cabinet that "breathes," the SEAS tweeter, and a grille that is designed to stay on. Can you say "natural voicing?" I wish you could hear them! My opinion is just that, but the BBC recording engineers, who use Harbeth and Spendor monitors in their mixing studios require absolute accuracy to do their job. They stake their reputations on the performance of these speakers. I hope you can hear this sound someday.

You can check out harbeth.com if you are interested.

Best to you.

Charlie

As Charlie implies, they are not "small monitors pretty good for the money." Both Harbeth and Spendor make a range of speakers. Both make LS3/5a size (shoebox) nearfield monitors that are very very good, but those aren't what the buzz is all about. The Harbeth Compact 7 (Charlie and I have these) a large 2 way stand mounter, and the Spendor 1/2 (3 way) and 2/3 (2 way) have the most natural sounding midranges among box speakers. They do the human voice as accurately as can be and are generally as tonally accurate as speakers come. The Harbeths are better, I think, in terms of musicality, ie, faithfulness to real life dynamics, micro and macro, but may have a little dryer bass compared to the Spendors. A matter of taste, I suppose. Nothing under $5,000 retail can be said to be better than the $2500 Harbeth Compact 7 or Spendor 1/2.

Now, Harbeth also makes one of the best speakers built period, the Monitor 40, a very large 3 way, sort of a Compact 7 with a 12 inch woofer added on and a soft dome more extended tweeter substituted for the metal dome. I think they are around $7,000 list. Harbeth's 8 inch mid-woofers and 12 inch woofers are made from a proprietary material called "RADIAL" developed under a BBC grant. They are simply the least colored lowest distortion mid and low range drivers made.

Lots of reviews downloadable from the Harbeth website.

I recently heard the latest Harbeth standmount. For neutral accuracy, mid-range beauty and perfection of the human voice (the real speaker test) I have not heard anything to compare under $10,000.

I am hoping that Harbeth Monitor 40 will be on display at the Hi-Fi show next month. I have wanted to hear them ever since Robert Greene's review in TAS. I should add, however, that I bought a pair or Spendor SP-1/2's after reading his review and have recently sold them. In my room and system, I felt they were highly overrated. -Dan

I've listened to the Spendor(small ones-retail about $800) I was impressed. They were hooked to a passion tube amp and the music was very pleasing. Would not go loud but sure sounded nice. Best mini monitor I ever heard.