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Your tube amp related Harbeth experience.

Please share your experience (good or bad), with any model Harbeth when driven with tubes. I have C'7's, and have just moved on from Class A solid state. Again, if you ended up with solid state, your experience still qualifies, as long as your journey had tube amps in the picture. I should mention that while my plan is to go integrated, I would still like to hear any experience with tube amps, even if it was a stand alone tube amp. Please let's not go in the Alan Shaw (HUG) direction here. Anyone involved likely knows the deal there. That's not for this thread. Just personal experience with a dealer, a friends system, buying used, or the like...

fjn04

Showing 1 response by pdreher

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pdreher
1,230 posts
 

The best tube amps I’ve used over the 10+ years I’ve owned Harbeth’s are as follows (not in order of preference):

  • McIntosh MC275 MKV (75-90 WPC) with 40.1’s
  • VAC 70/70 Signature (68 WPC) with 40.1’s and SHL5’s
  • Music Reference RM9 MK2 (125 wpc) with 40.1’s and 40.2 Anniversaries

Other tube amps owned/used with Harbeth, but not recommended based upon my experience:

  • McIntosh MA2275 integrated with 40.1’s (too soft, totally lacking dynamics... very disappointing... awful pairing)
  • VAC PHI 200 with 40.1’s (excellent bass, but lacking transparency, detail and air)
  • VAC 30/30 with 40.1’s (excellent midrange at low to moderate volume, but lacked power @ only 32 WPC... but a great amp with a higher efficiency speaker).

The only solid state amp I liked was a Plinius SA-102 paired with an Aesthetix Calypso preamp, driving 40.1’s.

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