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Hartley speakers--anyone heard/heard of?

i recently found an old pair of hartley bookshelf speakers in a thrift store, and upon doing a bit of research found that they are one of the oldest manufacturers of speakers still in existence. yes, they are currently based out of wilmington, n.c. after their beginnings near london and subsequent moves to n.y. and n.j. they still manufacture their own drivers by hand, although they do not currently build finished speakers. i have to say that the midrange on these unassuming little speakers really surprised me with it's immediacy and detail (but then again i'm easily impressed :-) but i REALLY was impressed that they are still around, quietly crafting their product for all these years.
musicdoc
martykl
3,578 posts
 
IIRC (and I may not), Mark Levinson (the man, not the company) used Hartley woofers with Quads and a super tweeter in a very early assault on the loudspeaker SOTA. The system was highly regarded in many high-end circles and the Hartlley woofer was supposed to be the edge of the art in low end reproduction. FWIW.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,487 posts
 
Exactly correct Marty. The tweeter Levinson used was the Decca ribbon, and the old Quad, a pair per side, was the midrange driver, with the 24" Hartley in a big box. The speaker came with an active cross-over designed by John Curl. The system was named the HQD, for the obvious reason. I believe most of them now reside in Japan. VERY expensive when they were introduced!
richopp
760 posts
 
Yes, they were.  We made the stands for the Quad-Decca array and a couple of Hartely 24" cabs to their specs.  HUGE things...stood about 5' high, 3' across, and at least 2' deep.  We used 1" particle board reinforced with 4x4's in all the corners.  The casters were huge, and they weighed a ton, but if you wanted bass with your HQD system, that is what they wanted you to have.  I will "Bambie and Thumper" any comments about the owners of the company.  Suffice it to say they were "tight with a dollar" back then.  We ended the relationship, but the items we made were SOTA at the time.  Cheers!
pryso
1,910 posts
 
I initially subscribed to Stereophile in 1971 and recall that J Gordon listed some model Hartley speakers in his recommendation list during the '70s.  I also remember reading about the HQD system but never got to hear it.  The Decca tweeter was a ribbon designed by Stanley Kelly.  A friend of mine at the time who emigrated to the US had been friends with Kelly.

Within the past 10 years or so I saw a reference that Hartley was again in business but I never heard any more about that.  I do remember that more than one customer mounted the Hartley woofers in the floor rather than build appropriate sized cabinets. ;^)
wideload's avatar
wideload
146 posts
 
Years ago I had a friend, an engineer who hand built every component, including room correction. Couple kilowatts of power placed under the floor beneath his monitors. Had a full blown MLSSA measuring set up. He mounted two enormous Hartley drivers in the mouth of his fireplace and built baffles that ran up the chimney. Glorious music. Full scale orchestral works verged on freightening 
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