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Harbeth speakers are constantly lauded for clarity, detail and accuracy of timbre. In reviews, little is made of the speakers' deep bass response or power, or performance of large-scale orchestral works--Mahler, Bruckner, etc.
Anyone familiar with these speakers care to weigh in on this question?
Many thanks.
Follow Ups:
My B&W 801s serve me very well in this perspective. My JBL dual 15"s are even better. Better than live.
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I have the luxury of that I can go to Carnegie Hall for a concert if I want to spoil me or I can enjoy it at home.
Do you love music ?
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I am 40 minutes from Carnegie Hall. Thanks US government I have no cell phone signal at home. So no 911 service.
I would love to go to Carnegie Hall one day I am sure it's amazing!!
Assuming there's an existing recording that's good enough to accurately communicate a proper sense of physical "scale" as well as accurate tonality, you'll first need to actually find that recording.Once you've found that existing recording, play it in your system. If it doesn't sound perfect in every way, then you'll know that you need different speakers. Possibly a different room too...
Smaller or larger speakers, perhaps ? Narrower dispersion or wider dispersion ? Larger woofers or smaller woofers ? Brighter tweeter, or more subdued tweeter ?
All I know is you need to find the right speakers.
But here's the irony: That perfect recording you'd need to find in order to properly evaluate your system ? It may not even exist.
Edits: 01/12/25 01/12/25 01/12/25
I have owned quite a variety of speakers over the past 50 years and my most recent purchase, 30.2 XD, are my favorite. The bass extension is surprisingly great, the midrange is amazing, and the top end sweet as honey. I danced around them for 20 years and finally broke bad two years ago and made the leap. Great decision.
I listen to a lot of orchestral works on my Compact 7s and rarely think of myself as being short-changed. No, the power and depth of the lower denizens of the orchestra are not presented in their full glory, but there is enough there to offer ample satisfaction. Nothing is going to reproduce the sound of an orchestra in a big hall, but you can find surprising fulfillment with the modest-sized Harbeths, IMO, especially when you get the beautiful natural timbres and textures of the orchestra.
I was pursuing that big sound for years only to realize that I actually was " programmed" in my formative years to like smaller scale reproduction of a big scale sound and I do not enjoy " realistic " - (they never really are ) levels of reproduction. I much more cared for the tonal quality than a scale and sort of intimate listening experience.
Nah, what I meant is just a 10" in at least 2 cuft enclosure on the stand. Enough to not create elephant images :)
Agreed, I too much prefer the more manageable Hippo sized images...
and the second overwhelming to the point of being a quality in itself.
.., the same way that certain small speakers in a certain large rooms will sound.Some rooms won't support the use of speakers much larger than desktop size, other rooms require something like those huge Cerwin Vegas having 10" or larger woofers. Images that seem too small can be just as comical as images that seem too big. Smaller speakers might image better than bigger ones in smaller rooms, larger speakers might sound bloated or "muddy" and may not reach their imaging potential in rooms not large enough...
When tonal characteristics seem balanced and soundstaging or imaging seems incisive and well proportioned, you'll know you have the speaker size and type that matches your room.
Edits: 01/12/25 01/12/25 01/12/25 01/12/25 01/12/25 01/12/25
But nobody is designing such speakers. Comical efect of elephant sound is perception of giant size of instruments and voices. People generally like it.
Goal of "imaging" in a small room requires more compromises than it's worthy of IMHO..Small and very small equalized drivers almost always " pump" the sound into room. Not that they can't be pleasant
But it's a different experience.
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They could easily do it but there is no market for such system so they don't .
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You bring hope to my heart. I will take a dancing disco monkey over a cake with a hole in the middle anytime. Jazz was a music people used to dance to. Not sit with eyes wide shut and pretend to reach higher states of subconsciousness.
But now you need something bigger, more vibrant. You need Cerwin-Vega !
You'll get very different answers for the P3R and the Monitor 40.
My SHL5s do well in a fairly large room, no obvious strain, though I don't play at very high volumes.
Mark in NC
"The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains" -Paul Simon
Edits: 01/11/25
I'd definitely go with the 40.3 XD, wouldn't you ?
They have also been reported to generally need a very large room in order to avoid bass overload. Though, this could be alleviated with some high-quality equalization. But in that case, might as well just get a smaller model, unless one wants all of its other attributes.
Mark in NC
"The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains" -Paul Simon
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Nt.
Mark in NC
"The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains" -Paul Simon
The working man's "large scale" music system.
We all need to get back a bit of " masculine energy" Zuck is absolutely right. I still remember Polish audio Mag staff shaking their heads that a supposedly " rockers speakers " had so much relative neutrality.
The XLS-215 towers earned a good review from Absolute Sound several years ago. But the 12" or 15" single woofer models would be my choice for medium-sized rooms because the 215 might overload rooms much smaller than 200 sq. feet.....
Edits: 01/11/25 01/11/25 01/11/25
How do you have two 15" woofers and only go down to 38Hz?
A-1800 amplifier, B-36 Bass bin, sold both in working order. I had the Vega L187 18" 4ohm driver in my acoustic Control 361 rebuilt nine years ago. I think that damn thing or Lee Michaels' live organ or both are responsible for my tinnitus.
I've never owned Harbeth, but I thought their big 40 model with its 12" bass driver delivered the best sound at a Show I visited a few years ago.
The majority of speakers at this (not particularly high end) Show had typically 2 or 3 bass drivers of 6.5 or 7". These small speakers deliver a "strained" bass delivery, whereas the Harbeth was "relaxed" and more natural. I'd never consider any main speaker with drivers of less than 10".
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