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Even if I could, I wouldn't swing $5-6K for loudspeakers. But I see, on Audiogon pre-owned Spendor(s) for <$2K. Something I could live with.
Spendor A5's or S8E
The Harbeth mini-monitors are over 2,000.
"Somebody was always controlling who got a chance and who didn't. - Charles Bukowski
Follow Ups:
I owner a pair of Spendor 9/1 (this was a SP 100 in a floor standing cabinet) for many years. A great sounding speaker I would still own if not for a number of moves that downsized my listening room. Now the room is back to full size for me (17x11) and I regret not holding on to the Spendors as well as a pair of Acoustat X I sold many years ago.
In my most recent speaker search I owned a number of speakers including the Harbeth ES-7. The Harbeth lasted about 60 days, and will not be making a return appearance. They were OK, but not great, and after all of the reviews I expected something a lot better.
So if I were you I would buy a pair of Spendors and not bother with a Harbeth audition. Your results may be different, but maybe not.
Best of luck in your search.
I had Quad 908s , Spendor S-8, Harbeth Compact-7, Linn Kabers active.Linn 5140 passive and active, all great British speakers.
Of all I thought Linn was the best- as I have said in earlier posts I should have never sold my active Kabers!
If I start looking again I will audition Linn.
The Classic Spendors are more appealing, ingratiating, charming than any Harbeths. Harbeths are more transparent, stand-off-ish, 'objective' than Classic Spendors. If you really hear both, the choice is easy. As for the new Spendors, can't imagine why they bothered, though as with most things, when companies get something right they scrap it and move on to something new and inferior. No idea whether that's the case with the post Classic Spendors but wouldn't bet against it. Probably a combination of The Market and boredom.
Bad tempered remarks after a long, nasty winter in New England.
was that Spenser Hughes died. A true talent, hard to replace.
Jeremy
Completely agree with your take having owned both. Spot on
As usual.
I own the S8e and love them. I preferred them to anything at or near the price when I bought them new but I did not hear Harbeth at the time. First time I heard Harbeth was two years ago at an audio exhibit. The Monitor 30.1. WOW. Such musical speakers! You have to hear these magical speakers. I don't know how they get such a sound from these little boxes. To me they sound more detailed, are faster and more dynamic than any Spendors I ever heard. Herbeth and Spendor may have the same BBC folklore pedigree but they do not sound the same to me. Both Harbeth and Spendor are great brands. You have to hear them both before buying. If you go for a used Spendor Se series, I would go for the S8e. It is the sweet spot in the range. But it does not sound like Harbeth.
I enjoyed the Spendor, which I owned first, a great deal more than the Harbeth. Spendor is a different company now so I can't comment on the newer models and Harbeth as noted has updated the HL5. REG in TAS has reviews of the older and newer Spendor 1/2. You can tell he liked the older version better. I have not heard the new Harbeth, hope it is more engaging than the older HL5 which just didn't for it for me...
and my friend owned Harbeth HL5. I paid 2500 used with stands, he paid over 3k used.
I would take the spendors over the Harbeth all day long.....just my opnion listeining to both.
His amp RM 100 watter my amp modded dynaco
I should point out my room was much bigger and more open
it's a true classic.
"A lie is half-way around the world before the truth can get its boots on."
-Mark Twain
The only person who can determine that for you is you. Harbeth ranges in price from what $2kish to $19,000US for the 40.2(or so I am told).
So that's quite a range - $2kish I suppose would be a poor man's Harbeth and you still get a Harbeth.
Based on my experience I prefer the sound of Harbeth's that I've heard over the years.
It might be best to simply look at speakers in the budget you can afford and not get too attached to name brand recognition - you might find something else you like more. I like the sound of Harbeth but personally I like other speakers for considerably less money as much and in some cases more.
BUT - you have to always consider NET cost not just price paid. So while I might pay more to get the Harbeth I might resell it for more in 10 years - so the NET cost may actually be less than something else - but you'd have to do homework on them to determine that.
People below, including me, cited a bunch of speakers they like and many of those offer speakers in the $2k range. While not my cup of tea, the Magnepan 1.7 has a huge fan base and is definitely worth listening to. Even if you like the Harbeth or Spendor more - because you have turned over more rocks and auditioned more things - then in fact it makes you a "happier" consumer in the sense that you know more where your favorite speaker stands against the competition.
In 2004 I bought Audio Note J/Spe speakers and sure they, for me, killed everything I auditioned them against. But my pool of competitors was mostly the big name brands that are heavily advertised. 10 years later I have turned over a LOT of rocks and in 2014 I almost bought another pair of them but went with the bigger brother.
Bottom line is this - If you love a particular speaker - then use it as your reference point and determine WHAT if anything beats it - and what if anything beats it for sane money.
Way back in 1991 I bought Wharfedale Vanguards viewed by many as mid-fi horn speakers (although today the E-series of which they came and the Vanguard) have a bit of a cult status following and are somewhat sougt after now because of their ease of drive. Mostly 10 ohms and can pelt out 120+dB from their Japanese Ring Horn and heavy ceramic woofers.
For years I read audio magazines raving about some puny ass dynamically bankrupt two way standmount going for triple the money (Although the Wharfedale was $2000 back in 1990 so it wasn't chump change).
Still I would walk away wondering what the fuss was about. Sure I though - the imaging and soundstaging are better on the two way - some had a flatter response BUT in terms of "alive factor", "Excitement" visceral impact the old Wharfedales were embarrassing ALL of those two ways. And I bet it would embarrass the $27,000 Magico standmount in those areas as well - and the Wharfedale wasn't a total misfit in terms of music - it wasn't just a loud noisemaker - It was refined enough (barely) that it didn't shock you into turning it off after ten minutes - you could listen for 8 hours and not scoop the blood from your ears.
The bottom line is that the lesson I learned was that if I am going to pay MORE for something it can't cause a bunch of heavy trade-offs - the puny standmounts might be better in three areas but I would have to give up maybe 5 other areas to gain the advantage.
If the Harbeth XYZ is your favorite speaker but costs too much then you basically try to find the speaker that retains the KEY things you love while remaining decent enough in the less important areas. And perhaps in the hunt you will discover something that will completely shake your notions and will instantly remove your favorite speaker(and reference point). And that's pretty cool if it happens.
I personally find speaker hunting the most fun. I almost bought a pair of speakers last week - just because I always wanted the particular models and the price was such that it was very tough to turn them down - even though they're not as good as what I have and would get less play time. Still thinking about getting them (Reference 3a MM De Capo originals series) I could trade my KEF LS-50 for them - hmmmm).
Jack Roberts: Linn Audio Loudspeakers Athenaeum review.
$60K - WOW!
But honestly, one of the best reviews I read...and surprising results from what I thought, was a "scam" company. The prices are unrealistic, but Linn guy is legit.
"Somebody was always controlling who got a chance and who didn't. - Charles Bukowski
You should think more about old Master Controls or Royal Master etc. They were superior to the De Capo MM.
I got a pair of L'integrales you can have cheap if you are interested because I don't use them anymore (not with the Odeons in the house).
Email if you are interested. Are you still in Hong Kong?
Thanks (Hong Kong I will try and make permanent).
It's more of a situation that they happened to be in the second hand shop and I happen to be ready to part with the KEFs and I can get them for around $100 with my KEFs. I have heard most of the entire Reference 3a line as it was my favorite line-up for a half dozen years.
I grow a little weary of just reviewing stuff for something to review - I kind of want to review only things that I think are good enough to replace what I have (or have the chance to). Which is why I held off the De Capo because it doesn't. If I could find a La Suprema now THAT might be something. The Sema Zen might but it may be too big for my apartment.
I have rearranged my set-up and put everything on the short wall and I can sit 10-12-15-18 feet away. But with the relatively rectangle shapes of HK apartment it means it suits the AN's well because they can be put right up near the side walls - Other speakers might have a lot more trouble. Plus the 219IA is a behemoth for an HK apartment but for now it sits where it sits.
Why not audition an early Grand Veena(with the Murata supertweeter). Very reasonably priced and attractive. Besides they sould very good.
Edits: 05/20/15
Yes they do sound good - if one comes around I would be more interested in them than the De Capo.
As stated below, the Spendor Classic series are the equivalents to the Harbeth's and are in the same price ranges, though much less hyped in this country. I've owned a couple of the Spendor floor standers, the S5e and S8e. They were definitely on the warm side, easy to live with but not the last word in clarity or dynamics. I actually found the smaller ones more fun to listen to. The floor standers don't have the midrange magic of the BBC type boxes, which in turn have their own limitations. As the fellow below says, there are no perfect speakers. As for Harbeth, I've listened to the M30.1, and while there are many things they don't do, they do a number of things so well that even at their inflated U.S. price they strike me as a relatively sane investment.
Don't know if they're cheaper but it's the Classic series Spendor speakers that relate to the Harbeths. Just Google Spendor and the Classic section is there on the 1st page to click on.
Yep, they sure look like Harbeth's...
"Somebody was always controlling who got a chance and who didn't. - Charles Bukowski
The same roots but Spendor was first. Spencer Hughes was a BBC designer as was Dudley Harwood. The Spendor Classic series is the evolution of the 1st Spendor(the BC1) and all the Harbeth speakers are evolutions of the 1st Harbeth(the HL5). By evolution of course it means style of performance since both manufacturers produced larger and smaller speakers than the 1st ones.
I have a pair of Compact 7 es3, if I remember correctly. They haven't been played in months, nothing special. Don't sweat it.
English, yes English pipe tobacco is good, Latakia blends, but British house sound not so much. Harbeth is voiced to reproduce the human voice, it excels at that, and jazz, anything else it doesn't live up to the hype. Just IMHO I spent a lot of dough and was not impressed, just my opinion. I haven't heard a perfect speaker ,
I've owned the 7s and now own SHL5+. Other than the natural sounding midrange, they aren't very similar. The 7 is a nice speaker, the SHL5+ is an exceptional one.
And thought they were good, but nothing special.
In fact the highs were a bit too much for me (a little touch of aggressiveness)
Bought them used and sold them without losing any money.
They hold their value, so if you buy used you can always resell them.
I recently heard the SHL 5 plus at an audio show and I really liked them - thought they were much more refined than the earlier version - but they are more money too
re: the differences between the original and plus version.
On the Harbeth user group, Shaw has described his process of voicing the speaker and he has stated that the SHL5+ was intentionally voiced to have a more "modern" sound profile.
Hi, Thanks for your honest input...Read Art's review on HL5 plus...also "Sam Tellig" claims "Best he ever owned..."
Lol, I've been looking for the "perfect" speaker last ten years!
Regards!
"Somebody was always controlling who got a chance and who didn't. - Charles Bukowski
i have nothing against sam, but "best sound ever" reviews always make me a little wary.
i've had a pair of spendor s8e's for something like ten years, bought them used. now i have to pay more for a speaker i'd probably like less, so i'm shackled to them .... the only speaker that's tempted me have been a couple of the vienna acoustics. it's the "lazy man's" method of equipment gathering, rather then the "working man." you know you like a piece when you can't figure out a way to buy something better for less money. looked at dynaudios, proacs. the equivalent units were pricey and a little too exciting.
i had a pair of the classic 1/2e's for years before the s8e's, not for mettalica but very nice. in any case, i won't say that the spendors are the best, but i like them w/ most music and equipment, especially tubes, there's not much bad about them, so they may be around for a while longer.
Maybe Monitor Audio. They make a smallish/mediumish tower that gets rave reviews.
Or KEF. You can get a pair of R100's for less than two grand.
"A lie is half-way around the world before the truth can get its boots on."
-Mark Twain
I"m very happy with the Monitor Audio RX2's. An 8" woofer that actually does reproduce real bass with the right amp.
One caveat - I found that it was over stuffed. I removed all the back panel foam and it really opened up. For the life of me I don't know why the company didn't figure that out?
Thanks...will look into it.
"Somebody was always controlling who got a chance and who didn't. - Charles Bukowski
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