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I'm interested in the Harbeth 7ES-3, Super HL5 and Monitor 30 loudspeakers. Amps are the Channel Islands D200's. Thanks.
Regards,
Brad
Follow Ups:
I owned the Harbeth Compact 7ES-2. Wonderful speaker that excelled in many ways. Rock music was not one of them (at least in my room). I had others share similar experiences with me as well.Be sure to try before you buy if at all possible.
Many others, and I, feel quite the opposite. They're great with rock music. They play all the frequencies that are found in rock music, except for low bass, which few speakers do anyway. They play loud enough, unless your goal is to damage your hearing or fill up an auditorium. They are stand mounts, and my guess is that you might have done better on lower stands or by moving some furniture around. Mine do sound much better in one room than another, and much much better on 16-17 inch stands rather than the 20 inch stands a lot of people seem to put them on.
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"Occasionally we list eccentrically, all sense of balance gone."
I don't doubt that you are happy with your speakers, so don't get me wrong. I was trying to make the point that if possible, it would be best to audition first - it almost always is.My beef with the Harbeths was that they tended to sound a bit hollow in the midrange and took away a lot of the energy that, for me, makes rock music. Sure, they played all of the frequencies - you could say that about a lot of speakers. However, it how those frequencies are presented that really differentiates one speaker from another in many cases. The Harbeths were simply too laid back in the midrange for my tastes, and I listen to a lot of rock, so I thought I would comment.
I will say that based on the comments I've read from Alan Shaw regarding the Compact 7ES-3, it sounds like he has addressed the things that were a problem for me with the ES-2 version. To what degree, I would not know. My comments might not apply to the ES-3, but I would still audition at home if at all possible.
Mine didn't rock either, for some of the reasons you mention. They did some other things very well, but rock they didn't. The late Backwoods Barry, who loved jazz, borrowed a pair and reported back that they did Platonic Mingus. So yes, the gentleman is well advised to listen first. And who knows? There are, after all, some folks out there who are essentially Platonists.
I didn't disagree with your advice to audition them.
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"Occasionally we list eccentrically, all sense of balance gone."
its safer to have too much power than not enough. i use spendor s3/5s with an adcom 555II. just turn down the gain when switching sources, a good idea anyway..
...regards...tr
More than you need for the 7's, fine for the 30's. Don't know the 5's well enough to say.
The volume control.
- This signature is two channel only -
I think you'll find that most people use medium to high power amps with Harbeths. Your actual requirements depend, in addition to the sensitivity of the speaker, on the size of your room. When I went from a high current 100 watt amp to one putting out 160 wpc with my C7's, I felt there was an improvement. I use a 180 wpc amp now in a fairly large room. With my M30's in a medium sized room, I use a 160 wpc amp. There's only a 3db difference between 100 and 200 wpc, after all.
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"Occasionally we list eccentrically, all sense of balance gone."
Thanks, I'm really set on the Harbeth 7ES-3's. I'm currently using the Spendor S5e's with the D200's and I've grown tired of their polite grow on you sound, I find them lacking with rock music and now I'm looking for a more immediate dynamic sound which I think only a monitor can do.
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