![]() ![]() It was one of the best things I ever did. I had been using Vandersteens for some years before that and was suffering from substantial "detail fatigue," and one evening, after suddenly getting frustrated with the Vandersteens one too many times, located a pair of M30's and acquired them in the space of about an hour. In fact, I hadn't heard ANY Harbeths before I got my M30's. I also recall that one of the on-line reviewers described the M30's in such a way that I can imagine them seeming perhaps more forward than the HL5's. I've heard something like that elsewhere, which suggests to me that the "leanness" you report in the M30s probably reflects a consistent difference in the speakers. One Harbeth dealer I know does not favor the HL5's because he considers them a bit bass-heavy. In fact, a three way active PMC may be a speaker worth looking into given your tastes (think ATC with a more polite or less revealing mid range and significantly more bass).īill - Fair questions. Just my two cents but I thought I would pass on this advice rather than mindlessly plug something that now appears less well suited to your taste. ![]() I suspect you would find ATC's sound "edgy" or "harsh" in the upper mid range compared to your preferred taste. Given more clarity about your preferences in your last comment, I suggest you probably will not like ATC. as it is your choice of speaker for your tastes. If this more polite sound is what you prefer then go for the SHL5.although a jazz musician may find that this flavor lacks the proper harshness or brashiness you typically get from brass instruments (often better produced by horn speakers).at the end of the day, who cares what others think. The "edgy" sound you especially get from brass instruments mostly occurs around 4 Khz. This may explain your impression that they are articulate without sounding harsh or edgy. I read somewhere that the Harbeth SLH5 is slightly recessed in the 2 Khz to 4 Khz region - they are deliberately a polite sounding speaker. As one dealer buddy of mine from way back said to me recently, "Harbeths are for when you're tired of everything else." (And he's not a Harbeth dealer.) I can really see where he's coming from. The overall sound seems notably more transparent and holographic, and I'm a sucker for that, and, after some agonizing, decided to buy the Avalons. The "semi-exception" to the list was the Avalon Ascendants because of everything else they do well, but I'm not sure their mid-range is exactly better than the Harbeths. I listened to Wilson Sophias (which didn't impress me much at all in 2 different set-ups), a Wilson-Benesch something-or-other, some Revels, some ProAcs (D28? I think, which were interesting-I could have spent more time with them), Sonus Faber Cremonas (which had a very interesting mid-range, but the tweeters had a bit too much "tizz" in them), some mid-priced Dalis (blah), some little Sonus Fabers (Cremona Auditors?-too much "tizz" in the highs), those wierd looking German speakers (MBL? - I couldn't get out of the room fast enough), Audio Physic Scorpios (which I kind of liked, though not because of fabulous mids).and I can't remember what else. I auditioned a few other speakers in high end shops both before and after getting Harbeths, none of which struck me as being as pleasant as the Harbeths, with one semi-exception (though the electronics were not the same as mine of course, so one could argue that the comparison was flawed). I listen to a lot of classical music, and the sound of strings (massed or otherwise) on the Harbeths was richer and more fleshed out than the Vandersteens.so much so that certain CDs I considered almost unlistenable on the Vandersteens were suddenly listenable on the Harbeths. I own a pair of Harbeth M30s, which I brought in to replace Vandersteen 3a sigs (which had replaced 2ce sigs). I tried most of them but they just didn’t do it for me.What an interesting question. With you listening to rock/pop/hard rock it maybe worth try PMC speakers. The rear of my speakers need to be 200-250mm from a solid wall and these two speakers worked well.Ī number of other speakers impressed me for the first couple hours and some others for a couple of days but after a few serious long listening sessions these two speakers were the ones that I forgot about the critical listening and was totally absorbed into the music.Īs we know speakers are very room dependant and speakers that I listened to at home sometimes sounded nothing like they did at the dealers and in the end I gave up listening to speakers at the dealers and just arranged to borrow them for a week or two. When I was looking to replace my D7’s I tried and had on loan over a twelve month period a variety of speakers and it came down to making a decision between the D9’s and Kudos Titan 606. Sorry I’ve never tried ATC speakers and maybe I should have. ![]()
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