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Harbeth speakers

ThoFi

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The Harbeth speakers are on the market since 1977 and are designed and owned by Mr Alan Shaw.
They are called neutral and natural sounding monitor speakers. Also it seems they have a strong fan base (Harbeth User Group: HUG).
The speakers are expensive, their life cycle is very long with moderate inovations. What are your general experiences with Harbeth speakers and there ethos?
 
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Compared to contemporary state of the art , they have restricted bass extension and ‘thrum’ a little, ie slightly more coloured than the very finest measuring designs.
Keith
 
To illustrate Keith's point: Harbeth Monitor 30.0 (the only one measured by Amir, dashed lines) and Neumann KH 310A (solid lines):


visualization (1).png


The Neumann is flatter with more bass and smoother directivity. It is likely perceived as better by most people.
The Harbeth is also significantly more expensive. That doesn't make it a bad speaker and the 30.0 is an old model.
 
To illustrate Keith's point: Harbeth Monitor 30.0 (the only one measured by Amir, dashed lines) and Neumann KH 310A (solid lines):

The Monitor 30 measured by Amir is a 20 year old model. More recent version have flat on-axis response.

At low to medium levels the (large) Harbeth speakers I listened to sound very good if kept away from the side walls.
Amir also liked the sound of old M30 he measured:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...r-30-speaker-review.11108/page-15#post-315521
 
Aren’t they all Spendor/Harbeth etc based on BBC designs so fifty years old.
Keith
 
As far as I know the older Harbeth based on the BBC design. Later Alan Shaw realized the Harbeth owner do not only play orchestral music and the design changed to a more neutral FR. But the I guess the basic design didn't change over the years. A box-design with thin, resonat cabinet, with more damping material over the years. I guess that was it. Not so much invention. But the price icreased enormous. I don't think they are worth the money.
 
@Keith and others: That is a quite nonsensical argument. It is a bit like saying that a modern Porsche is based on a 1950s design and hence old fashioned. The BBC research department was one of the first places for scientific speaker design, and hence the origin of some good ideas.
Ultimately, however, the proof of the pudding is in the eating: how do the current incarnations measure and how do they sound? Referring to a twenty year old version is a bit disingenuous, and so is referring to a lineage of fifty years. And do not forget that the current main drivers are modern ones of their own design. I agree about the increased price, but I do like my little P3ESRs as desktop speakers. They are far better/more neutral than the BBC designed LS3/5a that I used before.
 
@Keith and others: That is a quite nonsensical argument. It is a bit like saying that a modern Porsche is based on a 1950s design and hence old fashioned. The BBC research department was one of the first places for scientific speaker design, and hence the origin of some good ideas.
Ultimately, however, the proof of the pudding is in the eating: how do the current incarnations measure and how do they sound? Referring to a twenty year old version is a bit disingenuous, and so is referring to a lineage of fifty years. And do not forget that the current main drivers are modern ones of their own design. I agree about the increased price, but I do like my little P3ESRs as desktop speakers. They are far better/more neutral than the BBC designed LS3/5a that I used before.

Yes it would be very interesting to see some measurements. Are there any available to see the improvement…??
 
I checked the price from the C7ES3.
2008: €2.600
2021: €4.100
 
Yes it would be very interesting to see some measurements. Are there any available to see the improvement…??
A lot of this was discussed in the Monitor 30 review thead, it might be worth reading first:

 
more interesting would be the measurements of the latest 2 versions, to see the improvements of the XD models.
 
If you mean that some of it is in German... yes German Audio Magizines are among the few that still do measurements. Sure the measurements of the XD versions would be more appropriate, but these are very recent models. My hunch would be that the 40th anniversary models were quite close to the XD ones. Anyway, these measurements show a consistent trend of ever flatter responses.
 
If you mean that some of it is in German... yes German Audio Magizines are among the few that still do measurements. Sure the measurements of the XD versions would be more appropriate, but these are very recent models. My hunch would be that the 40th anniversary models were quite close to the XD ones. Anyway, these measurements show a consistent trend of ever flatter responses.
German is not the problem, it’s the graph.
And as I said, different sources are not trustful for comparison. (who knows the boundaries)
But to be sure about differences, improvements etc measurements are necessary.
Everything else you say is only subjective
 
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