Can the Harbeth 40.1's boggie ?????

Garbear, I tend to agree with Onhwy61. Its hard to get the ideal sound from one system on all genre's and I run 4 systems, mind you with budget equipment. Perhaps a set of Wilson Audio speakers might whn well matched.

I own a 40.1 and they do have endearing qualities but sadly they do not rock. A change out on cables and equipment helps but still.....not quite there. Very noticeable when you listen to a drum kit playing through them, a tad slower than i'd like them to be.

Alan Shaw said once they dont rock but I am not sure whether he means they cant develop the required spls or they are just not cut out to deliver the ideal rock sound.I think the latter. Drop him a line at the Harbeth user forum. I am told he used to be a bit of a rocker himself!!!

If you do find the equipment which can deliver a healthy boost of steroids to the 40.1,please do share. I'd be keen to know.

My music tastes and system are quite different from what I enjoyed in the 60's & 70's when I had a full head of hair but an empty appreciation of better music.

Airegin...good point made. However, my systems have chnaged as well but the pursuit of trying to re-create the artist's emotional performance has never changed. I agree that some of the music I listen to now is different from what I listened to 25 years ago.....better, that would be subjective and only up to the listener. I have now had the Harbeth 40.1's for almost 2 months now.....and your ears do adjust to the changes that you make in your system. I will say it again....they are different and they can play beautiful music that is one thing for sure.

I'm a Harbeth dealer so take my opinion for what its worth. Yes they can boogie but you need some serious power to do so. Took a long time to figure this out. They also need very very careful room placement. Strangely they are picky unlike any other Harbeth speakerss. Even small movements will change the sound and bass characteristics. When set up right, nothing sounds better. They are simply steallar and will do 20hz in a room. No comparison to lesser Harbeths. They have an effortlesness, transparency and resolution the others do not have. Side by side it's painfully obvious as fantastic as the HL5 is.

Hi I am the New Zealand Harbeth distributor and I have to agree with Dkasab, the Monitor 40.1 is a incredible speaker and when set up properly sounds incredible.

I play all types of music but not a big fan of 60/70s/80s Rock recordings as most has no bass for my tastes and sounds loud thin and just badly mastered.

I play a lot of Reggae / Roots & Dub music, the Harbeth Monitor 40.1 really portray a live like playback with natural bass tone, I also play a lot of male & female vocals and I find the Monitor 40.1 also excel here as well.

Garebear I think you will find with time and room placement experimentation you will appreciate what the Monitor 40.1 speakers can do.

There is a very good report on the Harbeth UK Forum at the moment of a Harbeth 40.1 speaker owner and amplifiers he has used with his Harbeths.

"As a user of the M40.1 for more than one year now, i can confirm that timbre and vocals are fabulous ... but that's not all: somehow they sound very clear , crisp, effortless, coherent while being very communicative at the same time. Very good timing and flow. Bass is deep, fast, tight, yet not overdamped. Cannot understand Jeff day's comments.. i guess it's all down to correct placement, which should not be taken lightly or for granted by even a professional reviewer. Each time i thought there could be a slight margin for improvement, it was down to the recording, or some minor tweaking (toe in, minute placement, rake ...). Never made complex musical lines and musicians's intentions as much sense as through these speakers .... in think i now "get" Coltrane at last.

I tried many electronics ( Naim, LFD, Rega osiris and elicit, YBA, Prima Luna, Audiomat, Manley, Unison, Accuphase ...) with them, and maybe i was lucky because the sound was always at least very good. However, best and incredible results were with LFD (any one of their different integrateds was great) and with Audiomat Opera, wich was very slightly better still, but very similar sound. For convenience (no power valves) i bought the LFD NCSE and use it with EAR acute with nos valves.

The system defenitely betters my full YBA1 + Spendor S-100, and also the YBA1 + Sonus Faber Amati i had tried.... thought also it bettered, but still in a very similar style, a valve mac intosh + Quad 2905 system i tried in the same room ...."

Cheers Jason.