What Is So Special About Harbeth?

a word to the wise

On the "what is special about Harbeth?" question, here’s part of my answer.

Having auditioned an insane amount of speakers - the Harbeth have just stuck out in terms of being able to produce the "gestalt" of the human voice, as well as acoustic instruments. But human voice in particular.

@prof, who stated the above, has contributed perhaps the seminal thread here on his hearing and assessing a whole host of excellent, mid to upper tier loudspeakers - for all interested, especially relative newbies, i strongly suggest you use the search function, or click @prof to see his past posts, and find that lengthy, but exceptionally broad reaching, informative thread - the value of this forum is only in small part the live threads, it is what has been written, covered and discussed in the past...

for others, who might feel a pair of used harbeths for under 2 grand is a poor value, well, neither @prof’s wonderful thread, nor i, can help you much... there is always youtube...

Well… with the right electronics there is very little that come close to the sound quality of the 30.1/2 and 40.1/2.  The rich sound is almost unmatched except for the Quad ESL57s.

But… “the right electronics” are the key words (eg. Hegel and Mac MA252 MA452.

I should clarify - they are superb for discerning "audiophile sound" (e.g. jazz, classical, country, acoustic, vocals, etc.).  For this type of music, they are almost unmatched.    

Any old speaker is fine for rock and hip hop, etc. - better off with JBL or Klipsch.  

@lalitk Thanks for the TAD CE1 recommendation.  It's a little outside my budget but you never know if a used pair becomes available for sale. I need to figure out if there's a way to audition them first though.

I am a 30+ year working pro musician and my sound engineer (best in the nation in my opinion) has been saying for years that Harbeth is the best , most true speaker he’s ever heard. He was at "The Show" in Newport and said he heard a band playing , turned a corner and it was the Harbeth 30.1’s....no band. I have Tekton Encores because I’m a rock guy and want the PA experience like I’m at a live show with powerful bottom. 

I auditioned these Harbeth’s years back and found them to be a very "polite" speaker , seemingly more for classical /jazz listener...so I purchased the Tekton massive towers to the disdain of my sound engineer 😆 He calls them my "Star Trek speakers"

Recently I found some 30.1’s at a reasonable price and took the plunge. My first feeling was they will never be able to compete with the bottom, but lets be reasonable and maybe find a different gear. After a couple of weeks I have found the Harbeth 30.1’s to be ultra clear and precise. Obviously they can’t keep up with the Tektons in the low end , but I have to say they are incredibly great in clarity and especially with audiophile tracks like Steely Dan.

HIGHLY recommend and I’m actually thinking about 40.1’s now (lord help me) and I do like the fact that they make their own speakers .. plus they are stunning cabs.