Harbeth vs. Tyler

This is for the those who have never heard the Harbeths. I have owned many speakers and I have yet to see any which deliver more for the buck than do the Harbeths. They do what a speaker is supposed to do. They deliver the pure music and get out of the way, no more no less.

There are reviews out there on all the variious Harbeth models, and I have yet to see a bad review on any of them. Not my favorite, but last month's (I believe) Stereophile had a review on the ES73. Read it.

Regards,

AEW

Ahh here's the big difference for me. harbeth is british. i do not like the british sound. Though Ooka may like it. Its personal preference. And i was not refering only to the cabinet. The poly drivers look cheap.

If you think it's hard to find a Harbeth review, try finding a thread on Tylers (or even not on Tylers), without Bartie shilling all day long.

Really - they're both good, but take the resident promotional goon's words for what they're worth.

And anyone who finds the Harbeth cabinet "cheap looking" is probably allergic to natural fabrics too.

I wish Muzikat had provided a really specific description of the tonal and resolution qualities of the Tylers and the Harbeths - especially since he has owned and heard them both.

I've owned other British Speakers, Rogers LS35A's and Studio 1A, as well as Quad 63's. If these represent 'British sound', and Harbeth represents British sound, I doubt that Tyler's speakers will sound much like them based on my experience with the Linbrooke Signature Systems that I presently use.

In comparison I would expect the Tyler's to have a warmer sound, both in the upper bass, and a little less high end energy (not resolution - I think the Tylers resolution using the millenium tweeter is outstanding). From all I've read about Harbeths (I've never heard a pair, but I'd like to hear one of the larger models) I would expect a very high quality/resolution speaker, tonally neutral, perhaps without the typical upper mid range dip that appears in a lot. They certainly are not some POS speakers that out VI seems to think they are!

Personally I really like the Tylers.

Just a WAG FWIW

Some Harbeth models do have a slight midrange dip.

I'd love a serious audition of Tyler speakers because many people, not just Bartokfan, are enthusiastic about them. Maybe designing speakers is made out to be more difficult than it really is, but I always wonder how Tyler can offer a choice of drivers in a product. It seems to me the crossover would need to be redesigned to accomodate a Seas vs. a Scan-Speak or whatever. Maybe he does change some values, but it is as easy as all that? Seems like the Madisound DIY school of speaker design. I get the same hit from Silverline (perhaps unfairly): throw them in a box -- how many drivers you want...3? 4? 5? -- wire 'em up, and voila! Which is counter to many other manufacturers' claims about searching long and hard to find "just the right tweeter," having to modify it to "our exacting specifications," blah blah.