They have been designed using a variety of bog standard Quad power amps. Alan Shaw, their designer, agrees with Peter Walker that a good amplifier is just a straight wire with gain. His criteria for choosing an amplifier are, first, enough power (the more the better), second, a load independent frequency response (few tube amps are good enough on this score, see the graphs in Stereophile), and an input sensitivity that matches the source (many modern sources output more than what many input stages can handle, with clipping as a result). None of this needs to be expensive. In fact, many audiophile amplifiers are worse than cheaper mainstream ones. They don't have enough power, they are load dependent, and some also have ridiculously high input sensitivities (e.g. full power at only a quarter of the volume dial). He has many great demos of all this on the Harbeth User Group forum.
Best Tube/SS Amps for Harbeth 7ES-3
Hi, I just bought a pair of Harbeth Compact 7ES-3 - beautiful sounded speakers. Very natural and musical.
Now I need to get an integrated or Pre/Power combo to drive it. Budget is about $3-4K new or used. I read the 7ES-3 is easy to drive. Which amp works better with the 7ES - Tube or SS?
What amps do you use for your Harbeth 7ES? How much power output do I need to drive the 7ES to its full potential?
Would a 20 watt per channel tube amp drive the Harbeth?
Now that I've settled on the speakers, I can focus on getting the amps :)
Thanks.
Now I need to get an integrated or Pre/Power combo to drive it. Budget is about $3-4K new or used. I read the 7ES-3 is easy to drive. Which amp works better with the 7ES - Tube or SS?
What amps do you use for your Harbeth 7ES? How much power output do I need to drive the 7ES to its full potential?
Would a 20 watt per channel tube amp drive the Harbeth?
Now that I've settled on the speakers, I can focus on getting the amps :)
Thanks.
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- 25 posts total
- 25 posts total