Harbeths and Tube Amps

Ten watts is ten watts....no matter what people say about it.
In your case, with the Harbeths, it simply is not enough power. The Plinius is 5X's the power of the tube amp. Harbeth
recommends a decent 100 watts for best results with that speaker. I'm not surprised they sound better with the Plinius as I wouldn't be surpried with any number of real good 50 to 100 watt amps with those. It's pretty simple....go listen to a few 50 to 100 watt tube amps and then some good solid state amps in the same power range; see which flavor you prefer, then buy the one you like the best! Happy hunting.

I left Marco to his wiles at my house and he explored the Harbeths with the Cary amps. I haven't even listened to that combination yet! He's a tenacious experimenter... I'll have to do that. I have heard them with other tube amps though, and with the Odysee Stratos dual mono. I think they sound great with the Odysee - very warm and involving. I heard them at CES with a Plinius 102 amp (I think that's the model, it was new 2-3 years ago. I thought that combination was excellent - it sold me on the speakers. Word is that more power is better with those - over 100 SS, better 150-200. Let us know what you come up with.

All the Best, Peter

Thanks, guys. I know the Air Tight is only 10wts but it's done some amazing things in my small room including driving 85db Spendor 3/5s. Of course, the amp has those massive Tamura trannies which gives it quite a wide bandwidth.

However, I also know it does not push a lot of current and that's what the Harbeths seem to need. I was just wondering if anyone had a specific tube amp that properly drove them like the Cary. I'm also checking out Quicksilver V4s which at 120 tube wts should work pretty good.

I do have to say that after listening last night for about 2 hours the Plinuis makes some excellent music so I've decided I'm in no hurry. I still miss those tubes and trannies, though.

I had good luck driving a pair of HL5s with an ASL 1001, Granite Audio 861 monos, and Primaluna Prologue 1. All of these put out 30-40 triode watts. The Harbeths are easier to drive than their specs would suggest. KT88s, in particular, seem to balance well with the somewhat laid-back Harbeth sound. Would be surprised if the 10W 300B would be enough.

Nzera,

I've been told that the Radial driver, as used in the C7, requires quite a bit of current to work properly. This was told to me by someone at the Harbeth distributor but I can't remember who. How did the Granite Audion in particular work? I've been interested in them since deciding a few months ago to try something other than the SETs I've using for the last 7 1/2 years. I wonder if a 40-50 SET would also work?