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The Harbeth phenomenon

In my search for a new pair of speakers, I've gone through many threads here and noticed that many owners or fans of Harbeth have almost a love-like connection with Harbeth speakers. It is almost as if the speakers cast a spell upon them. I know many audiophiles love their speakers but Harbeth owners seem especially enamored with theirs. I am extremely puzzled by this phenomenon because on paper Harbeth speakers look average at best and lack many of the attributes that generally make a great speaker.

Their sensitivity of generally around the 86dB mark makes them rather inefficient and therefore, at least in theory, not a good match for many lower powered tube amps, or any amps below 100wpc. Their frequency range is simply inferior to most high-end speakers since they don't go below 40 Hz. This alone should, again at least in theory, disqualify Harbeth speakers from consideration as top high end speakers. And yet I've never heard anyone complain about their bass, while people complain about lack of bass in the Gibbon Nines from DeVore, which is a fantastic speaker. Their cabinets look like a cheap DIY enclosure (disclaimer: I've never seen a Harbeth up close, only pictures). The 7ES-3 is rated B-Restricted, while the smaller and cheaper Usher Be-718 A-Restricted in Stereophile but garners nowhere near the same amount of admiration, praise and following among audiophiles.

So what's going on here? Is this a big conspiracy plot by the company that paid off a few hundred of people to infiltrate audiophile internet forums and a few reviewers? I am of course joking here, but the question is serious. How can speakers so average on paper be so good in real life? I know the opposite is often true, but you rarely see this phenomenon.

Please speak up.
actusreus
mlsstl
1,447 posts
 
James63 wrote: "I don't get how you could go through the effort of making/buying great drivers and using a so so box."

If I can hazard a guess as to the direction you're coming from, there are two broad categories when it comes to speaker cabinets.

One is the Harbeth/Spendor/BBC approach which acknowledges the existence of the back wave of the speaker cone and sets out to do something to help dissipate it. Their practice is to make a very carefully crafted "lossy" cabinet that acts as a "crumple zone" would in a car crash to absorb a lot of that energy. The energy that is absorbed by the cabinet reduces the amount radiated into the room at frequencies where the ear is most sensitive.

The opposite approach is to make an ultra rigid cabinet. The one drawback to this approach is the speaker cone still produces a rear wave. This energy does not magically go away by itself. If the speaker designer doesn't do something with it, you can find that energy re-radiated back into the room through the driver's cone. Energy in the lower voice range is not well absorbed just by speaker stuffing so the designer has to think of other things to do with it.

Each approach - and the variants in between as well as dipole and other boxless designs - has its following, just like car enthusiasts or the subgroups that develop in any other hobby.

However, calling the Harbeth a "so-so box" ignores the extensive effort that went into the speaker as well as the philosophy behind it. It would be just as easy to look at any of the tall, narrow speakers that are popular these days and insulting their designers for complicating the baffle step effect for the sake of furniture fashion.
actusreus OP
733 posts
 
This is a fascinating discussion and I thank all who have contributed to this enlightening exchange. Someone commented that many a speaker gets similar attention in the forums, and wondered why Harbeth was singled out thus implying there is no reason for this distinction. Insofar as I agree with the former, I respectfully disagree with the latter. I don't know of any other speaker whose owners talk about angels singing through it and seem to have such close connection with it. Perhaps a Harbeth appeals to the type of people who are more emotional than most and romanticize sound more than most, rather than creates this type of emotion to begin with. Either way, this thread indicates to me that Harbeth indeed is a different breed of speaker and I'm looking forward to auditioning a pair soon.

Awesome thread guys. Thank you!
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
I think you'll find Merlin VSM owners wax equally lyrical:)
philjolet's avatar
philjolet
2,306 posts
 
agree about Merlin - though it is a smaller crowd (more similar in size to Audio Note [yeah!]), but the granddaddy has to be Magnepan. They win by a landslide IMO, at least if you go by how many posts there are here on Agon.
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
True, never cross a Maggie owner:)
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