Here are my thoughts on the SuperHL5plus.
I like a wide variety of speaker types, so I"m not *just* a Harbeth guy.But Harbeth are in the top ranks of speakers I simply love to listen to.
Few if any speakers recreate the human voice with the organically believable quality of the Harbeths. Sure you can get startling clarity and presence from voices through many speakers. But through the Harbeths voices sound particularly *human,* with the type of rich, rounded body and softness of the real thing, and projecting in the way of the real thing.
I remember one day being in a dealer and being stopped dead in my tracks hearing an operatic voice. Holy cow, that's just about the most natural sounding human voice I've heard reproduced! It was some Harbeth speakers. That caught my attention!
I owned the SuperHL5plus for about a month, listening to them constantly. One of my favorite speakers that ever graced my room, but as it happened I was seeing if I could replace speakers that were even "more" my favorite, some Thiel 3.7s, and I couldn't give up the precision, dynamics and scale of the Thiels.
That said, I find the Harbeth SuperHL5plus, like so many others, just seems to get the timbral quality of acoustic sources "right" to a degree that escapes most other brands. Voices, instruments made of vibrating wood, metal trumpets, drum snares, whatever, have that "yes, that's what it sounds like" impression - written in warm tones, not steely or gray/silver tones.
Clap your hands gently. Listen go that particular damped-flesh timbre: that's what you get when you hear hand claps through the Harbeths.
The SuperHL5plus is also a very clear, highly resolved sound. I disagree with characterizations that they sound warm or rolled off or overly romantic. I could come home from audition the super-hi-res Vivid Audio speakers, put a track on the Harbeths and still find myself thinking "that is so timbrally right and clear, it could be the real thing." (With caveats you of course never truly get 'the real thing.')
I also find the Harbeths, especially the HL5plus, to be particularly well balanced. Someone in a review said "it sounds like everything in a track is just at the level it's supposed to be" and that's the sense of confidence, of evenness, I got from the Harbeths. And it's one reason that to me they sounded wonderful with pretty much any type of music. I find they are one of the best "all rounder" speakers I've heard.
Some will insist that the Harbeths aren't for someone who's going to play much rock 'n roll. Again I totally disagree as I LOVED rock through the Harbeths, including lots of my prog rock collection. Yes it's true that the Harbeths aren't going to do "slam" like, say, big JBL speakers. If THAT is what someone personally needs in order to enjoy rock music, that's for them to decide personally. But I found the bass of the Harbeths to be fairly substantial, warm yet very in control. And the evenness of the sound, how the sound is rich and full from bottom to top, gave rock guitars good thickness and presence. Vocals, a human character. Whatever a drummer was doing was communicated wonderfully by the Harbeths. So whether Harbeths do rock well is down to a personal criteria of what sound satisfies. For some they don't do rock how they want to hear it, but for many they are fantastic for rock.
(Reminds me of my little Spendor 3/5 speakers. Are they "rock" speakers? Surely not in the sense of being so tiny and never giving you slam, dynamics and "feeling the floor vibrate." But within their limited frequency range, WOW do I ever enjoy listening to, say, Cheap Trick as I did last night. They seem to communicate what the musicians are doing so well!).
Downsides to the SuperHL5plus?
Although they "disappeared' very well given how their boxy look, they could never reach the depth and scale I get from a number of other speakers I've owned, e.g. Thiel. Plus, if listened for, I think there is a hint of the vibrating box within the presentation. It is *very* cannily integrated and may possibly be part of the organic richness of the sound. But there is a slight thickness in between instruments that you may only notice if you directly compare it to a super clean, heavily braced cabinet speaker (as happened when I compared to my Thiels).
And if you want a denser sense of bass slam, you'll get that from other speakers.
I am usually at peace when letting go of a speaker, and generally that's the case after selling the Harbeths to keep the Thiels. But whenever I hear Harbeths playing at my local audio store, they make me swoon again, suck me in, and I just have to sit down and listen.
I like a wide variety of speaker types, so I"m not *just* a Harbeth guy.But Harbeth are in the top ranks of speakers I simply love to listen to.
Few if any speakers recreate the human voice with the organically believable quality of the Harbeths. Sure you can get startling clarity and presence from voices through many speakers. But through the Harbeths voices sound particularly *human,* with the type of rich, rounded body and softness of the real thing, and projecting in the way of the real thing.
I remember one day being in a dealer and being stopped dead in my tracks hearing an operatic voice. Holy cow, that's just about the most natural sounding human voice I've heard reproduced! It was some Harbeth speakers. That caught my attention!
I owned the SuperHL5plus for about a month, listening to them constantly. One of my favorite speakers that ever graced my room, but as it happened I was seeing if I could replace speakers that were even "more" my favorite, some Thiel 3.7s, and I couldn't give up the precision, dynamics and scale of the Thiels.
That said, I find the Harbeth SuperHL5plus, like so many others, just seems to get the timbral quality of acoustic sources "right" to a degree that escapes most other brands. Voices, instruments made of vibrating wood, metal trumpets, drum snares, whatever, have that "yes, that's what it sounds like" impression - written in warm tones, not steely or gray/silver tones.
Clap your hands gently. Listen go that particular damped-flesh timbre: that's what you get when you hear hand claps through the Harbeths.
The SuperHL5plus is also a very clear, highly resolved sound. I disagree with characterizations that they sound warm or rolled off or overly romantic. I could come home from audition the super-hi-res Vivid Audio speakers, put a track on the Harbeths and still find myself thinking "that is so timbrally right and clear, it could be the real thing." (With caveats you of course never truly get 'the real thing.')
I also find the Harbeths, especially the HL5plus, to be particularly well balanced. Someone in a review said "it sounds like everything in a track is just at the level it's supposed to be" and that's the sense of confidence, of evenness, I got from the Harbeths. And it's one reason that to me they sounded wonderful with pretty much any type of music. I find they are one of the best "all rounder" speakers I've heard.
Some will insist that the Harbeths aren't for someone who's going to play much rock 'n roll. Again I totally disagree as I LOVED rock through the Harbeths, including lots of my prog rock collection. Yes it's true that the Harbeths aren't going to do "slam" like, say, big JBL speakers. If THAT is what someone personally needs in order to enjoy rock music, that's for them to decide personally. But I found the bass of the Harbeths to be fairly substantial, warm yet very in control. And the evenness of the sound, how the sound is rich and full from bottom to top, gave rock guitars good thickness and presence. Vocals, a human character. Whatever a drummer was doing was communicated wonderfully by the Harbeths. So whether Harbeths do rock well is down to a personal criteria of what sound satisfies. For some they don't do rock how they want to hear it, but for many they are fantastic for rock.
(Reminds me of my little Spendor 3/5 speakers. Are they "rock" speakers? Surely not in the sense of being so tiny and never giving you slam, dynamics and "feeling the floor vibrate." But within their limited frequency range, WOW do I ever enjoy listening to, say, Cheap Trick as I did last night. They seem to communicate what the musicians are doing so well!).
Downsides to the SuperHL5plus?
Although they "disappeared' very well given how their boxy look, they could never reach the depth and scale I get from a number of other speakers I've owned, e.g. Thiel. Plus, if listened for, I think there is a hint of the vibrating box within the presentation. It is *very* cannily integrated and may possibly be part of the organic richness of the sound. But there is a slight thickness in between instruments that you may only notice if you directly compare it to a super clean, heavily braced cabinet speaker (as happened when I compared to my Thiels).
And if you want a denser sense of bass slam, you'll get that from other speakers.
I am usually at peace when letting go of a speaker, and generally that's the case after selling the Harbeths to keep the Thiels. But whenever I hear Harbeths playing at my local audio store, they make me swoon again, suck me in, and I just have to sit down and listen.