Thought My Harbeth M40.1's Were Forever Speakers - Guess Not

Harbeth are one of my favorite speakers (I owned the SuperHL5plus for a while). I’ve heard the 40.2s a couple times and recently got a nice audition of them at a store (in a big room).


Before I put on my tracks they played a track with a female singer accompanied by a muted trumpet (and I think maybe some light drums?).  I was taken aback! It was probably THE most 3 dimensional, corporeal imaging I’ve ever heard! The singer seemed way back in the "stage" but fleshed out, properly sized and, well, corporeal and dense. When the trumpet entered off to the side, same thing. This big round, tonally convincing trumpet just appeared. The Harbeths have a way of making many other speaker imaging sound flattened and lightweight.


When I threw on a bunch of my tracks there was more excellent soundstaging/imaging - a really big sound. Though I was finding the bass a little pudgy. (Maybe the big room worked for the big soundstaging, but somehow against the bass control?).


Generally it all had the nice Harbeth richness, roundness and weight, with nice accurate-sounding tonality. Though for whatever reason I wasn’t finding myself totally seduced by what I was hearing. There was a bit of a polite, reserved quality to the sound, where it sort of "sat back behind the speakers" in terms of staging and not being tonally forward.The Thiel 3.7s I owned (and to some degree my 2.7s) gave me a lot of what I heard with the Harbeths in terms of image size/weight (though not as much), but with a bit more energy and toe-tapping quality.


My current Joseph speakers also do a great job with bass-driven music, with a reach-out-and-grab-you bass quality.


Still, the 40.2s are one of those speakers that I want to spend more time with some day. Ultimately they don’t really fit my room aesthetically and practically. But they sure have some special qualities that separate them from the pack (in terms of what interests me sonically).

Hi guys,

Sorry for the delay.  It took me a while to get the speakers and set them up.  Holiday madness delayed things a bit.

Here are some initial observations of mine:

Hooked up the new speakers yesterday.

Unpacking these speakers is a chore, and best done by two people, but I didn’t have anyone around to help when I opened mine, and honestly I prefer to do it myself so I can give 100% focus to it and block out the noise.  Moving them is also a chore.  I did have a friend help me with this and I’m glad I did.  It's nice to have the grunt work done and be able to relax and spend time with them now.

I have Tontraeger stands for them, which are perfect IMO.  

At first listen they sounded tight and bright.  Really harsh is the only way to say it.  Not good.

30 minutes later they began loosening up and sounded much better.

Five hours of listening on them now and they are starting to produce their magic.  

Absolutely love them!

They already sound better than the 40.1’s, and that is really something considering how good those speakers sound.

I think they need several more hours of break-in.  Some people have said as much as 200 hours.  Not sure but I guess I’ll find out.

Just took the grilles off, and can honestly say I think they sound better with them on, but the olive wood finish is just too beautiful to cover up!

Feeding them a steady diet of analog and digital music, ranging from folk to classic rock to classical and loving it all.  The best way to describe the sound is that the music just sounds "right."  The sound is so natural and easy on the ears that it calms me to just sit here and play them all day, which is what I plan to do today (it's Saturday and there is freezing rain outside - no need or desire to leave the house).  

I played the new Mofi UH1S copies of Blood On The Tracks as well as SRV's first album last night.  Holy Schitt was that a treat!  This morning it's digital versions of Wilco's library that are providing the magic.  

Thanks,

Peter

Congrats....

How do you feel about the tontrager as it looks a little precarious as a a stand....i am using skylan here in earthquake country LA.

@karmapolice 
The Tontraeger stands are amazing.  Expensive but they look and sound great.  You can add Blue Tack under the speakers but I never have and they stay put for me.  I do not live in earthquake country.  I used to live in Japan and had Sound Anchor stands with B&W 805 speakers.  I never had the speakers fall off the stands but sometimes noticed they were a bit off kilter, probably caused by minor seismic activity.  I added Blue Tack and that solved it.  

Peter,

Are are the new Harbeth 40.2’s your new forever speakers?