Who's using Harbeth with tubes, what speaker model and how many watts per channel?

correct joe

few things to bear in mind w c7’s or super 5’s

harbeths are 6 ohms, dipping to 5 in 100 hz area roughly - need to use 4 ohm taps not 8 ohms on tube amps - very low powered units, single ended, 300b etc etc need not apply unless you are near-fielding

you have decent sized room... i suggest a tube amp with more beef - i have had great luck w primaluna hp, audio research with 4 power tubes per channel, the like... 70-80 wpc range will move and grip the woofers suitably

compact 7 errs on side of warmth, potential bass boom/muddiness, that is why many who want tube sound use tube linestage or dac for that lil bit of magic but let a very good ss amp do the heavy lifting - hegels pass ayre van alstine all excellent

and yes alan shaw is quite the amp-nazi on his forum - hug is a take it or leave it proposition... i chose the latter - he is a good speaker designer but is close minded somewhat intolerant to alternate views to his own

good luck

I’ve had the C7 and used a Cayin tube integrated at 45 watts per channel. The speakers sounded great, never had to turn the volume beyond 12 o’clock. I now have the SHL5 anniversary. I alternate between the Cayin and a Luxman 505ux @ 100 watts per channel. The speakers are very happy with both amps.

@jjss49 

"harbeths are 6 ohms, dipping to 5 in 100 hz area roughly - need to use 4 ohm taps not 8 ohms on tube amps"

Can you elaborate on this. I've been under the impression that with 6 ohm speakers, the 8 ohm taps were appropriate. Very difficult to AB this.
   

I use SS but someone else on the forum who hasn't chipped in yet uses Linear Tube Audio Zotl40's in monoblock configuration on 40.2A's.

I use the 8 ohm taps with any Harbeth that I have used. I never heard any difference between the two taps! This is from Stereophile!
Harbeth P3ESR loudspeaker Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

I used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Harbeth’s frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield and spatially averaged room responses. Harbeth specifies the P3ESR as having a sensitivity of 83.5dB/W/m. My estimate was slightly less than this, at 83dB(B)/2.83V/m, but this is within experimental error of the specification. This is a significantly lower sensitivity than the norm, meaning that the little Harbeth will need a fairly powerful amplifier to play at acceptable levels in all but small rooms. However, its limited power handling (50W program) places a strict upper limit on the loudness it will produce. The Harbeth is claimed to be "easy to drive," and indeed, its plot of impedance magnitude and phase revealed that to be the case (fig.1). It is also an easier amplifier load than its predecessor, the HL-P3ES2. Other than a dip to 5.7 ohms at the bottom of the midrange, the P3ESR’s impedance remains above 8 ohms for almost the entire audioband, which will make it a good choice for use with tube amplifiers, provided they can swing enough volts to drive it to high enough levels. However, the shape of the impedance curve suggests that the balance will tilt up a little at the high end with such an amplifier.