Piano Notes On Harbeth SHL 5

Piano strings are in groups that decay in various degrees if sustained...compare a digital piano by muting it during a chord strike and then bring in the volume while it's decaying and you can demo what I mean...an actual piano has movement and harmonic waves during decay, digital piano doesn't. El Fluctuo A Mundo.

I sold some otherwise well regarded speakers due to midrange piano distortion...I listen to a lot of acoustic piano in small jazz trios or whatever and I have to have it clean or it drives me nuts.

I found my Shl5 very sensitive to speaker placement and room treatment as it creates a lot of mid bass around the room. I was having fat undefined bass and too warm sounding mids before room treatment. After placing one ceiling trap and 2 multi-traps at the back wall, the bass is now tight and defined but the mid and highs are almost too neutral to my liking. When moving the speakers a few inches in or out again changes the character of the sound. I found they are much more difficult to place then my Thiels 3.6! Anyway, once placed right, their tones, textures and mids range are very addictive!

Interesting observation. I agree that recorded piano tone can often be bothersome, but "thick" isn't a descritpive that I'd ever be inclined to use for any reproduction of piano. So, it's hard for me to comment on the Harbeth from your description, but....

Recording techniques vary so much and the pianos themselves vary so much (a new concert grand will sound rather different than an old upright with worn pads on the hammers) that it's hard to know if even really good reproduction by your system will sound satisfying on any given recording. As Wolf mentions, digital pianos (pretty common these days) sound different, too.

I've attended a recording session and watched everyone struggle - and never really succeed - in trying to get the piano to sound just right. I've also recorded my own (pretty horrible) playing on my daughter's high quality Kawai digital upright in the living room and can never get it to sound right 20' away in my listening room.

There are occasions when it's pretty evident that the system is the culprit, but I rarely use piano recordings to reach that conclusion. When it comes to problems in reproducing piano, I'm always wondering about the recording and reluctant to blame the system.

I heard exactly what you (the original poster) did with my SHL5s and always found myself leaning into the speakers trying to listen for more. Eventually I sold them due to this thinking this sounds more like mid-fi (despite the protests over on the Harbeth Users' Group saying there must me something wrong with my ears).

Rgs92, there is nothing wrong with your ears. It is typical of any ardent or overzealous fans to come into the defense of the Harbeth on the user forum. That can happen on any manufacturer's forum, and the same thing can be seen on the Naim forum. Though I have to admit that some chaps on the Harbeth user group seem to be totally stuck on the speakers and regard the Harbeth as somewhat flawless and most natural speakers in the world.

I do agree that the Harbeth lacks that extra bit of detail and resolution causing it to sound slightly soft and rounded in the highs. In comparison to ultra-revealing and transparent speakers out there, one can consider the Harbeth to be mid-fi. There are many other high-end speakers that offer more detail, resolution and tighter punchier bass but too much of detail may render the sound to be bright, cold or analytical. I believe balance is the key to a musical speaker and/or system. Everyone has their own benchmark or reference as to how their music should sound like so inevitably one speaker will not cater to all listening preferences.

Back to the quality of piano notes on the Harbeth. Martykl made a good point. The quality of piano recordings do differ greatly with the use of different recording techniques. Although the tone of piano sound warm and soft on some recordings, it can sound lean and bright on other recordings with a crisp and lighter feel. Thankfully the different tonal quality of the piano on various recordings shows through the Harbeth. If they all sound the same then it would be worrying.