What Is So Special About Harbeth?

All but the largest Harbeths struggle when pushed. Seems their mid-woofers simply aren’t designed for high power handling. Their similar competitors often sound better and can play louder before compression sets in. Similar to Focals, their midrange tone sounds unnatural and slightly smeared to my ears (another listener called it "glassy"), the main reason for which I don’t understand the hype surrounding the brand and its Radial material. They do manage to have excellent driver integration, and as such, decent imaging. If coherency is top priority, they may still warrant an audition. I honestly feel Harbeth is one of the most over-hyped brands on the market concerning overall performance, especially at current retail prices. But Harbeth is becoming the Bose of British speakers -- they’re such a powerhouse in marketing that you can tell folks that there are better alternatives until you’re blue in the face -- doesn’t matter, they’re going to sell droves of them regardless.

As for listening to Harbeth, the only local high-end audio retailer specializes in big projects, like wiring houses for complete audio-video systems, though they probably carry some individual speakers. I feel a bit uncomfortable going there just to hear the equipment with no plans to purchase. Might just bite my lip and go in. 

Just call ahead and explain that you want to experience what all the fuss is about. They've almost certainly had similar inquiries. 

Harbeth is becoming the Bose of British speakers -- they’re such a powerhouse in marketing that you can tell folks that there are better alternatives until you’re blue in the face -- doesn’t matter, they’re going to sell droves of them regardless.

Putting it in perspective, Harbeth is a tiny company with 15 employees. Here is their UK business filing (link). Their budget is shockingly small to me (but I work in the tech industry). Hardly what I would call a "powerhouse in marketing".

I run a pair of 40.2's and the the key difference compared to my other speakers (Dynaudio C2 Plats and various hybrid electrostatic speakers inc Apogee 6 and 8's) for my setup up is the full range and dynamics I get operating them at low volume. They are my number 1 speaker set. I use an Accuphase A70 and McIntosh C22/MC75's to drive them.

@avanti,

They use a lossy tuned cabinet resonance design that gives them a controlled richness

This is distortion by definition. The resonating cabinets are producing their own sound like a musical instrument and this is superimposed on the signal. Hmmmm!

The crossover design also incorporates circuits to assist the drivers in sounding as good as they can by eliminating distortion, frequency peaks and making them easier to drive

So on the one hand we have intentional distortion built into the cabinet and on the other hand we have a brilliant crossover design to elliminate distortion.

This thread is really not helping the brand. It seems that if you want to experience distortion, er um sorry, no distortion, whatever, that the only way to really hear this schitzophrenic speaker is with a Hegel amp 🙄

@tomic601,

Properly executed anti tanking parts are not in the signal path…

Could you please elaborate on this. I design speakers and can assure you that everything in a crossover is in the signal path. Everything.