You're welcome! The extensive research conducted by the BBC engineers in the 70"s, iirc, concluded, among other things, that a perfectly flat frequency response isn't actually very desirable,, i.e. it sound bad. They stated that a good sounding speaker should have a dip somewhere around 2kHz (1.5 - 3kHz?) and this knowledge was incorporated in the design of the BBC monitors of that era - the ancestors of the modern Harbeth, Spendor Classic, Graham, Stirling etc. speakers.
Differences between Harbeth, Spendor, Graham, etc. ?
This is perhaps a foolish question, given the subjective nature of this hobby, but is there any consensus regarding differences between the above brands? I’m interested in their "traditional" or "vintage" lines, not the more modern-voiced models.
For example, I’ve read that the Spendor Classic series speakers are, overall, warmer/darker than Harbeths and offer a bit more punch in the bass. If this is true, I would lean toward the former.
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and Falcon. I spent a ridiculous amount of time on the Falcon and Roger home pages. I was trying to find information about their speakers. I emailed them. 3 or 4 times, no response. I gave up, finally, there is no pricelist for their speakers, other than one off prices for a specific model. I find it irresponsible to publish contact information and ignore all requests. It reeks of terrible management. (It doesn't mean they can't have wonderful speakers,) Harbeth has an OK homepage, with the attitude of "we don't need a great web site, everyone knows our speakers are great. Spendor has a 21 century web site and maybe a bit duller product line but I would trust them the most. |
I used to own Spendor SP 1/2Es and have listened to several Harbeth models. I haven't heard the Grahams. I prefer the Spendors -- the midrange and 3-D qualities are absolutely magic. The biggest drawback is the extremely small sweet spot -- you're pretty much locked into a precisely placed seat to get the best sound. A lesser drawback is there isn't as much deep bass as many other speakers offer, However, I could easily live with either the Spendors or Harbeths. (I have Ohm 1000s in my main system these days which have an enormous sweet spot, but still have a pair of Spendor 4/5s in a second system -- the 4/5 is their current incarnation of the classic BBC LS 3/5a.) |
@larsman What did you land on for rock speakers? I agree with you and would not even recommend the 40.3 XDs that I own now if rock / hard rock is your primary genre, even with big SS horsepower. I don’t think that was Alan Shaw’s intent. As a matter of fact, they were designed to be satisfying at relatively low SPL’s, starting around 70dB to mitigate hearing loss / tinnitus, and I think he did very well achieving those design goals. But who wants to listen to ACDC, Boston (especially Foreplay/Longtime) or the Who at 70dB??? On the other hand, if your music tastes are varied, and you want to fill a room (even a big room) with some nice off-axis sounds as well as enjoy sitting in the sweet spot, Harbeth’s are pretty good all-rounders and definitely not fatiguing...but there are many other fine choices out there.
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