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Do Harbeth speakers really need a 4000 damping factor?

Just got Harbeth C7ES-3 XD and using them with a "lowly" Yamaha A-S801 Integrated Amp - which with previous speaker (Canadian made Enigma) sounded OK. The Harbeth - are glorious with vocals and even piano sounds good but Orchestration seems somewhat muffled to me. I read that "Harbeth likes to demo with Hegel" (and Sugden?) but also that "Any good Amp will do".... The question is what is a good Amp? Would a Yamaha with 240 Damping factor suffice or really something like the Hegel with 4000? I am mentioning the damping factor specifically since it was such an obvious difference. On paper it looks like this might have a significant effect (assuming to the positive) on the sound. Any first hand experience opinions are appreciated. 

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jasonbourne71's avatar
jasonbourne71
1,173 posts
 

All competently designed amps of low noise and distortion will sound alike. Since amps look different the Mind believes they sound different. Remove sight and sound differences vanish.

yogiboy's avatar
yogiboy
5,658 posts
 

"Do Harbeth speakers really need a 4000 damping factor?"

No! I use tube amps with a low damping factor of 20 with my Harbeths. I          doubt getting an amp with a 4000 damping factor will improve anything!

chayro
2,984 posts
 

I’ve owned several Harbeth models and, while they are very electronics tolerant, I’ve found more difference in the stands and the interface between the stand and the speakers. For my taste, open-frame metal stands sounded best, or at least using a hard interface like casino chips between the stand and the speaker, as opposed to blu tak. But you should experiment with that. They will also respond to better amplification and sources as well. What stands are you using?  

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