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Harbeth Radial Driver - How Good?

I had the opportunity to audition both the Harbeth Compact 7-ES3 speaker and the Harbeth Super HL5 speaker.

Both of these speakers were being powered by a tube integrated amp.

I was very impressed by both speakers and was told by the dealer that their excellent performance is due to their proprietary Radial mid/bass driver.

Any idea if these would work well with a Linn solid state 200W per channel power amp (Akurate 4200)?

Also, would these be a good fit for my 12 feet x 14 feet living room?

Last, what was your experience with these Harbeth speakers?
agiaccio
pdreher's avatar
pdreher
1,231 posts
 
Ditto the advice from Nolitan. Your 12' x 14' room should accomodate either speaker wihout a problem. A 200 WPC Linn amp is overkill, but will work fine. I recently downsized from the $20K Dynaudio C4 to the $13K Harbeth M-40.1's and have not looked back with any regret. The Harbeth sound is non-fatiguing and sounds great at low to moderate volumes, unlike many other speakers that need the volume cranked up to sound their best.
tom_hankins
928 posts
 
I've gone a similar path as Pdreher. I went from the Thiel CS7.2s to the SHL5s and have had no regrets. They are not very picky about amplification or room.
ryder
1,746 posts
 
Ditto on the above. Harbeth is one of the few that will sound good with virtually about any amp out there, your Linn inclusive. Also, Harbeth is one of the few that people may have chosen to replace costlier speakers. Usually folks would find satisfaction upgrading from lesser(and cheaper) speakers, not so with the Harbeth. The designer always stresses on good engineering at real down-to-earth prices of his products and doesn't advocate the use of high-end electronics to drive his speakers to attain good sound. As such, most discerning music lovers are able to enjoy the sound of the Harbeth at realistic down-to-earth prices. I was told that some folks have settled on the Harbeth after having owned speakers costing up to 3X more. It is good to note that there are real examples of such people here.

And yes, the proprietary Radial driver manufactured in-house in the Harbeth UK factory is one of the key ingredients that contributes to the warm and fresh Harbeth sound.
drubin
3,282 posts
 
I moved from Harbeth to Dynaudio, just to balance out the conversation a little. :-)
chashas1's avatar
chashas1
596 posts
 
Drubin, I guess you had some paint that needed peeling :)
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