My Leben and Harbeth Goodness!

[NeilNZ]

Well, here is my system. It has gone through many many changes to get to this point with everything from Dynaudio C4s, to Shindo preamps and Pass Labs power amps going through it.
I ended up here as I sold my last system to raise the funds to buy a house and used the money left over to essentially buy all of this at once.
The Leben and Harbeth combo seems to have a really good synergy, Jeff Day pretty much nails it in his reviews of the various bits and pieces he has written over the years.
I mainly listen to vinyl, but also stream a lot from my iMac using an Airport Express into an MHDT Labs Havana. It just sounds good enough for me.
The VPI Classic is a fantastic item and I couldn't really ask for much more really.
So the list is:
VPI Classic turntable
Benz Micro Wood / Lyra Lydian Beta
Auditorium 23 SUT
Leben RS30EQ Phono Stage
Leben CS600 Amp
Harbeth SHL 5s on Skylan type stands
MHDT Havana Dac/ Apple Airport Express
All hooked up with Kondo interconnects, Nordost Power cables and soon to be A23 speaker cables


Excuse the crappy pics!

[jostber]

Those Leben components look very nice. Would like to hear some of them sometime.

[DSJR]

Have you tried pulling the speakers forwards a bit more? harbeth and leben does seem to be a popular choice I think, judging by some of the posts I've read on the HUG...

[Elephantears]

I'd be amazed (and envious) if you don't get boom with that speaker placement. How do you find the bass output in your room? I needed a good 0.75m away from the walls when I tried 5's to stop them booming, but I never really had the right stands.

[DSJR]

Harbeth have always recommended free space mounting. They're not designed or balanced to be close to walls and corners, although they're surprisingly capable if used that way..

[The Black Adder]

Nice matey... Love the SHL5's

[Tarzan]

Have you tried pulling the speakers forwards a bit more? harbeth and leben does seem to be a popular choice I think, judging by some of the posts I've read on the HUG...

Beat me to it.

[NeilNZ]

Hi guys, thanks for the comments. Yep I have tried them pulled out further, but they really are more balanced where they are. I was expecting some boom but haven't encountered anything too nasty. Its a strangely good room for some reason.
I just measured them again and they are about 65cm from the rear wall and 45cm or so from the sides. Maybe the stands help... they are copies of Skylan ones but made in oak and sand filled 2/3rds of the way in each pillar. I use Herbies Thin Fat Dots between the stands and speakers too...
cheers

[Tarzan]

Hi guys, thanks for the comments. Yep I have tried them pulled out further, but they really are more balanced where they are. I was expecting some boom but haven't encountered anything too nasty. Its a strangely good room for some reason.
I just measured them again and they are about 65cm from the rear wall and 45cm or so from the sides. Maybe the stands help... they are copies of Skylan ones but made in oak and sand filled 2/3rds of the way in each pillar. I use Herbies Thin Fat Dots between the stands and speakers too...
cheers

Interesting Neil, did the Herbies work, and can you see them between the speakers and stands, l have Skylans and find they work really well....... but we always want more

[NeilNZ]

Hi Andy,
I would say they definitely did something. Maybe a slight focusing of the sound. But I made the grave error of changing a few things at the same time so hard to attribute it to any one thing. But I do like the idea of using something other than blutak to sit the speakers on. And the Herbies stuff is so affordable it was worth getting them anyway.