Amplifier advice for new Harbeth Compact 7s

[Welder]

On the other hand you may find that all they need is watts; speakers like watts and to the best of my knowledge they cant tell a solid state watt from a valve what.

[Reid Malenfant]

Can't you just tell that John is back

Good to see you about John

[Welder]

Awwww, sweet, did ya miss me mate?……….prolly the only one
I hope you had a good un Mark.

[jandl100]

Just to qualify the 'Tony L Primaluna' issue; he used a Primaluna for some time with C7's and liked it

Aha! - so Tony L isn't deaf after all!

... it was only when he tried SHL5's that he had a serious attack of audiophilia nervosa and retreated to the womb of lovely old Tannoys.

Treble issues with the SHL5 / PL combo by any chance?

Sorry hifi-dave, but I am far from the only person I know of to have heard Harbeth models with screechy (OK, let's say over-enthusiastic) treble.

They really are not a warm and cosy pipe&slippers speaker firm, imo. They often get the tonal balance pretty much right, in my view. As you'd expect of a speaker brand in the BBC Tradition. Quite what happened in the SHL5 I don't know - maybe they were trying to sell to the pro crowd!

[Tim]

I agree that the 7ES3 I heard are pretty smooth, but I've heard SHL5's (I think) that are screechy as hell

Hmmm, interesting comment? I'm not that qualified as I have only heard SHL5's with four different amps (all SS), but they have never been anywhere near 'screechy'. What they replaced were (Monitor Audio GR60's), but not these, no way.

In fact an ex-employee of MA who was not familiar with Harbeth's commented on how relaxed and non-fatiguing they were and that he could quite happily listen to them all day.

Just goes to show how one man's meat is another man's poison.

[jandl100]

Oops, sorry Tim! Your fave speakers, eh?

As you say, a lot of folks would consider MA speakers to be a fair bit on the bright side, too ... it's all relative, innit!

Peace & Good Will!

[Elephantears]

Treble issues with the SHL5 / PL combo by any chance?

Sorry hifi-dave, but I am far from the only person I know of to have heard Harbeth models with screechy (OK, let's say over-enthusiastic) treble.

They really are not a warm and cosy pipe&slippers speaker firm, imo. They often get the tonal balance pretty much right, in my view. As you'd expect of a speaker brand in the BBC Tradition. Quite what happened in the SHL5 I don't know - maybe they were trying to sell to the pro crowd!

It would be good if you could give some context for when you heard the 5's screech, because I assure you this is very room relative. The super-tweeter can be beamy in the wrong circumstances and the treble can be problematic, but if you get the positioning, room and ancilliaries matching well the treble is absolutely superb. Far better than the C7's or M30's at getting the high notes of a trumpet or piano, for example, with a much greater sense of air and space. But they really do need room space. And that goes for the bass as well; they are a terrible pain to get right, not only with the space behind and to the side, but the height. I believe that with perseverance they can be miraculous, but I must admit its generally been in dealer demo set-ups that I've heard that potential.

[Tim]

Oops, sorry Tim! Your fave speakers, eh? ops

Not a problem, we all have differing views and desires - I just wanted to put forward the viewpoint from an owner (and a very happy one I might add ). TBH I have never heard anyone describe them as screechy and you wouldn't believe how many hours I scoured 'tinterweb' before buying them and not once had any person who either liked or disliked them described them as screechy before..... quite the opposite in fact from those that didn't care for the sound. The negative reports (when you could find one) said they were too relaxed for their tastes, preferring something more forward and dynamic. Now that viewpoint I can understand and the guy who bought my Monitor Audio's really didn't like them at all, but he had my teeth on edge with the MA's when he cranked them up playing some Paul Hardcastle He clearly liked a screechy sound....

But hey, each to their own and my SHL5's are MINE

[JJack]

Tony Lonorgan would disagree with the "Prima Luna amps and Harbeths working well together" sentiment quite strongly I think Jerry...

Before an expensive amp upgrade, I'd make sure the Compact 7's are properly supported. get the stands wrong, and the bass sounds thuddy and tubby - very un-natural (I believe the current models have had extra bracing in the boxes to deal with this slight idiosyncrasy). My recommendation from personal experience is for the Something Solid stands, which support the boxes at each bottom corner and lets then flex properly. These stands are available from Signals Ipswich, Deco Audio Aylesbury and HiFi dave, who sells both brands.

Compact 7's are not ruthlessly analytical and if the amp is a transformer coupled valve jobbie with high output impedance and therefore little to no bass control, the excess bloat may be tamed by speaker position changes. For your budget, you could try to look out for a vintage Radford, although prices are high and if not serviced, it'll need one. Radford's output transformers were the best in the business back then and because the output impedance is low (according to a recent test on STA15's in HFN), the damping factor will be nigh on (some) solid state levels.

As for new amps, accusations of shilling (Mr Dunn just won't leave me alone) prevent me from mentioning the usual suspects around a grand that sound SO good with all Harbeth models, but maybe hifi dave will be along to mention them for himself.
...

I'm in the States so I don't think I can get a Radford amp.

I've controlled for the stands and any room issues, so that's not my concern.

The bass is not bloaty or slow, but I'm not getting all that I've heard from these speakers in terms of bass performance.

Also, my amp is simply running out of steam on some of the complex orchestral music I listen to (on chamber and piano and rock it's perfect). I've heard these speakers on a big solid state home theater amp (Anthem) and the orchestral stuff is better on the big amp, although I'd like to avoid the solid state signature I hear on that particular amp.

I would love to hear your recommendation for the new amp, shilling or not!

Thanks

[JJack]

...

I'm not familiar with your Cary power amps, so I don't really know if a PL amp would improve on things for you. But I've owned a Cary SET (572se) amps and they had excellent bass!

My suspicion is that you may be right, and you may have to give up the warm glow of your CJ pre in order to get much improvement in the bass.[/QUOTE]



The CAD 50s are similar to the 572s, same chassis and transformer. I heard them side by side in about 2000 and thought the 572s were wonderful and somewhat similar to my amps.

I'm doing a little tube rolling in my preamp today to see if that helps