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amp to choose for my harbeth HL5+ 40th anniversary

Dave Smith said:
I have a couple of pairs of Harbeth's, and they loves watts, the more the better!

Anything under 150w will not release the full potential of the speakers, just look at some Harbeth shows and what Alan uses to demo his speakers, high wattage Hegel's!

Watch this from 6:00 min:-


Forget the Naim SN3, they just don't work well, I sold mine when I got my Harbeths...
Click to expand...

I went to a Harbeth demo with AS in charge.
Amps were some 200-250w American mono blocks.
Performance was a disaster,
Bloated bas
Shut-in mids
Really un-engaging boxy

I think even AS noticed judging on panic in his eye, nobody to brainwash as people left room fast
Reading watt specs and your out in the desert, not many amps control speakers as well done as a Supernait.
 
@Hani Khleif IF you've liked the MC701, which is a German amp, Naim will have a very different, less refined/less transparent sound. German designs tend to focus on linearity and a full bodied clear open detailed/3D layered sound.
 
gustavm said:
I use the ATC SIA-150 with my SHL5+ Anniversaries, and pretty happy, though never tried any other amplifier with them. Has anyone any experience on how the ATC compares with other choices? e.g. Hegel or Naim? ( I listen to classical music 95% of time..)
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When I bought my C7s they were demonstrated using a Supernait 1. I was impressed enough to buy the C7s and got much the same sound from my 30 year old unserviced Exposure amps, The amps were too old so I decided that the ATC SIA-150.2 was a bargain and should be long lasting, The C7s came alive and sound as dynamic as the Hegel in Alan's system in the above YouTube clip, I would say that the ATC has more body especially with classical music at medium volume. It is a great combination.
 
Olsen said:
I wouldn't use Duelund speaker cable with Naim amplication, just a note.

Why not copy the friends setup?
On long term buy everything included cables and racks etc

If you can't get home-demo from dealers don't bother - any decent dealer would lend out an amp and not require you transport your speakers...
Click to expand...

Hi, can I ask why you do not recommend the duelund cables, I got one today, while I lent my acoustic zen hologram II to a friend. I am not sure if duelund need burn in. There are difference between both form memory, I am not sure if the duelund is better than my Acoustic Zen, somehow I feel a hint of warmth and body got reduced. But I am not sure, as I do not have both now to compare. I will get my acoustic zen in few days time.But really curious why you do not rec using duelund cables
 
I talked to my friend and tonight I wil go back to my friend, and I will do a simple test with his MC701 and my mojo and chord hugo tt2, I will hook my mojo and then hugo tt2 to his MC701 and compare it to his dac and MC701 if the downgrade is so much, then I will not buy the MC701

To put things into perspective, I come form high end headphones such as hifiman he1000se and many others, and in my living room the chord tt2 is next to my couch 4 meters away from where the home amp is. I am a member on head fi and my soul joy is headphones, as that is the thing I can use most at home to not disturb others. So my priority goes to headphones, this is why I am hooking up the mojo to my nova and not the chord tt2. When I use the chord tt2 with nova there is of course an improvement but not even close to what I heard the Harbeth with MC701 at my friend's home

So today I will use the mojo then tt2 with mc701 at his home, and see how things go.

If the mojo can be enough with mc701 then problem solved I will go with MC701.

Something with my nova 300 is not getting close to the setup he has whether I use the Mojo or chord tt2. By all means if i never heard his system I would not even think maybe to start looking at other amps, but the experience with MC701 and his dac was purely another level, he told me his dac costs 25k usd, again I forgot the name of his dac.

Room wise and setup is kind of similar and the way I place my speakers is the same as he does, and I now use the same duelund cable as he does, but that cable needs to be re-evaluated when my acoustic zen hologram II gets back

In my visit tonight I want to see if it was his dac that makes this huge difference or the amp, or the combination of both which is most likely the case. If it is the combination of both dac and amp that made this huge difference, simply I will just drop the idea of getting close to his setup, as his setup is so expensive. And I will just accept that i will spend within my budget to get better sound than using my nova 300 and be happy with what i can achieve. Yes I will always wish to get that sound I heard on his system, but I am budget conscious and there is a limit for me in spending. Especially it was the his dac that was the major player in getting the sound I heard on his system.

So in conclusion I will just allocate a limited budget for an amp and if needed just I will add the chord qutest and be done with it. Its just my total lack of knowledge in amps, that is causing me all this wonder, as I am after a certain tonality that i like to achieve which is similar to what I heard at his home
 
If you like the sound of the MC701 and have the funds just go with that, let your ears be the judge and jury!

Not a fan of Chord dacs myself, over hyped and over valued, a good dac should be transparent and not cost the earth...

dCS make the best dacs IMHO, but they are way over my budget!
 
Dave Smith said:
I have a couple of pairs of Harbeth's, and they loves watts, the more the better!

Anything under 150w will not release the full potential of the speakers, just look at some Harbeth shows and what Alan uses to demo his speakers, high wattage Hegel's!

Watch this from 6:00 min:-


Forget the Naim SN3, they just don't work well, I sold mine when I got my Harbeths...
Click to expand...
Not exactly sure what you mean by this 150w “cut off” as Harbeths are generally not difficult to drive and some so called high powered amps do not work so well with them - of course, no harm in more watts with a well matched amp to you system and preference.
 
Olsen said:
I went to a Harbeth demo with AS in charge.
Amps were some 200-250w American mono blocks.
Performance was a disaster,
Bloated bas
Shut-in mids
Really un-engaging boxy

I think even AS noticed judging on panic in his eye, nobody to brainwash as people left room fast
Reading watt specs and your out in the desert, not many amps control speakers as well done as a Supernait.
Click to expand...

I doubt you own any Harbeth's so your comments hold little value, I also see from your old posts you like to have a dig at Harbeth whenever possible...
 
EPear said:
Not exactly sure what you mean by this 150w “cut off” as Harbeths are generally not difficult to drive and some so called high powered amps do not work so well with them - of course, no harm in more watts with a well matched amp to you system and preference.
Click to expand...

As above, what model Harbeth do you own?
 
herb said:
When I bought my C7s they were demonstrated using a Supernait 1. I was impressed enough to buy the C7s and got much the same sound from my 30 year old unserviced Exposure amps, The amps were too old so I decided that the ATC SIA-150.2 was a bargain and should be long lasting, The C7s came alive and sound as dynamic as the Hegel in Alan's system in the above YouTube clip, I would say that the ATC has more body especially with classical music at medium volume. It is a great combination.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the comment - things always sound better after reading a positive review!
 
I went to a Harbeth demo with AS in charge.
Amps were some 200-250w American mono blocks.
Performance was a disaster,
Bloated bas
Shut-in mids
Really un-engaging boxy

Bad Room?

Personally, I would second the more power the better opinion.

I had a Luxman L505u but added a Luxman Power Amp to take it up to 250W. More headroom and dynamics. IMHO anything under 150 watts is unlikely to allow the speakers to perform their best on a wider range of genres. Of course room size is a factor.
 
ampman said:
I had a Luxman L505u but added a Luxman Power Amp to take it up to 250W. More headroom and dynamics. IMHO anything under 150 watts is unlikely to allow the speakers to perform their best on a wider range of genres. Of course room size is a factor.
Click to expand...
Agreed. The Harbeth SHL5+ sounds excellent with Luxman L-590AXII(30W Class A) with very good clarity, tonal balance and detail. A velvety smooth sound and total absence of grain and smearing. A big caveat - the great sound quality is limited to smooth jazz and mellow material. Switch to some fast pop and rock and everything falls apart. The punch and energy in the bass are not coming through and there is a reduction in immediacy and dynamics which rob some excitement off the music.

I believe the Luxman L-509X which is a more powerful Class AB will be more suitable for the Harbeth on a wider range of genres. I also ran the SHL5+ with Naim 282/HCDR/250DR and the sound quality is more balanced across the genres although the Naim lacks a bit of dexterity and refinement of the Luxman. The 282/HCDR/250DR is all about speed, punch and dynamics whilst the Luxman (L-590AXII) excels in tonal purity and detail, sounding smoother and more refined. With rock music the Harbeth sounds too smooth, flat and lacklustre with the Luxman L-590AXII.
 
@ryder:
Naim NAP 250 DR power output: 155 watt @ 4 Ohm / 89 watt @ 8 Ohm; peak power: 160 watt @ 4 Ohm / 92 watt @ 8 Ohm
Luxman L 590 AXII power output: 165 watt @ 4 Ohm / 95 watt @ 8 Ohm; peak power 180 watt @ 4 Ohm / 97 watt @ 8 Ohm

Both amps measured by HiFi-News.

What you hear has (IMO) nothing to do with power, only different sounding amplifiers.
 
My personal experience is that Harbeths do not need a lot of power to sound good but obviously other people’s opinions vary. The best sound I ever had from P3s was with 8 watts (Eastern Electric Minimax)
 
Old Shatterhand said:
@ryder:
Naim NAP 250 DR power output: 155 watt @ 4 Ohm / 89 watt @ 8 Ohm; peak power: 160 watt @ 4 Ohm / 92 watt @ 8 Ohm
Luxman L 590 AXII power output: 165 watt @ 4 Ohm / 95 watt @ 8 Ohm; peak power 180 watt @ 4 Ohm / 97 watt @ 8 Ohm

Both amps measured by HiFi-News.

What you hear has (IMO) nothing to do with power, only different sounding amplifiers.
Click to expand...
Interesting. Care to share the link which display the numbers? I can't seem to find the article.

In this case, it is likely just a case of different sounding amplifiers mainly due to Class A of the Luxman vs Class AB of the Naim.
 
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