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Harbeth Monitor 40.1

not sure of any pro shops with them but my friend uses them in l.a. and rates them very highly.
there are supposed to be a number of pairs in the u.k. not seen any yet though.....
 
paul have you heard any other big 3 or 4 way active studio monitors like the questeds, genelec or the compact barefoots?
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Not in comparable circumstances. I do remember some rather nice built in Genelecs at Swedish Radio. But that was 20 years ago...

Paul
 
I have heard a pair of Spendor SP100r (on Audio valve equipment) and they seem similar to the Harbeth Monitor 40.1 in size and design. The room was fairly large with carpets on floor and some soft damping on walls and ceiling. It was probably the most enjoyable listening experience I have ever had. Fortunately for my wallet they are to large for my apartment.
 
Based purely on the P3 ESR, the Monitor 40.1 are a dream speaker for me. Just need to buy a house with a room large enough to put them in first.
 
Tiger,

Are your Tannoys not living up to expectations?

Joe
 
Joe Petrik said:
Tiger,

Are your Tannoys not living up to expectations?

Joe
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Hi Joe

Yes the Tannoy's are great, sold the Luxman and now have them with the old Sugden, sounding fantastic. As good as the little Harbeths are they have obvious limitations in the bass department and with a lot of the music I listen to bass is important. If I could get a similar sound as the P3s with loads more bass I would be like a pig in muck. It's all academic for the time being as I have neither the cash or the room for the bigger Harbeths.

Are the 40.1s good enough for you to want to swap?
 
Tiger,

I heard the 40.1s for only a few minutes, just after they were unboxed.

Zero break-in time, no attention to set-up, no experimentation with the most suitable electronics to drive them, while playing unfamiliar music, so obviously nothing was in their favour. But even plunked on the floor I could tell the 40.1s were excellent speakers.

Better than a big Tannoy? I really have no idea, but if I were looking for big speakers I'd put them on my short list.

Harbeths never come up used around here and the new price of the 40.1s is completely out of budget, so it's strictly academic anyway. But it's nice to see that my local hi-fi guy is doing well enough that he can bring in a pair of serious speakers. (You have to keep in mind that this is during a recession, that no has bought any legacy kit since 2006 and that no one wants big speakers anyway.*)

Joe

* Read somewhere on the Interweb, so no doubt it's true.
 
bourney said:
SHL5's..you know you want to :) I reckon we need a little bake off at yours Dr Jones.
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You won't be leaving with those if you bring them down, Glen. You are welcome as always Steve. Pot of Yorkshire and we're laughing.

Joe - At the price it is academic for me as well. I mean to go down to Harbeth at some point, to meet Andy and have a listen to all their speakers.
 
Zero break-in time, no attention to set-up, no experimentation with the most suitable electronics to drive them, while playing unfamiliar music, so obviously nothing was in their favour. But even plunked on the floor I could tell the 40.1s were excellent speakers.
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According to the person who designed them, they require no 'break-in, in fact, he actively discourages it!

No.16 in the Harbeth faq - http://www.harbeth.co.uk/uk/index.php?section=products&page=faq#16
 
Basil,

According to the person who designed them, they require no 'break-in, in fact, he actively discourages it!
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Alan doesn't want you to play the speakers at all?

These speakers were right out of the box: they had zero hours, zero minutes and zero seconds of use. Surely, even the most ardent objectivist will acknowledge that a couple of hours of break-in is not venturing into voodoo land.

The only component part of a Harbeth loudspeaker that can change as a result of the exercise known as 'burning-in' is the resin-doped cloth suspension that centres the neck of the cone in the magnetic field - sometimes called the 'spider'. Under the microscope, once the resin has been worked, it crazes into millions of small interconnected islands. This process is irreversible and takes only a few hours - or less, with bass heavy music played rather louder than normal. After that, the drive unit can be considered fully aged, and the resonant frequency has settled at its final value and will stay at that value. The ferrofluid used in Harbeth tweeters will become appropriately viscous after a few minutes operation. Neither the coils, resistors, capacitors, cables no any other part of a Harbeth speaker has any short-term ageing mechanism.
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Joe
 
These speakers were right out of the box: they had zero hours, zero minutes and zero seconds of use. Surely, even the most ardent objectivist will acknowledge that a couple of hours of break-in is not venturing into voodoo land.
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When I compared my new 'right out of the box: they had zero hours, zero minutes and zero seconds of use' SHL5 to the demonstration pair, they sounded identical. Perhaps the 40.1 is different, but I doubt it.
 
I have HL-K6ES's which sound very modern monitorish to me- revealing and with a lot of insight into recording technique- not at all laid back. Nothing like the old Spendor SP1 or ls3/5a balance
 
Coda II said:
One of those little things that I'd never thought about but made sense when I finally realised what question to ask, was that Harbeth's primary pro market is for broadcast monitors as opposed to recording studio monitors.

Very good point. But where do you draw the line to make sure you enjoy the sound but don't lose the vitality of the music and more to the point, pfmembers, where do Harbeth get it right as opposed to the recording studio monitors that provide such an accurate song but not, necessarily, the easiest of listening experiences if you listen for long periods?

Does anyone know anyone with 40.1s near Madchester who will make me a cup of tea whilst I listen to their speakers?? :D

Greg
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i don't believe that the harbeths will be any less transparent and also it's a myth that most studio monitors are tiring to listen too but broadcast playback monitors are in some way all soft and fluffy on the ears....
i think that the atc's expose a bit more in terms of annomalys whereas the harbeths are more comfortable in there playback.
i doubt either speaker would be called flattering to say the stooges -raw power or any other slightly left of centre challenging type production....
 
Markus S said:
I've never done a direct comparison. I've heard various ATCs enough times to be fairly sure in my opinion. I've only heard the M40.1 three times at shows, under less than ideal circumstances, so I'm not sure how valid my impression is.

That said, my impression is that the Harbeth sounds more relaxed and a bit warmer than the ATC 100A, which would be the equivalent model. There's a lot of guff making the rounds on forums that the ATCs have midrange distortion. That may or may not have been true 20 years ago, but the current version is superbly low in distortion over the entire frequency range. A German magazine, stereoplay, has done measurements on a version of the 100AT which are pretty convincing. Haven't seen measurements of the Harbeth.

The ATC is really, really good in bass and midrange but not perhaps as well resolved in the treble region as the Harbeth. The Harbeth is really, really good in midrange and treble but perhaps not quite as well as resolved in the bass. Neither would dictate the type of music you listen to.

All not very helpful. At this price level, a home demo is a must. The speaker/room interaction will be more important than differences between these two speakers, I suspect. Why not contact your nearest Harbeth dealer, or even our own hifi_dave, about a home audition for the Harbeth, and contact ATC about which dealer could arrange a home demo of the 100A for you (IIRC Musicraft Derby have mentioned in the trade announcement section here that they have the 100A on demo, for example). I'd love to hear how a direct comparison would turn out for you.
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Thanks for your advice Markus.
 
Darryl,

Which Barefoots have you heard? The MICROMAIN35s at $5,495 look like beasts and are less than half the price of 40.1s in the US.

Dan
 
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