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harbeth shl5plus or audionote an-j or an-e

hifinutt

hifinutt

hifinutt
so bought some nice harbeth shl5plus after hearing an amazing set up at a friends , they are sounding pretty excellent in a big loft conversion with a naim supernait 2 .

so at the bristol show and at other shows the audionote an-j and an -e sound impressive . lovely texture and realism in spades . and yet you read fishies experiences of bass boom with audionote speakers and they are not so easy to set up .

any experiences of audionote speakers folks would like to share ? is it worth changing from harbeth which can play in lots of free space and sound pretty good ?
 
I don't like harbeths and I find them very dull, have however owned both Audio Note AN-j and e's. My preference is for the j's as the e's need a big room.

All of this is pointless though if you are going keep the supernait.

Get yourself a nice set of AN-j Hemp and buy brumjams OTO SE Sig and you'll have a fantastic setup.
 
thanks chris . yes the harbeth were dull as anything in the lounge , in fact my son called them boring beths !! however in the loft they are a different equation . very lively and piano just sounds extremely good . have you ever heard a supernait? its pretty good ? the otto is a brilliant amp but why is it so much better than the naim. i have heard folks say lavardin is ref was as good as the otto when they played it

brumjam is round here sometimes so very aware of the otto and his frugalhorns were brilliant
 
The Harbeths do need an amp with a bit of "welly". A sub woofer seems to "free" up them a bit though.
Get that Oto bought to save my brother from considering it!
 
Yep have had a supernait1, unitiqute as well as a 282/200 combo about 8 years ago.

I found the naim stuff very fatiguing and couldn't listen to it for long periods, I'd just get bored and found that it only worked with specific types of music.

The OTO is a great amp, very fast and has a wonderful mid range that really suits the AN speakers.

I'm sure someone will be along soon to say the AN amps and speakers are coloured and yes they are but to my ears there's very little that comes close to them for enjoyment and especially listening at low volume levels.
 
well , its seems a very good idea to consider the oto and audionote combo . any thoughts on the an- j vs the an-e ?

except of course the oto has no remote
 
Never heard bass boom with any Audionotes I have heard or owned they are superb, but like mentioned earlier get rid of that Naim amp.
 
read this on one forum which is one worry i have

Would be very interested to hear your thoughts on the AN-e once you get them, I'm finding mine to be very bassy despite moving them out of the corners.

Rather disappointingly the Snell Type K's are currently sounding much better.

I may organise an audio note bake off to get some feedback on them.

I spoke to Audio Note and they suggested moving them out of the corners by about 5cm at a time and had moved them 4 times before I got fed up.

Over the weekend I moved them right out of the corners, a good 40 cms behind and to the sides and they now sound much better and the bass boom has pretty much gone.
 
When I had J's I didn't put them in corners as recommended, mine were 15 inches from the chimney breast side walls and about 15 inches out from the back wall, also I had mine on custom made Something Solid XF open stands as opposed to the recommended super heavyweight type.
 
yes i just read 28 pages of the audionote owners forum and could not find anyone using different stands than the standard audionote 400 quid jobs . apart from something solid , has anyone tried diy route ?

muzzer , you used to have j`s , why did you get rid of them ? may i ask ?
 
I had both J's and E's on lead and sand filled AN stands. Tried the E's in and out of the corners but they just boomed like crazy, I had a chat with Peter Q at AN and he agreed my room at 16x12 was probably too small for E's

Bought some J's and they worked perfectly and are probably one of my favourite speakers.

IMG_0573 by The Biglebowski, on Flickr

Untitled by The Biglebowski, on Flickr
 
I've never owned E's, but have had J's. Obviously I have the harbs.
The Harbs sound like the amp you use with them.
The J's are wonderful.
Of all 3, I find the E's least well balanced and the bass just doesn't work unless the prescribed corner reinforcement suits your room.
Naim and any of these?
NO. Please don't.
For the AN's get something amazing and valvey. I suggest a Leben 300 and the J's.
Before you do that, at least TRY a good amp with the Harbeths. Something clean and powerful.
 
Rockmeister said:
I've never owned E's, but have had J's. Obviously I have the harbs.
The Harbs sound like the amp you use with them.
The J's are wonderful.
Of all 3, I find the E's least well balanced and the bass just doesn't work unless the prescribed corner reinforcement suits your room.
Naim and any of these?
NO. Please don't.
For the AN's get something amazing and valvey. I suggest a Leben 300 and the J's.
Before you do that, at least TRY a good amp with the Harbeths. Something clean and powerful.
Click to expand...

yes thanks for that , well i put 23k worth of decent pre power amps through the harbs but the room didn`t give them room to breathe so they were dull . in a more live room that is about 5m x4m they really sing . thats the problem . should i abandon them for some audionote ? obviously they both have strengths and its not easy to demo a pair of an -j in my room . apprecate chris`s advice . brumjam knows my rooms well
 
Try J's nutt. I loved my Snell J's...they are an almost perfect compromise. No so much bass, but what you do get is well balanced.
 
yes that sounds like a good idea .
next question , is there much difference between an-j/ kx hemp and an-j /spe hemp ? sonically . there is about a grand price difference between them
 
hifinutt said:
yes that sounds like a good idea .
next question , is there much difference between an-j/ kx hemp and an-j /spe hemp ? sonically . there is about a grand price difference between them
Click to expand...

I've heard E/SPe and didn't think they were any better than my E/Lx

Personally I'd go for the AN-j LX Hemp rather than SPe as I don't think that paying £1000 for internal silver cable adds any benefit.
 
tell us more david , what amp were you using ? what size was the room and was it a well damped room or live or what ?
 
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