barneypooch
New Member
Hi all,
I've had to accept defeat with my year-old Harbeth SHL5-pluses. They're just too big for my weirdly-proportioned (17'x7.5') den (all right, it's a converted garage. I'm not proud). I've got some excellent convolution going on but the truth is these beefy lads need space to breathe and that's that.
In my alarmingly long career as an audiofool I've only ever owned two pairs of speakers with "magic mids". One: Quad ESL 57s (quel surprise) and two: Spendor BC1s. Among others, I've owned Spendor SP1s (still in the loft), Quad 989s, B&W 805s (also in the loft!) and now the Harbeth SHL5+. All great speakers but not "magic". Not to my ears, anyway.
However, there was one other speaker that had "it" and that was the Rogers LS3/5a, which I heard on a daily basis, many years ago when I did a summer job at a well-known hi-fi shop in London.
I was ready to push the button on a Falcon Gold Badge kit, which can be had for the very reasonable sum of about 1,400 quid (plus a bit of elbow-grease) but now I've been distracted by the siren song of the Stirling V3. Resident guru @Martyn Miles, who sounds like a thoroughly decent chap (with a similar speaker-owning history to my own) sings their praises so highly that I find myself unable to make a decision. All of which is a rather long-winded way of asking the question I put much more tersely in the subject line: how can I audition them? Can anyone recommend a dealer who'll let me have them sale-or-return for a couple of weeks? Or (better yet) is there anyone in south London or the surrounding counties who owns them and wouldn't mind me dragging my arse round to theirs for a listen? I'd promise to bring a very nice bottle of red. Or white. Or Scotch.
I've had to accept defeat with my year-old Harbeth SHL5-pluses. They're just too big for my weirdly-proportioned (17'x7.5') den (all right, it's a converted garage. I'm not proud). I've got some excellent convolution going on but the truth is these beefy lads need space to breathe and that's that.
In my alarmingly long career as an audiofool I've only ever owned two pairs of speakers with "magic mids". One: Quad ESL 57s (quel surprise) and two: Spendor BC1s. Among others, I've owned Spendor SP1s (still in the loft), Quad 989s, B&W 805s (also in the loft!) and now the Harbeth SHL5+. All great speakers but not "magic". Not to my ears, anyway.
However, there was one other speaker that had "it" and that was the Rogers LS3/5a, which I heard on a daily basis, many years ago when I did a summer job at a well-known hi-fi shop in London.
I was ready to push the button on a Falcon Gold Badge kit, which can be had for the very reasonable sum of about 1,400 quid (plus a bit of elbow-grease) but now I've been distracted by the siren song of the Stirling V3. Resident guru @Martyn Miles, who sounds like a thoroughly decent chap (with a similar speaker-owning history to my own) sings their praises so highly that I find myself unable to make a decision. All of which is a rather long-winded way of asking the question I put much more tersely in the subject line: how can I audition them? Can anyone recommend a dealer who'll let me have them sale-or-return for a couple of weeks? Or (better yet) is there anyone in south London or the surrounding counties who owns them and wouldn't mind me dragging my arse round to theirs for a listen? I'd promise to bring a very nice bottle of red. Or white. Or Scotch.
