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Heybrook HB1 (first series) any good?

I have a pair of HB1 S3s, with the split xover for biwiring (a concession to 90s fashion?) and a slightly different tweeter. Not the prettiest of speakers, but very well made. They were a revelation when installed in my system, in that compared to their predecessors they brought the musical performance to the fore. This vivacious character reminded me of a friend's Linn Saras I'd heard and enjoyed years before. The midrange is fantastic.

I like how they work against the wall, too. Keeps them out of the way somewhat and makes setup easier in certain rooms.



The HB1s *are* brighter sounding compared to other speakers I've owned, and to the HB3 S2s that I now run. Even when driven by an A60 fed by a Planar 3/RB300/AT95E in a well damped room. I find that cleaning the terminals with IPA from time to time helps tame this a bit and improves their performance generally. A better move than replacing the skinny internal wiring with beefier stuff, which I found made no difference I could hear.

Would that IPA be Indian Pale Ale ?
 
HB1 was a very cheap budget speaker but pretty good. HB2 was smaller and much more expensive (about double the price IIRC) and a better speaker. There was HB3 as well which I still have a set of.
 
The originals were the best speakers you could, and can get. Wilmslow audio have began producing them. What does that say of a forty year old design?
For my part, I have blown up so many of them I dread to think of the cost. But they are worth every penny. I don't know what all the jargon means. I just turn 'em up and get on with it. I have never heard any system which is so involving.
If you can find a pair, or if you buy a pair from WA then stick 'em on and get ready to rock and roll.
 
Please let me add. The speakers have absolutely nothing to do with what comes out of them. Music is on a record in an abundance. All you need do is to drag it out. If you have a Goldring 1042, a decent deck, one with suspension, and an amp worthy of the name, then you have all the ingredients to make a perfect musical pie. If you add a pair of interconnects from B&Q, and a pair of Argos' speaker leads, then all your troubles are over.
In this day and age you should be able to get a great sounding set up for less than £500. Given a 1042 costs most of that, you can see where my own priorities lay. Buying records.
 
Just goes to show. HFA was my favourite. I remember the articles by John Atkinson´s (?)(pre-Stereophile) "discovery" of how different supports under the LInn affected the sound. Large, photographers developing dishes/trays were his favourite

I seem to remember Tangent RS4 were more a Popular Hi-Fi favourite when Frankland used to recommend them (1974) with the Sugden A48II.
HFA was by far the most enjoyable read for me especially the soul/blues music recommendations by Fred Dellar (?) and the Q&A section even if all the answers were the same (Rega3/LP12 + Nytech/Naim + HB1). Happy days.

John Atkinson never contributed more than one (invited) article to Hi-Fi Answers as he was a staffer, then editor, at rival Link House's Hi-Fi News & Record Review. Fred Deller too was a HFN writer. Stan Britt may be the man you are thinking of as he did our jazz/soul/blues reviews. You are right about the Tangent's though we also liked them on HFA - the Mecom Heybrook's were the first products of a company set up by one-time HFA contributor Peter Comeau and Stuart Mee - not surprisingly that Peter's speakers were favoured at HFA but not for the reasons many think.

As an ex HFA man - don't take my word for it though as - to paraphrase an old joke about the sixties - if you remember it you didn't work there.
DGP
 
The originals were the best speakers you could, and can get. Wilmslow audio have began producing them. What does that say of a forty year old design?
For my part, I have blown up so many of them I dread to think of the cost. But they are worth every penny. I don't know what all the jargon means. I just turn 'em up and get on with it. I have never heard any system which is so involving.
If you can find a pair, or if you buy a pair from WA then stick 'em on and get ready to rock and roll.

I didn’t realise Wilmslow Audio had revived them.
In fact, I didn’t realise Wilmslow supplied so much.
 
The Tangent RS4 were my first pair of speakers, that I purchased after doing comparative demo's with every other speaker in the shop at the time (Billy Vee's at the original Lee Road location). The salesman was pushing the Bose 301, but I felt the RS4 were better in every way. I originally used them with an A60, and finally took had them running with LP12/42/Hicap/Audio Research D70mk2. And they sounded brilliant. I had home demo's of several speakers (Kans, Saras, Gale 401, Maggie SMG etc) and in every instance I stood by the RS4.
I only sold them when I moved country as they were too large to feasibly ship.
I only saw the CF review on them a year after I bought them, when I was going through a stack of ancient hifi mags that were kept at the university dorm.
 
The Tangent RS4 were my first pair of speakers, that I purchased after doing comparative demo's with every other speaker in the shop at the time (Billy Vee's at the original Lee Road location). The salesman was pushing the Bose 301, but I felt the RS4 were better in every way. I originally used them with an A60, and finally took had them running with LP12/42/Hicap/Audio Research D70mk2. And they sounded brilliant. I had home demo's of several speakers (Kans, Saras, Gale 401, Maggie SMG etc) and in every instance I stood by the RS4.
I only sold them when I moved country as they were too large to feasibly ship.
I only saw the CF review on them a year after I bought them, when I was going through a stack of ancient hifi mags that were kept at the university dorm.

A friend bought RS4s at about the time I bought BC1s.
He loved them and I could see/hear what he was getting at, but to me the
Spendors had the purer midrange.
As I have said many times before, ‘Each to his own.’
 
Most satisfying memory from retail days back then was putting together a system comprising Rega 3, Cambridge P40 and HB1's.

One of those rare occasions where the resulting performance far exceeded expectations.
 
My first speaker upgrade from some bundled Goodmans which came with a Ferguson Ultra music centre, would have been around 1979/80.

Gus
 
Installed four HB1s, each in a corner of a large indoor pool tacked onto the rear of a house. Powered by Quad 405. I vaguely remember having a problem(s) with a couple, but Heybrook were excellent and supplied new units.

Problem was that the pool was used for wild drunken parties. Unfortunately I let my LS3/5As go as an installation in the house. They were RAM, and would have at least quadrupled the price I charged for them then (eighties). LS3/5As weren't particularly special in the early-ish eighties.
 


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