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Heybrook HB3 originals

M

mozza

pfm Member
Just picked up a pair of these on fleabay and was wondering if any of you chaps had experience of these. From what I've read they are pretty good. One mid driver is a bit perished but that's the only problem, and the woofers were replaced recently with OE parts.

Being of the same vintage as the 72/140 I figured they might be an interesting coupling and as they were less than 100 quid it's not a massive punt.

Were they designed to be used with a stand???

Have a feeling they are going to work...
 
Back in day they were used on short trolley type stands with casters and around 12" tall.

Very well regarded though you might have trouble finding surrounds for the mid drivers.
 
Back them up against the wall on some rigid stands, and they should sing nicely on the end of your Naim.

The series one HB3 had a normal driver orietation, the series two had the midrange above the tweeter.

The midranges are a Seas 4inch driver. I manged to get a replacement pair from Madisound, but that was back in 2005.

As Rob says, the surround could be tricky if it's rubber (can't recall).

You'll probably find the top end a bit nasty; solution is to drop in a silk dome 19mm tweeter to replace the original polyamide.

It's good that the woofers have been repalced, hopefully with the correct Seas 10 inch unit. Mine were a bit bass shy, I suspected that the woofers had become demagnetised.

Check the input terminals, might be worth replacing them if they're a bit manky.
 
The Mid driver is a SEAS FM11. Wilmslow Audio did still have some of these a couple of years ago. You'd need to check with them if they are still available (although Madisound might still be cheaper)
 
HB3's were fun, but a bit uneven in sound as I remember - balance all over the place and painful in the wrong system.

I suspect they were as much limited by the availability of good drivers at the right price back then as anything else, so upgrading these (if you know what you're doing) may be something to consider.

I don't know how WD's Peter Comeau (the designer and one half of Mecom Acoustics that started the Heybrook brand) is these days regarding these old speakers of his. Give him a PM on their forum and see......
 
They were a bit bright and spiteful in those days but if you wanted information, they were the bizzo. The mid and tweeter pairing was later used in other successful speaker designs.
 
I've been using a pair of these since I bought them new in 1981. I love them. My midrange units have also perished and I am looking for replacements.

As others have said, a stand to lift them around a foot off the floor, and they work well close (6") to a wall in my room, but obviously you'll need to experiment.
 
Please let me know if you're successful in your hunt. I'll let you know what I find out there. Would be interested to hear from anyone who's upgraded mids and tweeters on HB3s with non standard bits...
 
I still have a pair of these. Right now they are moulding away in a barn after an attack from probing little fingers. I moved on and there they've sat ever since. The drive units are pretty shot, for sure. Not sure whether anything is worth saving,

They were pretty good for their day. I inherited them from a friend and got to play them for a while until "the attack". Out of interest, their smaller siblings, the HB2s, on the end of an LP12 and Quantum system, owned by a friend at University, gave me one of the most memorable "hifi moments". I still recall that wet saturday afternoon having just bought Grace Jones' Slave to the Rhythm and playing it on that system... happy days!

I've never seen any other Quantum amps. Seemed like a poor-man's Naim, knocked up in a shed, but with great sound. Anybody still using one? (sorry to hijack thread)
 
rommell said:
I still have a pair of these. Right now they are moulding away in a barn after an attack from probing little fingers. I moved on and there they've sat ever since. The drive units are pretty shot, for sure. Not sure whether anything is worth saving,

They were pretty good for their day. I inherited them from a friend and got to play them for a while until "the attack". Out of interest, their smaller siblings, the HB2s, on the end of an LP12 and Quantum system, owned by a friend at University, gave me one of the most memorable "hifi moments". I still recall that wet saturday afternoon having just bought Grace Jones' Slave to the Rhythm and playing it on that system... happy days!

I've never seen any other Quantum amps. Seemed like a poor-man's Naim, knocked up in a shed, but with great sound. Anybody still using one? (sorry to hijack thread)
Click to expand...

Quantum were wonderful amps in their day, real giant killers. Simple black ali boxes that didn't cost a lot but they were so good we ended up with a seven month waiting list.
 
simple black boxes indeed! Very minmalist as I recall but similar in concept to Naim with separate Pre, PSU and Power amp. How did they stack up to say, something like a NAC42.5/NAP 110?
 
Never did the dem but they were better than the Meridian brown boxes which were 'in' with the mags of the time.

The 'in' system was the usual LP12, a pile of Meridian boxes and a pair of Mission 770. We had this lot on dem and also offered the alternative of a Systemdek, Quantum amps into a pair of Celef's or SD Acoustics SD2. The latter system was the big seller with our customers.
 
I've tried finding info on Quantum amps on the 'net but there's very little out there it seems. This thread has re-fired my interest... (again, sorry for any hijack)
 
I wonder if the tweeter is the same as A) the std hb1 vifa d25 then if its a polyamide as s'one says (check if the dome is plain matt placcy black), or if its a d26 (fine weeved silk material black) which was in the hB1 series III- i would expect this one if the hb3 was much dearer, but if A) then just drop in some d26's for a good upgrade.

post a pic or two of the spkrs will you mozza?
 
rommell said:
I've tried finding info on Quantum amps on the 'net but there's very little out there it seems. This thread has re-fired my interest... (again, sorry for any hijack)
Click to expand...

The company wasn't around for long, just a couple of years I guess. I seem to remember it was the inspiration of Tim Nind (was it ?) who broke away from Crimson to start Quantum. They started off by making kit amps but decided that was too much trouble.
 
The HB3 uses a Seas 19mm tweeter, not a Vifa 25mm.

The drivers I fitted were the 20TFF/H830 and MCA11FC/H143.
 
Well the HB3s have arrived and I'm listening to them now. First impressions are quite favourable. Yes, I agree the top end is a bit edgy, and I'm certainly contemplating upgrading the tweeters to a silk dome type. Any idea how much these would cost? RustyB, how much were yours and did you do the mids too?

Bass is nice and full and reasonably detailed-bass drivers look spanking new. Slightly perished mid still seems to work perfectly. Overall the HB3s seem to give the music a greater feeling of presence than the index.

If I can just lose the treble harshness I think they'll be perfect for me. Don't want to go mad on upgrades so do you think the tweeter change might do the trick?

Cheers Moz
 
Pics mozza?

You're a very naughty boy.

Treble harshness.. well these proper old heybrook's HB series tended not to be exactly shy as a rule; you may soften them a bit with the silk dome variant, but it may well be subtle change rather than a big difference (see if you can just replace the voicecoil? may be possible, & cheaper if you can).
 
Just been charging up the camera... pics to follow.

Not sure how to upload them though-if you PM me with your email ad I'll send you some.

They seem to be warming up a bit and have possibly lost a touch of the harshness. I think they were in a depot for a couple of days so were quite cold when I first fired them up. They're sounding pretty fab now (at least Stan the man is...)

Bass sounds really fat:D
 
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