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New Harbeth?

Now we have the Falcon Acoustics LS3/5a, the Graham Audio 'Chartwell' LS3/5 and the Stirling Broadcast LS3/5a V2 there isn't the market for another BBC Monitor.

I've owned the Falcons and P3ESR's at the same time. The Falcons were, in my opinion, better. Not all round better, but they had a stunning 'realness' to them the Harbeths didn't quite have.

Would be interesting to see a Harbeth LS3/5a but where would they get the drivers?

It will never happen.
 
I thought this announcement was actually a joke, until I realised it wasn't. The M30.1 was updated not that long ago. And as others have pointed out, Alan Shaw doesn't believe in fancy cables or audiophile parts. I bet this is designed for the "Far Eastern" market.

As someone who bought a pair of M30.1s not that long ago, I would, however, be interested in the internal upgrades, particularly the capacitor upgrade. I suppose I could just do it myself.

BTW I regard the M30.1s as the best of the Harbeths, having owned SHL5s in the past and having spent some time with the C7s. I also currently have a pair of P3ESRs. I've owned many speakers over the years, most recently Dynaudio C1s, and I prefer the Harbeths. In the right environment - ie a smallish room in a near-field listening position - I have not heard a better pair of speakers.
 
As far as I understod, the speaker isn't finished so far, the box is "empty".
Slowly Harbeth is getting seldom IMHO.
 
Crossover revision, upgraded wiring and caps, WBT terminals, premium veneer.

Is there really a crossover revision? That is surprising after such a short time. How has it altered the frequency response? Or do you just mean the upgraded caps, which wouldn't be anything like a crossover revision of the order of the M30.1 or SHL5Plus.
 
I thought this announcement was actually a joke, until I realised it wasn't. The M30.1 was updated not that long ago. And as others have pointed out, Alan Shaw doesn't believe in fancy cables or audiophile parts. I bet this is designed for the "Far Eastern" market.

As someone who bought a pair of M30.1s not that long ago, I would, however, be interested in the internal upgrades, particularly the capacitor upgrade. I suppose I could just do it myself.

BTW I regard the M30.1s as the best of the Harbeths, having owned SHL5s in the past and having spent some time with the C7s. I also currently have a pair of P3ESRs. I've owned many speakers over the years, most recently Dynaudio C1s, and I prefer the Harbeths. In the right environment - ie a smallish room in a near-field listening position - I have not heard a better pair of speakers.

Ross, I'd be interested to hear about the SQ differences between the 30s and the 5s. I get what the bigger box would do, but does the 30 have any greater refinement/ insight or is it just a smaller 5 sonically?
I have a hankering for SHL5s
 
Ross, I'd be interested to hear about the SQ differences between the 30s and the 5s. I get what the bigger box would do, but does the 30 have any greater refinement/ insight? I have a hankering for SHL5s
Let me preface my comments by saying that I owned the previous version of the SHL5, and I understand that the latest version is quite a better.

The older SHL5 had a big sound (by Harbeth standards) but was soft, warm and woolly. Bass was loose and untidy. Highs were a little rolled off. I am told that the newer version corrects some of this.

The M30.1 is much more coherent, more focussed, with more detail, more tonal accuracy (although still warm compared to most speakers) and more refined high frequencies. Its bass is tighter but it doesn't go as low and the M30.1s unsurprisingly sound like a much smaller speaker than the SHL5s.

I suppose it will really depend on what sort of room you have and, of course, personal taste.
 
I'd say different, not necessarily better.

I've got SHL5's, sans plus. I haven't heard the plus versions, but with mine I do often find I like a little more bass and treble. Risking exile here, but I do often use the loudness knob to compensate in this respect. I wonder if the plus or indeed the 30.1 may be a little more to my taste (I've also a sub in use too!)?

It would indeed be nice if there was a crossover upgrade kit available to go SHL5 to Plus. Or if one could mod etc
 
Ross, I'd be interested to hear about the SQ differences between the 30s and the 5s. I get what the bigger box would do, but does the 30 have any greater refinement/ insight or is it just a smaller 5 sonically?
I have a hankering for SHL5s

I'm running SHL5+ 40th LE through a Devialet (250 Pro). I had the SHL5+ and for a few weeks between selling them and waiting for the SHL5+ 40th LE I put my P3ESR in the system.

It'd remarkable what even the little P3ESR can do in a largish room. The SHL5+ have extraordinary scale with the Devialet, moreso than my previous separates system.

From what I understand, Alan Shaw was not particularly interested in doing an upgraded version, but was more interested in doing something to recognise the 40th anniversary of Harbeth. With regard to the SHL5+ 40th LE upgrade, if you add up the increased component cost and normal mark-ups the price differential with standard SHL5+ is too low, making the SHL5+ LE a bit of a bargain. It may be that he decided to keep the price of the 40th LE down for fear of not selling any. I heard he was fairly pessimistic about selling the 40th LE and he made no claims that they sounded any better than the standard SHL5+. It transpires that they have been a big success.

The 40th LE do to some extent go against the Harbeth ethos of being high quality with an emphasis on value for money, which is incompatible with expensive binding posts.

So I suspect Alan Shaw has a bit of a struggle with the fact that posh components do seem to make a difference. I for one have suggested to him that the 40th LE specification become a permanent option. Let's see what happens.
 
Hi
I've got SHL5's, sans plus. I haven't heard the plus versions, but with mine I do often find I like a little more bass and treble. Risking exile here, but I do often use the loudness knob to compensate in this respect. I wonder if the plus or indeed the 30.1 may be a little more to my taste (I've also a sub in use too!)?

It would indeed be nice if there was a crossover upgrade kit available to go SHL5 to Plus. Or if one could mod etc
It depends on what sort of bass you are looking for when you mentioned "more bass". The SHL5's bass is overblown and loose in comparison to the SHL5 Plus. The SHL5 has more bass than the SHL5 Plus if it's the excessive loose bass one is referring to. The SHL5 Plus has less bass than the SHL5 as the excessive loose mid bass is considerably reduced and tightened up. For this reason the SHL5 Plus sounds cleaner, leaner and tighter than the SHL5.

Treble extension is fairly the same between the two but you get a smoother response with the SHL5 Plus. The SHL5 has a slight metallic edge to the treble.

In summary I don't think you will get what you want with the SHL5 Plus if you are looking for more bass and treble. However, if you are looking for higher quality bass and treble or an overall more accurate and refined speaker, the SHL5 will give you that.

The SHL5 will be better than the SHL5 Plus if one prefers a more romantic, lush and sweet presentation contributed by the overblown (larger than life) mid bass.
 
Let me preface my comments by saying that I owned the previous version of the SHL5, and I understand that the latest version is quite a better.

The older SHL5 had a big sound (by Harbeth standards) but was soft, warm and woolly. Bass was loose and untidy. Highs were a little rolled off. I am told that the newer version corrects some of this.

The M30.1 is much more coherent, more focussed, with more detail, more tonal accuracy (although still warm compared to most speakers) and more refined high frequencies. Its bass is tighter but it doesn't go as low and the M30.1s unsurprisingly sound like a much smaller speaker than the SHL5s.

I suppose it will really depend on what sort of room you have and, of course, personal taste.

Good observation on the character of the older SHL5. It sounded soft, warm and woolly but I can understand some folks prefer that sort of presentation. I believe the soft and woolly sound is contributed by the excessive bloated mid bass. This overblown mid bass on the older SHL5 was eliminated in the SHL5 Plus and for this reason the SHL5 Plus does not sound as warm or woolly. It sounds leaner and much tighter, overall more accurate.

Yes, the M30.1 is a more detailed and refined speaker. It has more "presence" than the domestic models especially in the vocal region which is pushed several rows out.
 
Hi
It depends on what sort of bass you are looking for when you mentioned "more bass". The SHL5's bass is overblown and loose in comparison to the SHL5 Plus. The SHL5 has more bass than the SHL5 Plus if it's the excessive loose bass one is referring to. The SHL5 Plus has less bass than the SHL5 as the excessive loose mid bass is considerably reduced and tightened up. For this reason the SHL5 Plus sounds cleaner, leaner and tighter than the SHL5.

Treble extension is fairly the same between the two but you get a smoother response with the SHL5 Plus. The SHL5 has a slight metallic edge to the treble.

In summary I don't think you will get what you want with the SHL5 Plus if you are looking for more bass and treble. However, if you are looking for higher quality bass and treble or an overall more accurate and refined speaker, the SHL5 will give you that.

The SHL5 will be better than the SHL5 Plus if one prefers a more romantic, lush and sweet presentation contributed by the overblown (larger than life) mid bass.

Wow, I really wouldn't characterise the SHL5 as overblown in the bass department, or anything like it. I've some Zensor 3's that are small by comparison and readily give the impression of more bass (I say impression as in reality I'd wager it's mid-bass rather plumbing down low). Or by way of comparison,I'd find something like hd650's to have more bass, indeed more than I'd like sometimes. My SHL5 seem leaner in comparison. Often times natural but certainly lacking with some genres. I may be just barking up the wrong tree with Harbeth, though I do appreciate their accuracy often.

Agree on the slightly metallic quality to the treble.

Anyways, not to derail this thread too much. The 30.2 seem like a nice prospect, but certainly Harbeth of late is only ever pulling further away from my buying potential.
 
Owning two different Harbeths, I've frequently wondered just what a better tweeter would do for the whole package. Don't get me wrong- what Shaw does, in the best BBC engineering tradition, is squeeze magic out of ordinary ingredients. The product is greater than the sum of the parts and I can happily live with that.
 
Owning two different Harbeths, I've frequently wondered just what a better tweeter would do for the whole package. Don't get me wrong- what Shaw does, in the best BBC engineering tradition, is squeeze magic out of ordinary ingredients. The product is greater than the sum of the parts and I can happily live with that.

Which is exactly why I changed from a Compact 7 to an M30 when I had Harbeths. I think I kept the 7's for about two years but the M30's remained for the best part of a decade because to my ears it was a much better balanced speaker mainly due to its superior/smoother high end. I think the current 7 has a better tweeter than the model I had (version 2 I think). Don't take this the wrong way, I thought the 7 was a good speaker but it had a slight harshness at the top which the 30 dealt with. The 30 was slightly leaner than the 7 but I didn't mind that as it seemed to suit my system at the time.
 
Wow, I really wouldn't characterise the SHL5 as overblown in the bass department, or anything like it. I've some Zensor 3's that are small by comparison and readily give the impression of more bass (I say impression as in reality I'd wager it's mid-bass rather plumbing down low). Or by way of comparison,I'd find something like hd650's to have more bass, indeed more than I'd like sometimes. My SHL5 seem leaner in comparison. Often times natural but certainly lacking with some genres. I may be just barking up the wrong tree with Harbeth, though I do appreciate their accuracy often.

Agree on the slightly metallic quality to the treble.

Anyways, not to derail this thread too much. The 30.2 seem like a nice prospect, but certainly Harbeth of late is only ever pulling further away from my buying potential.

I have no intention to go off-topic either. Anyway, if you listen to both SHL5 and SHL5+ side-by-side you will be able to comparatively describe those differences that exist between the two rather easily.

If one does not feel the bass / mid bass of the older SHL5 to sound loose or overblown, the bass of the SHL5 Plus will sound lean and thin to the point of inadequate, ie. no bass. Comparatively speaking. It's all relative. Yes, I agree that the Harbeth sounds more accurate or natural when compared to most speakers out there.
 
At Munich

Static display only

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Looks like a stained curly maple, no idea why anyone would stain maple though.

curly-maple-sealed.jpg
 


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