Has Anyone Uesed A PrimaLuna Amp With Harbeth Speaker's

Harbeth’s sound good with both solid state AND tube amplification. It all comes down to personal preference. I’ve owned Harbeth’s for about eight years (SHL5’s and two pairs of 40.1’s). In that time, I’ve used or tried three solid state amps/integrateds and six tube amps/integrateds... and while all of the amps sounded good, I preferred tube amps by a sizeable margin.

The other area of disagreement when it comes to Harbeth’s is amplifier power. Many are adamant that Harbeth’s need high power to sound their best. Alan Shaw implies that any run of the mill 100 wpc amp will
work fine. I think the "quality" of watts is more important that "quantity" of watts... excluding flea power and SET amps.

Here is how I’d rate the amps I’ve used with my Harbeth speakers:

1. VAC 70/70 Signature (68 wpc)
2. VAC 30/30 MK III Signature (32 wpc)
3. Music Reference RM9 MK2 (125 wpc)
4. McIntosh MC275 MKV (75 wpc)
5. VAC Phi 200 (125 wpc)
6. Bryston 4BST (250 wpc)
7. Plinius SA-102 (125 wpc)
8. Jolida 1501 Hybrid integrated (100 wpc)
9. McIntosh MA2275 tube integrated (75 wpc)

I don’t care about accuracy and neutrality... I just care how it sounds.

Harbeth's Alan Shaw demonstrated the M40.1 in Hilversum in the Netherlands (there is a youtube video somewhere but I cannot find it right now). With some music, the peak power indicators on the monoblock power amplifiers indicated that they were producing more than 500 watts per channel.

Be cautious on the amp selection for the M30.1. In my experience, Harbeth speakers can really sound like mud with the wrong amp. With the right amp they come to life and sound much energetic and livelier.

I believe it’s not a question of whether the M30.1 sounds better with tube or solid-state. Apart from the "flavor" of the amp, it’s the current or power that brings the speaker to life. The M30.1 is a more difficult speaker than the SHL5 Plus and requires more current to sound good. If Tswisla finds the SHL5+ to sound wrong with the Primaluna Dialogue Premium, chances are the M30.1 will sound even worse with that amp.

With the M30.1, you need an amp that is sufficiently powerful and able to provide the current to properly drive the speakers. Otherwise it will sound lacklustre.

I have M 30.1s driven by a Rogue Stereo 100 and I find the combination to be glorious, especially with acoustic music. Pre is an ARC LS-27.