Harbeth comparison?


Hi all,
I’ve been using the Harbeth p3esr for years and enjoy them very much. I have tried the Compact 7s and preferred the boxless sound of the smaller P3. I have been seeing many M30.1s listed at very reasonable prices.
Has anyone compared both of these speakers and if so how do they compare?
I use the P3s in a 20x15x8 size room with a JL sub and Quicksilver 70 watt tube amps.
Thanks much!
128x128yogiboy

Yogiboy ,

The Harbeth M30.1 are very nice speakers. They have that Harbeth sound with the fantastic midrange.

 You would get a bigger soundstage with the 30s compared to the P3 and of course more bass. The M30.1 does have the silk dome tweeter , which is different from the P3 and will have a slightly different presentation. Whether you would prefer the 30s over the P3 would be up to you. It is something you would have to try.

It is always best if you could audition for yourself and make the comparison at a local Harbeth dealer. If you do not have a local dealer , than trying a used pair would be you next best option. You probably could turn around and sell a pair of M30.1 for close to what you paid for them.




@timo62
Thanks for the reply. My plan was to buy a used pair and sell them if I preferred the P3. BTW, I did that with the Compact 7. I have no dealer in my neck of the woods so that will be the route that I will take!
@pdreher 
Thanks for the reply. The M30 is the one I am interested in. The M40s are out of my price range. I do agree that Harbeth sound great with tubes!

Yogiboy ,

That is a good plan!  The best way to audition is at home ,in your system and listening room.

You will like the Harbeth 30.1s. Whether you prefer them over the P3s will be up to your preference. Both are good speakers.

Keep us updated on your experience! I am curious to find out what happens with your comparison.

I also have P3ESRs, in the desktop system in my study (driven by a 2x100 watt Quad 405-2). I think they are wonderful, and I know nothing better in that size. But they have their inevitable limitations: they lack deeper bass, and they cannot pump out enough sound in a larger room. Out of curiosity I decided to try them in our large living room, driven by the 2x140 watt Quad 606-2 that I normally use there. It still sounded great, but its limitations were also a bit more obvious. So I added the B&W PV1d subwoofer (plus DSpeaker Antimode 8033 room eq) from my main system. Bass extension was immediately of a different order, of course, and integration was perfect. The experience of such deep bass seemingly coming out of these little speakers was uncanny. The combination also produced a larger sound bubble, but not quite large enough to be completely convincing in this large room. For that I would clearly have needed larger main speakers (i.e. the M30.1s). So that is the main difference that you will experience if you move one size up.
I have never heard the P3ESR and the M30.1 back to back, but by all accounts they are very similar in character. My son is saving up to buy a pair of M30.1’s (he is currently borrowing my LS3/5as) and once he has bought them I will be able to compare directly, but not yet. He did consider the P3ESR but decided he needed a bigger speaker for more dynamic music.
I have two more observations to make about your system. From my own experience I would suggest that it can be improved considerably for little money by using a DSpeaker Antimode 8033 room eq unit. My second observation is that Harbeth’s designer Alan Shaw clearly prefers powerful solid state amplifiers (he designs them using various Quad amplifiers). Harbeths have a relatively flat impedance curve, but even so solid state amplifiers are likely to give a more neutral/flat response that many tubes. From my own experience I also observed that these speakers like a bit of power. My 2x100 watt Quad 40-5- would be my minimum choice. Of course the M30.1 is more efficient than the P3ESR but even so, 70 watt is not that much. At the upcoming Bristol Hifi show Alan Shaw will demo the P3ESR with a 2x100 watt Yamaha AS701. I recently gave my son a 2x250 wat Yamaha P2500S to be used with his planned M30.1s.