Why are so many people trying to sell Harbeths?

Sunnyjim quote:

'like the 30.1 for $12,000 plus'

where did you see that price!!??

+1 Sunnyjim....I like Speaker Art speakers and all the owners I've talked to say the same thing...they will never part with them. I have only seen one pair for sale any where on the net in the last four years.

Could be that many of their speakers have been and are over rated. Sam Tellig and John Atkinson of Stereophile seem to be in love with the company's product. The other reason is that the Harbeth sound appeals to a certain audience, and listener.

Sam Tellig would not be caught dead playing rock music or even jazz. he was strictly, and officially a classical music lover and elitist snob, and also automatically anoint the speaker with special status.

There is a continuing assumption in audio that great speakers "should" sound good on any type of music. I am not sure that is totally true in reality, though it is a noble and worthy goal to pursue if you are building these things.

I have to somewhat agree with the member about "Harbeths on sale". Interestingly, there was for a while a run on KEF LS-50 placed on the selling block. Maybe, reviewers over enthused about them. Or, maybe they are too analytical, and also don't have much bass. Nevertheless, I counted one day last month, approx. eight LS-50's on sale on audiogon.

What bothers me about companies like Harbeth is how they can justify retailing a speaker like the 30.1 for $12,000 plus. However, in the over enthused and less critical reviews world of hi-end audio, price too often predetermines the expectation of great value and high end performance.

usually if many available many had been made. everything
else don't matter.

I was cleaning room and music was on,and stuck my head between speakers somewhere in the middle,the efect was-music were coming from one point ahead of me occanally stereo efects moving from left to the right side and the same time heard dynamics and fast and agile presentation.From that time I repositioned speakers and listening distance .It became shorter.Now it reminds me associations with nearfield or midfield studio monitors.You can try if you have harbeths, may be it just my ears or room interaction.Because with dynaudio contour s1.4 I have sit back at 1meter longer distance

Extravaganza,
How did you arrive at the opinion that listening distance "must be short, about 1.5m or shorter...?

"you sit there and sit there waiting for the next song. 2 hours go past, your late, but you want to stay. Magic."

That's the acid test for a music lover that things are going right and no reason to muck with it further.

OHM Walsh and Harbeth are quite different. I would really love to compare fully refurbed OHM L, C2 or H to comparable Harbeth. Any of those, when availble would come in for half the price of the smallest Harbeth from what I see.

I still run my original OHM Ls from 1978 along with newer OHM Walsh, Dynaudio, and Triangle speakers, all off the same amp via in-wall wiring to various rooms. I refurbed the Ls a few years back on my own, replacing original 8" woofers with closest matching high quality Morel drivers I could find. Those alone almost cost as much as the Ls originally. I also added OHM sub bass circuit JS uses these days in all his models. That and all other parts are availble as parts in the OHM store. Low and high tweets are still original, as is crossover The Ls are big hitting speakers now that can compete with the big boys. There is just a slight upper midrange rise that is noticeable on some vocals in particular, but otherwise the sound would cost a lot more to purchase today. A full refurb done by a pro like John Strohbeen would surely smooth out the few rough edges.

I refurbed the Ls prior to buying the newer OHM Walshes. I almost decided to go with OHM Hs (my favorite all around speaker from Tech Hifi days that were too big and expensive for my college kid budget back then) and punt on the Walshes based on teh performance, but decided I would probably miss the unique OHM Walsh presentation long term, so that is where I am today with OHM F5S3, OHM 100S3, OHM L, Dynaudio COntour 1.3mkII and Triangle Titus all sharing duty in different rooms.

One last note is that these older highly regarded speaker designs all take a leap forward these days when run off modern good quality source and amplification gear, which helps put all speakers in a different league than those that were around in the largely japanese dominated receiver and integrated amplifier days of years ago when SS amplifier technology was still fairly new and often underpowered for the task at hand. Modern innovations like Class D amps help put that limitation in an amps ability to optimally drive a speaker to rest for good.

Ohm speakers are great - but I switched from MicroWalsh Talls to a pair of P3 ESR’s...

Tube - 899bk knows what he is talking about.

Never owned Harbeth speakers, but every time I've heard them, they sound tonally right. I like that.

I would not mine hearing the 30.1. It gets so many raves. I just can't imagine them replacing my Confidence 1's. But stranger things have happened.

Mapman, I haven't heard Ohm speakers since the days of Tech hi-fi. At the time I thought they were great but I really didn't have any reference points. It would be interesting to hear a refurbished pair today.

"Owned everything under 80K" Really 899bk or do you mean you have HEARD? And if you mean heard, again, really?

my guess is dynamically a bit restrained. they are good but not totally accurate imo

Owned everything under 80k. 3 pair of 40.1, getting 40.2. They are magic. Have to own them, demo won't do it. Listen to most speakers and you get itchy, time to go. 40.1 you sit there and sit there waiting for the next song. 2 hours go past, your late, but you want to stay. Magic.

harbeth do have definition and dynamics,but listening distance must be short abaut 1,5m or shorter,leaning position toward speakers

Ouch.

I have no experience with harbeth. I like the retro design aspect of them
though. Makes them stand out from the crowd these days.

They tend to be pricey. The older conventional Ohm line bears a lot of
similarity to Harbeth. Those can Still be had via ohm refurbed and updated
with modern drivers and components for a fraction of the cost. Are
any harbeths better than ohm c2 L or H for example? Those can all be
had when available for under $1000, essentially the same cost as 30+
years ago still but all updated and refurbed. Factor in inflation and these
should go for harbeth prices these days. Made in Brooklyn though not
merry old England.

Ok your right.

I disagree with ebm. The cabinet isn't great either.

NO dynamics no definition great cabinet.

I went to audition Harbeths are few years back and they were very pleasant speakers. Unfortunately they were not dynamic enough for me. I think people like them because they are a very non-offensive speaker.

I went to Maggie MMG's, much smaller than my 3.6R's. I had SLH5 Harbeths when I first moved from a large family room to a much smaller media room. They were still too big for that space, but the MMG Maggies system, was perfect.

There's a TON of Harbeths in this world.

Don't know if it's necessarily a love-them-or-hate-them proposition with Harbeths. I auditioned a pair a few months ago and while I didn't fall in love with them I could certainly hear the things they did well and why so many people do love them. They just weren't for me.

Well- just for balance I agree with Missioncoonery I don't plan on buying Harbeths, I don't care for them. That said I am not listing any.

I agree that Harbeths have a following just like B&W and McIntosh which come to mind..You either love em or hate em.I would guess those that are running Harbeths have been doing so for some time and have no intentions of selling.For me having owned the 40s for a short time years ago Harbeths aren't on my list of "buys"...but weve had this debate many many times.I see no trend in dumping

How can you have a room that's big enough for Maggies, but too small for Harbeths?

Shakey

I would think the prevalence of the dealer ads indicates more their popular appeal to a broad range of listeners than anything less, a means to sell other than locally. If there is no local dealer how else would you purchase?

I guess it was the prevalence of the dealer ads that (mis)led me to the conclusion. There just seemed to be an awful lot of listings.

I am preparing to sell my Compact 7iii's to get some P3's as my small bedroom is overloaded by the bass. Anyone looking to trade?

I never see that many used Harbeths listed. Like Reprince said,they are all dealer listings. I have owned many speakers over the years and my P3's are still my favorite!

I'm a Maggie guy, but from time to time I've tried other speakers. The Harbeth's are the only others I've every really like.

If I had a bigger room, I would have kept them.

I've purchased Harbeth speakers three times... and recently went back to owning M-40.1's for a second time. I've owned more expensive speakers from Dynaudio (C4's) and Daedalus (Ulysses), but prefer my big box Harbeth's.

Of the listings currently on A-gon, one seller is upgrading in the Harbeth line, and all but one of the remaining are dealers' ads for new speakers. Hardly what I'd call a trend.