2. speakers
  3. 1443882782

Harbeth vs JM Reynaud

Hoping for some input. I come from a Spendor perspective (my daughter recently inherited my BC-1s) and currently use Spendor s5e's with a Unison Unico hybrid integrated amp. Sound is wonderful. I have seen all the discussions/reviews of Spendor, Harbeth, Stirling, and ATCs, and I am partial to getting the midrange 'right' (the 'BBC' sound). With a 60th birthday coming up, I've been looking into one last speaker upgrade. With all the rave reviews of Harbeth's, I got to spend some time auditioning the Compact 7's, M30.1s and Super HL5's (not the plus). All sounded great but the 30.1's really seemed like something special. I was able to take a pair home for a weeklong audition, and truly fell in love of what these do. So now the problem. I have recently come across a several reviews of JM Reynaud speakers, including some recommendations on this forum as an alternative to Spendor and Harbeth. These really look like possible option for the BBC sound, but there is no opportunity for an audition, and that's a lot of $$ to buy completely unheard. Can anyone provide some thoughts feedback on how the JMR Bliss Silver or the Offrande Supreme's might compare to the Harbeth 30.1s or Super HL5 plus? My living/listening room is 15 x 25 (speakers on short wall), hardwood floors and plaster walls.
ihor
wim1983's avatar
wim1983
193 posts
 
hmm it's happening reading debates here, and finally come to the gear matching point, yes recently I face some problem with Wharfedale Jade 3 too, it sound too analytical to me, compare to Denton 80th Anniversary, it's not very forgiving in playing a lot of my music, so I think is because I'm using too straigthforward gears like JDS Labs ODAC, Class D Audio SDS 400C, it's like full blown sound without filter on the Jade 3, but these gears work on the Denton. I think some people will find Dynaudio sound analytical or thin, free of color if pairs with transparent gears, but neutral sound will sound good if play some state of the art recording, like Mike Oldfield, and most of the mid range voice music, but still I think I prefer a bit light color on the sound, more engaging to listen to, especially on vocal, while most of the background sound I prefer to be a touch wing wing show, not too forward but still able to listen to the details. I think both Dynaudio and JM Reynaud should be compared, we should analyse our own audio chain instead, and decide what to do accordingly?
ryder
946 posts
 
It's all horses for courses when it comes to listening taste and preferences. The poster of this thread prefers the sound of the Harbeth M30.1 over the Compact 7 and Super HL5 but I find the M30.1 to sound too thick and shut-in for my preference. I prefer the more open and dynamic sound of the C7ES3 and SHL5. To each his own I guess.

The Dynaudio Confidence line of speakers are a lot fussier than the Harbeths as they require more attention in amplification. They are ruthlessly revealing as well. Good music will sound great with the Dynaudios and less-than-perfect recordings will sound bad on them. On the other hand, mediocre to poor music will sound pretty good on the Harbeths.
wim1983's avatar
wim1983
193 posts
 
@Ryder: if a speaker sound too analytical and ruthlessly revealing, any solution to tame those extra details using preamp? Or it would be difficult to find such gear and do the matching? I see Harbeth is very forgiving if you just wanna listen to music, especially a broad range of music genre from your collection
sense63
43 posts
 
This thread is supposed to be about comparing Harbeth to JM Reynaud. I've owned 3 of the Harbeths (Compact 7's, 30.1s and HL5 pluses) and had the JM Reynaud Bliss Silvers at the same time as the HL5 pluses and frankly there was no comparison. The JM Reynaud is the better speaker in every area at less than half the cost of the Harbeth. The Harbeth is laid back and colored and is a Jekyll and Hyde speaker. Sometimes they sound really good and other times they sound really average. It's happened with all 3 models.

The Reynaud is more present, more realistic in the presentation with more detailed bass and wonderful mids. It's hard to describe the sound of the speaker if you haven't heard it, but it is one of the better speakers under $5k in my opinion. I was so taken with the Bliss Silvers that I traded them toward a pair of the Orfeo Supreme V2 and now I'm in heaven. The Orfeo is a world class speaker and will compete with anything $30k and below. If you're in the market for a Harbeth speaker, you owe it to yourself to listen to JM Reynaud. I've listened to and owned many speakers and the Reynauds are the one I'm going to keep for some time.
ryder
946 posts
 
10-10-15: Wim1983
@Ryder: if a speaker sound too analytical and ruthlessly revealing, any solution to tame those extra details using preamp? Or it would be difficult to find such gear and do the matching? I see Harbeth is very forgiving if you just wanna listen to music, especially a broad range of music genre from your collection

Usually we build a system around the speakers, but sometimes we do it the other way round in order to make the speakers sound the way we want them to be. In most cases, the room (acoustics) and placement of speakers will bring more tangible difference/improvement than a change in electronics. Having said that, you may consider different amps to tone down the brightness of your Wharfedale Jade 3. I have read the Stereophile review of the Wharfedale Jade 3 and noticed that they used tube amplification to drive the speakers. Audio Research tube power amp and Audio Valve Eclipse tube preamp. The smoothness and warmth from tube amplification may have formed a great combination with the analytical and detailed Jade 3s.
More to discover