2. speakers
  3. 1273508961

Dynaudio Confidence 5 vs Harbeth

Hi All,

Looking at changing my my C5 out to the Harbeth range. For those that know the C5 it has a great mid range, in fact the overal presentaion is very good, just a hard speaker to drive. It has been compared to the temptation in the way of sound. It is a lot nicer speaker than any of the current confidence range by far.

Anyone done a side my side comparison with the C5 and the Harbeths or heard both? Would love to hear your thoughts. I can't hear the harbeths (as no distributor in my country) so I'm taking a wild guess here.

I found the Proac (Tablette Ref 8 Sig) to quite frankly sound harsh in the mids / highs compared to the C5 which were silky smooth. We are talking two diferent prices here. The Dyns cost over twice the value of the Harbeths when I brought them. So am I expecting to much from the Harbeths?

Obviously looking at improving the sound. Mainly into vocals and going to harbeth I can afford to change to a lot smaller amp. Presently using 220W of OTL to drive the Dyns and they do a great job of it (dont go past 12 o'clock) on the pre amp.

Thanks all for your input.
che13
Ag insider logo xs@2x
chashas1
596 posts
 
I would say that most listeners who like or own Harbeths would not like Dynaudios....I certainly don't. And yes, I've heard a good deal of the line. :)
pdreher's avatar
pdreher
828 posts
 
Ryder hit the nail on the head when he said:
"In this hobby everything is subjective as the listener's musical preference will take precedence over anything else. The Dynaudio Confidence may be in another league for one and the Harbeth to another."

From what I have read, the C-5's have a fine reputation. What don't you like about them other than being difficult to drive?

In my case, I tired of the C-4's inability to sound good at low to moderate volume levels, and they were not as musically involving as I would have liked. The M-40.1's driven by a moderately powered Mac tube amp have delivered in those areas my C-4's did not.

I'm not saying you should make the switch... but for me, it was the right decision.
shsohis
119 posts
 
I'm sure there are many hungry wolves waiting to grab your C-5. By the way, the C1 is superb when I heard it recently - simply spellbinding.
toetapfactor
77 posts
 
IMO, im not really sure why you would want to jump ship and buy or even consider Harbeths.The C1s with a nice sub at 1/2 the price will out perform the 40.1s which are slow,extremely colored , rolled of highs ,very inefficient etc etc.Where as Dynaudio is the complete opposite.So I would agree with the above poster and try a listen to the C1s.Again, just my opinion
semi
646 posts
 
as a former C5 owner, I have owned more than 1 pair of C5, I will caution your move.

I don't need to tell you about C5 strength, but I wonder if you have squeezed out the last bit of C5 strength yet. what are you using for amp? C5 are hard to drive, but if you feed them with high current amps, they sing very nicely.

I have owned some ProAc (D15 & R3.8), have heard some Harbeth, they are very different from most of Dynaudio and even further from C5. among them, I prefer C5 over others but my love for tube forced me to sell the C5. I am happier with tube + other speakers, I found C5 performance can be reproduced or better by other speakers in similar price point.
More to discover