Harbeth C7- Tube or solid state power?

Mark, I'm not a big believer in the importance of cables, but the question is which cables are you using? I use an old Audioquest model, Crystal 2. It was a step up from the Indigo or Type 6, which I think you still see selling some places. It was $10 per foot retail, the same price as the Kimber 8tc at the time. I thought the Kimber was bright, an MIT cable I tried dull, and the AQ just right, but I don't trust my observations of wires.

It is more likely that you are hearing reflections off ceiling, walls, windows or hard furniture. Try experimenting with toe-in. Use a mirror to find the first reflection points off ceiling and walls and stick some soft carpet material at those spots. If you have windows, pull the drapes. Put blankets over hard furniture. Remove glass topped tables. Short of all of that, to analyze if it is the room, toe them in and listen near field to eliminate the effect of the room. If it sounds the same to you, then it's the speakers or something else in your system.

The Harbeth's tweeter has very wide dispersion, which makes the speaker sound a little toppy in live rooms. Mine sound fine in my larger room, far away from walls, with no suspended ceiling.

Glad to see you're making progress. If you are using metal stands, did you fill them? Soundbytes are good for that purpose, or unscented kitty litter from the supermarket. Just as an experiment, try uncoupling the speakers from the stand (I'm guessing you're using Bluetak or something like that), and putting a towel or some paper napkins between the speaker and the top of the stand. Sound different?

Paul always gives good advice, but he got a little ahead of himself here. He forgot to tell us that we should put the kitty litter in the freezer first.

Also, I recommend that you use the clumped kitty litter. (As a veterinarian, I have a large supply of natural clumps. In fact, I can pretreat with the sub-cryogenic necessities and ship to anyone interested, for a nominal fee.)

Charlie

Now I roll my tube in the power amp and find the treble to be softer. I am quite happy with the treble now.

Paul, you are right, I am using Blu-tack in between the stand and the speakers. From your experience, how much improvement to the bass if I sand-fill the stand? Frankly i have not fill the stand or put up the spikes. What are the tweaking you do to improve the bass. I prefer to get deeper bass, and more bass if possible.

Thank you very much.

Mark, I don't think you can get more or better bass doing anything to the stand, except de-coupling the speaker from the stand by just using someting soft like a towel or a computer mouse pad might help. I doubt that filling the stand will give you more or better bass. The only reason I fill metal stands is to damp the ringing of the stand itself. Sand, or kitty litter, or if you want to spend more money, "Soundbytes" all do the job. I don't do tweaks.

Mark, down the road you might consider a subwoofer. I use an M&K MX 700 with my C7s and it gives me all the pedals on an organ beautifully. Stand tweaking is not the answer.

Charlie