Harbeth 30.2 40th Anniversary

[PHC1]

Day 3 breaking in the Harbeth 30.2 40th and to say I am impressed is an understatement. Utterly musical without sacrificing too much detail or airiness. Imaging like crazy in my 26x31 room, they simply disappear leaving a wide and deep soundstage with great focus and image density. Tonally smooth and rich without sounding thick, veiled or rolled off. Bass is obviously limited but I mostly listen to acoustical instruments, not synthesized bass and what they accomplish with Jazz has me extremely satisfied. The way these speakers evoke the emotional response to recorded music makes them worth every penny and that is exactly what I was looking for in a pair of speakers. Midrange purity is exemplary. This is the kind of speaker I can listen to all day long and never get fatigued. Love them. Silver Eucalyptus color is gorgeous.

[Weirdcuba]

A buddy of mine swapped his $$$ Estalon's (which were amazing) for these and he's very happy. No fatigue whatsoever - just great sound. Great, great bang for the buck also.

Congratulations.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Weirdcuba

A buddy of mine swapped his $$$ Estalon's (which were amazing) for these and he's very happy. No fatigue whatsoever - just great sound. Great, great bang for the buck also.

Congratulations.

Thanks! Love them as well. Now I need some Class A amplification to drive them and it will be simply magic.

[Mikado463]

Originally Posted by PHC1

Thanks! Love them as well. Now I need some Class A amplification to drive them and it will be simply magic.

Serge, what are you driving them with now ? Do you still have any interest in Rogue tubes ?

[Soundmig]

Love Harbeth's! Heard the 30.2 anniversary editions at RMAF this year. While show conditions are tough for judging how anything truly sounds, they sounded wonderful to me. To say that I'm a bit jealous is somewhat of an understatement. Enjoy!!!

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Mikado463

Serge, what are you driving them with now ? Do you still have any interest in Rogue tubes ?

I will have to experiment to see how it goes with tubes. The midrange magic needs to be explored with triodes for sure so I have a Primaluna HP coming to me and I will either keep it with the 30.2 or leave it for another project for a smaller room and listen to headphones with the EL34 triode mode for now. The Luxman has excellent synergy in case I need to go for SS.

Most of my listening is 80-85dB with peaks around 91-92dB at most. On the other hand the room is well damped and the 30.2 seem like they are pulling quite a bit of juice even at my levels. We’ll see. I’m running a Peachtree 300w model that I borrowed for the weekend. Never thought a Peachtree can sound this good and my son had a Peachtree for some years.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Soundmig

Love Harbeth's! Heard the 30.2 anniversary editions at RMAF this year. While show conditions are tough for judging how anything truly sounds, they sounded wonderful to me. To say that I'm a bit jealous is somewhat of an understatement. Enjoy!!!

Thanks, I’ve always been impressed but never owned a pair. This pair is a keeper for the long haul. I’ve never been this emotionally engaged by a speaker on this level before.We all have our taste and it may not be for everyone. Surely I’ve owned speakers that were more impressive in terms of Hifi sound but nothing quite this engaging.

[PHC1]

Borrowing the Peachtree for the weekend was a fun experiment. I have to admit, I’ve been biased against Class D in general over the years but having spent some time with the Peachtree Nova 300 with IcePower class D amplification stage I have nothing bad to say about it in combination with Harbeth. In fact it sounds damn good for $2400 considering it has everything built in! A virtually complete system just add speakers. Even the built in DAC is not bad. Not that I am keeping it but if I had to, I would not be disappointed long term. I also heard the NAD M32 DirectDigital and that sounded promising with Totem speakers. I think class D is evolving rather nicely. Sounds good, runs totally cool.

[Weirdcuba]

I listened to a pair of harbeths with an accuphase e-600 (since someone brought up class a). It was wonderful. You could also try the new e-650!

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Weirdcuba

I listened to a pair of harbeths with an accuphase e-600 (since someone brought up class a). It was wonderful. You could also try the new e-650!

I would but I can’t get over paying almost $10k more than it costs in Japan. It will have to be Luxman since the markup is not nearly as severe.