Harbeth P3esr is here!

everyone
Not even a week after deciding to try harbeth models, a P3esr in rosewood model pops up locally!

They are playing here and are rather very good, surprisingly more bright then I thought somehow. nice tonality.
Will report back after a couple of days! hey

 

I might have an issue leaving the bed in that setup.

 

Perhaps they will smooth out if you make up your bed.

 

Initial impressions are very surprising. I find them bright. overly bright.
Im using it with a 25WPC gaincard.
Image is good but not the best ive had which I dont mind.
mids are good but its hard to judge cause of the excessive brightness.

Im almost worried the tweeters are damaged somehow. I cant believe they are suppose to be that bright.
very confused and worried something isnt right.

 

FWIW, I have the 30.1 speakers and they are not bright, at least not in my room. I realize that this isn't all that helpful since they are different speakers but here I am assuming that Harbeth has a sound that they are going for in the product line and bright is not what I associate with Harbeth. Amazing midrange would be more what I think of.

I'll leave setup suggestions to those who are smarter about that than me.

I do have one thought or question - do other speakers sound bright with that setup in that room in that position? Just curious.

 

Did you audition these speakers before you bought them?

 

yeah, and they seemed fine but it was very fast shoot out
ill try different amps as maybe my 25WPC is not enough

 

Try in a room where speakers have more space/room to breathe and see if they continue to be bright. I wonder if having the bed that close may cause this.

 

A lack of power typically causes a tubby, bloated kind of sound.

 

yeah I moved them in my living room. will report later.

 

very interesting. maybe the harbeth dont like to be in a treated room? but they sound much better in my living room. Ive replaced the Salk continuum and placed the P3esr at the exact same spot with the 25 WPC lm3875 gaincard. it doesnt seem to even sound bright anymore.

The 25WPC seem to have woken the harbeth. the tripath 15 WPC is not powerful enough.

I begin to think they might not have been run in enough.they were bought in Nov 14 and may have not been broken in enough by the previous owner.

They seem to sound good on certain music, but Gil Scott Heron sound terribly lifeless, dynamically restrained.

 

Foreplay must be amazing.

 

I think 15 w is the absolute bare minimum for these speakers, is it not? How does your amp do with a 6 ohm load?

 

The bed room set up is a joke right? Must be. No way you would seriously comment on sound with them in that room with that setup.

 

ahh this is the room - now I get it.

 

If you visit the official Harbeth forums you'll be chastised for using a 15, or even 25 watt amp, and complaining about it.

 

It usually is...

 

the bed is in foam. no spring. if anything, the bed helps for floor reflection.

The tannoy gold and the amphion I was using previously did sound great in my room.

the room is well treated and measure well.

I see you continue your bullying.

 

Did Brian Wilson move to Canada and where is the sandbox?

 

Does it occur to you that the Audio Note J is not designed for a room like that - do you not at all understand that that room is utterly terrible for a midfield, farfield speaker design? Use your brain man - I'm not trying to be mean - I'm trying to get you to think that speakers and rooms go together.

The AN J is the driver and this is your room - do you not get that this is an uncomfortable match?

 

I don't think we're talking about Audio Note J's in this thread.

Which is good, because I'd hate to be distracted from the conversation about getting poor results running Harbeth speakers off a $17 chip amp.

 

Good thing all amps sound the same.

 

Harbeths don’t have a problem with treated rooms - they’re used in pro environments all of the time...
IME they need very little break-in time, but they do like power. Slap 100 WPC in there, and if you still don’t like them, then Harbeths probably aren’t your thing...

 

Sometimes a picture really can explain a lot & words become, well ..... ?