In Appreciation of the Harbeth Compact 7 ES-3

I think you will be okay. 70 W/Ch in UL is significantly more than the ProLogue at 35 W/Ch. And I expect any Harbeth to have a more benign impedance curve than PMC designs.

 

Yep, only you can decide

Me, I never did find a tube or hybrid that I was happy with when it came to the Harbeth's. Yet a friend has driven the original Super 5's with a pair of mono block 9wpc tube set up. They worked for him though as with all the Harbeth range and flea power amps it was only good at low levels.

Be interested in what works out for you.

 

Harbeth C7ES-3 XD Standmount Speakers

 

I’m holding out for the XXD version.

 

For those with compact 7s' - which speaker tap are you using - 4 or 8 ohm?
Particular reference to tube amplification.

 

8ohms sounded better on my amp.

 

Also have mine running off the 8ohm tap, sounded better to me.

 

Made a few posts upstairs. Was monitoring a pair of C7ES3 whilst posting (30th anniversary, 1 owner with paperwork and cartons).
Anyways, prolonged curiosity was grinding me down plus the price was right so I jumped in.
Will report back with my own observations on the C7 with tubes, speaker taps, solid state, positioning etc once I've spent some hours with them.

 

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

 

After a weeks home demo with the 30.2 and C7es3, I decided to go with the later. Considered the 40th Anniversary (not really into Tamo ash), or even waiting for the XD version (price hike), so went for a good deal on the standard C7es3. Now enjoying a nice cherry pair (#4001) on 48cm Extrema stands ...

 

Besides getting a good deal. You found the 7s as better too then I assume. In what way?

 

No profile and just as important, room size!

Better? Different don't you mean, the difference that made the choice for the buyer

 

good choice. i could be happy with them forever. very special speakers.

 

Nice. How would you characterize the difference between the 30.2 and C7?

 

About 6-8 months back I auditioned a pair of M30.1s a guy just around the corner from me had for sale. They didn't impress me like I expected. When I got home I gave a good listen to my Revel M22s, and I can honestly say I preferred the M22s. His system was stellar, but the speaker setup wasn't ideal IMO.

Fast forward a few months. I see a super deal on a pair of new 7ES-3 speakers which is too good to pass up. I believe the new speakers are broken in now and are extremely satisfying.

Although my time with the M30.1s was only a couple hours, I feel I can compare fairly well. Well enough for me to know I'm glad I went with the 7s. It does depend on what the listener prefers, as they are very different sounds.

The 7s present a full, robust sound which invites you to sit back and listen. Through my hours of listening, they let me relax and enjoy the music. Now that I'm used to them, I don't find myself dissecting the sound at all. I like that.

The M30.1 is much more of a monitor type sound. More clinical. Like I said, when I got home from my audition with the M30.1, I preferred my old Revels. If I had bought the M30.1s, I would have moved them along by now. Instead, I just sold my M22s. A speaker I had owned for a very long time, and compared against countless speakers. Until the C7ES-3, it was unbeatable.

As an aside, I sold the M22s to another member here. When he came to audition them, he said he'd never heard the Harbeths, and hoped to have a listen. I warned him he just might prefer the M22s to the C7. He was amazed at how much good sound the M22s put out. When he listened to the C7s, it took a few songs for him to adjust. After 15 minutes or so he said he understood the love for the Harbeths.

 

Though slightly unfair of a comparison of the Harbeth's you make a great case for the differences.

I found the 7's I listened against the 30's in my dealers a little less than "honest" in comparison and they were literally next to each other on the day! Had the Supers in line that day too Maybe I like the more clinical [as you term it] return, I feel it is a lot more honest and both [along with the supers] had the monitor feel.

 

I think your term "more honest" would be applicable in a side-by-side comparison. In a long term listening scenario though, I'm not so sure. There is an adjustment period if you've been listening to an honest/clinical speaker and make a switch to a speaker with a presentation such as the C7. Once your ear is accustomed to the speakers, you hear the information just fine, and you hear it with a more natural presentation, I believe.

 

The more "monitor" models of the Harbeths (30.1 / .2, SHL5+) are much more sensitive to toe-in than the C7ES3 for some reason.
If the 30.1/2 are aimed too wide, the tonal balance is midrange forward and often too much so. Aim them just right (for me aimed dead center on the nose) and they become warm and forgiving, the bass is more pronounced and the detail is still a cut above- in effect the Harbeth Magic. It's counter intuitive and quite wild to experience. It took this kind of effort to really love the SHL5+.

 

Possibly, probably!

All I can say is I presented the 3 variants of the speaker a much more level playing field at my session.

The speaker in the demo room that did less well for me was the C7.

I took home the 30s and the supers at the end of an afternoon of listening.

Fwiw, the supers totally failed at home while the 30s simply shone.

 

Thanks to all who posted.

With parental and other responsibilities diminishing (like mortgages and 3x school fees), I finally emerged from the wilderness and seized the opportunity to finally treat myself to a nice pair of speakers.

Listened reasonably widely, with some initial pre-disposition to Tannoy and Fyne DCs. Had never really heard of Harbeth until a Tannoy dealer recently suggested I have a listen.

As with all things in the home, some degree of compromise is inevitable (understatement).

The constraints being:
1/ The listening room is a shared lounge space (6.6L x 4.65W x 3.0H m). The speakers are "allocated" to the 4.65m wall.
2/ Carpet on the floor. There is no scope for further acoustic treatments ... it is what it is.
3/ Limited placement options (within 0.7m from the wall ... forget Cardos).
4/ Driven by Quad 34/606. I have a nice turntable (Rega2 with AudioTech OC9) but mainly listen to CDs covering a wide range of genres.
5/ I have no interest (or budget) to get drawn into the upgrade everything vortex ...

I had the Fyne 701 briefly on home demo too.

For the 30.2 (on 58cm stands) and the C7es3 (on 48cm stands), the placement was guided by 1/4 and 1/2 Wave Length calculations to the 5 relevant walls, cancelling all but one of the 1/4 WL modes (at ~115Hz) < 200 Hz.

I have always wanted a really accurate speaker, so I had expected that I would go for the 30.2s.

Both were very detailed and imaged well, but within the constraints of the system and room the C7s sounded fuller, warmer and more engaging than the 30.2s.

I don't think of it in terms of a "which is better" competition between speaker A and B. I think it's more a matter of which speaker best suited my system and room combination.


Sincerely wishing everyone the best of health in these uncertain times.


Cheers from Downunder (Melbourne, Australia).

 

So, I made a post circa 5 weeks ago when a killer deal and curiosity made me pick up a one careful owner pair of Compact 7 ES-3 in cherry.

Have played around with the positioning of the speakers and also swapping between a McIntosh MA5200 solidstate and a Primaluna EVO 400 integrated tube amp. My room dims are 11ft wide * 18ft long * 7.5 ft high. Room is dedicated and setup along short wall. Have some absorption as room walls / ceiling are wood panels: bass traps in front corners, panels on ceiling and panels at first reflections. Room setup always starts around rule of thirds.

In all honestly when I first plonked the C7 down I was not impressed at all. I though they sounded sterile across the range and the bass was either zero or full on industrial soup.

After 75+ hours of audio nervosa here is where I ended up:

Stands: I have the C7 on a pair of IKEA Oddvar with top plate removed so basically an open frame design. I cut the legs down by around 1,5 inch to get tweeters level with the ears. I have 4 SonicDesign damping dots between each speaker and the Oddvar. I will be sticking with the Oddvar for now as they are a no-brainer for the money. I may DIY some stands but I refuse to shell out silly cash on the high-end aftermarket stands.

Positioning: Holy macaroni, this started to drive me nuts. Ive never had a pair of speakers in my room that are so sensitive to short moves. The speakers started off when my old PMC were but have ended up circa 6 inches off from this baseline in 2 directions. Where I have ended up is 75 inches from baffle to front wall and 40 inches from centre of tweeter to nearest side wall. My Toe-in of the C7 has them so that the tweeters are firing a couple inches to the side of each ear and I can just see the insides of the cabinets from my seat. My head / listening position is one third from back wall.

Amps: I did circa 20 hours on the Primaluna and then 20 hours on the McIntosh to start with after speakers were 90% positioned. My honest opinion is that the McIntosh (100wpc) sounded lean across the board compared to the Primaluna (38/70 wpc triode/ultralinear). I gave it a good go but ended up back on the tubes. On the Primaluna I found the 4ohm taps to be very detailed & with very tight bass but at the expense of some soundstage & dynamics.. The 8ohm taps make the sound a little more relaxed to my ears & with much better soundstage and dynamic scale.

On my old PMC speakers I used to run in Triode often as the bass was just too deep. With the C7 I use ultralinear 70% of the time and only go to triode on some 70s pressings and very late night sessions.

So in short, I conclude that the Compact 7 are an absolutely killer pair of speakers.
They have it all; soundstage, imaging, & dynamics that I have not experienced in my room before.
When optimally positioned they absolutely sing on both 38 and 70 wpc of tube power.

Im still torn between grilles on / off when listening. On some recordings with grilles off I do hear a slight edge to some elements of the treble. I think the Compact 7 are a beautiful speaker to look at as well as to hear. So sometimes I pop the grilles off for some visual speaker porn. But when the grilles are on, the C7 really do disappear completely.

Fantastic stuff!

 

I wonder what you would have made of the 30's if you had given them a similar opportunity?

I say it all of the time and quite happy to say it once more, speaker and room match is first and foremost. And as stated once again, the placement of Harbeth speakers is a really critical point.

 

Never had the opportunity to try the 30s.
Agree fully regarding placement, its a beautiful thing when you do land it.

 

congrats and nice work. harbeths require some effort to get the best out of them, you have done so with diligence and rewarded well.