Nearfields for audiophile listening?

Some Harbeth speaker are great. Their cabinet resonate from 500hz and down, and I have never really noticed any bass resonance issue. Their bass is not the tightest but thats due to the cone material id think.

I find Harbeth very neutral in presentation. extremely right tonality, and this is where harbeth is just superior to almost everything else. Detailled and balanced. Slight lack of attack and ultimate extension, and not the best soundstage are the cons. but tonality, midrange purity, and non exagerated treble and just rightness of sound is really hard to beat imo.

Psalm hating Harbeth and ATC seem to be more his personal negative bias rather then Harbeth or ATC performance. Maybe its Psalm models he has heard. not all Harbeth model are made equal.

i dislike the 30.1 and c7es3. the P3esr and Shl5plus which I owned are definitely more neutral then the overly warm c7es3 or boomy 30.1. something in the bass cabinet of the 30.1 definitely is wrong imo.

 

i agree with you. i love the mid range of atc but harbeth is just something else altogether.

the bass resonance issue is really bad with the 30.1 on my desk and in my room. of course I am blaming it on the speakers' less than ideal positioning but i didn't expect it to be so bad. ears fatigue in less than 10 mins of listening. didn't expect myself to put fatigue and harbeth in the same sentence.

 

We have fond memories of this one. Great box right there.

 

All Harbeths suck. Those resonances affect everything. If you can’t hear it, then you can’t hear it.

ATCs are good; they just don’t make normal sounding nearfields or large speakers with bass like other large speakers. They also cost a nice new car if you want any bass.

 

the harbeth cabinet resonance only affect under about 3-400 hz.
https://www.stereophile.com/content/harbeth-super-hl5plus-loudspeaker-measurements

I dont disagree with you, their bass is not their forte. However, Their midrange purity and tone rightness is imo special. their midrange quality makes a lot of speakers sounds broken, uninvolving or just wrong. I miss that midrange.

ps: the small p3esr cabinet resonance is very minimal. https://www.stereophile.com/content/harbeth-p3esr-loudspeaker-measurements

objectively we cannot even call this cabinet resonance when we talk about p3esr and its certainly unhearable. but at the same time, P3esr bass is truly lacking in every way.

 

I have been using Quested V2108 for years at home. I heard Harbeth speakers for the first time a year ago when visiting a local hifi show. The sound of the Harbeth 30.2 certainly reminded me of my Quested monitors at home (definitely much more so than any other speakers on display at the show).

 

I also have Neumann KH 120 and can switch between the Neumann and Quested speakers (just for fun). I am planning to replace the KH 120 with three-way monitors. Since I already have the V2108, I am looking for a bit of a change, in particular more transparency in the high frequency range. I am thinking of either ATC SCM50ASL (with inhouse tweeter) or the new PSI Audio A23-M. I have a chance to listen to the bigger SCM100ASL in two weeks (hifi show again). I wonder if anyone here already had a chance to listen to the A23-M and would be willing to share some impressions. Thanks.

 

Here's an interesting one for you to look at: https://www.gsstudiomonitors.com/
It has a bit of ATC blood, and as far as I know is the only company that ATC sells their drivers to.

 

Could be good. I need to hear stuff.

 

That's where it's at with P3ESR. Bass is just an additive to this and true, not the best one there is. But as a whole, it's a very enjoyable product.

 

You like what you like. Everything is personal. I like these KRK Rokit 5 G4 dude but damn this port overhang is horrific and yes you can hear it. The Kevlar drivers can sort of punch through it though so it actually sounds better than the JBL 305 to me. The punchiness helps a lot with stuff like judging slight compression. The bigger Rokit 7 and 8 are unlistenable garbage imo. But this actually helps me mix stuff on them because I can't push the bass as far as on the V6 or speakers with better thought out ports.

 

how would you compare the quested and neumann?

i am myself interested in getting a PSI, albeit the smaller A17

 

murphythecat, whenever i research about speakers i'm interested in, you are always there all these years contributing so much to the wealth of knowledge about nearfields in so many forums. thanks again for all that. you can just compile a book with all your knowledge and forum post and i will buy the shit out of it.

 

Quested have much better imaging, provide a much wider and deeper soundstage and obviously go deeper. I mostly listen to jazz and the V2108 are just great for acoustical music. Their sound is slightly on the dark side, which is due to their tweeter, which is certainly not the most transparent. The upside of this is that I can listen to them for hours without getting tired. Despite their smaller mid/bass drivers, I actually prefer the Neumann speakers for electronic music like Yello. Their bass is drier. Still, when I switch between them, I have never had a single visitor who preferred the Neumann over the Quested. The KH120 A are small speakers and it shows. The Quested sound like big speakers.

 

They're also 1k a pair versus the 5k retail Quested kit.

 

I thought this was well known. I was asked to compare them and that's what I did.

 

Happy to help! Keep in mind that while I have a lot of experience with 2 ways or 1 ways or vintage systems like Tannoy, Altec or big old JBL's, I have close to no experience with modern expensive big 3 way from the likes of Focal, B&W, Geithain, ATC, Wilson audio, Pure audio project, ect, or Line arrays, fullrange horn systems, ect.

 

I get you. appreciate the comparison. now I am getting a little concern about the tweeter. I have a pro audio friend telling me that the tweeter is dull. hopefully not too dull.

going to audition the S6R tmr.

 

understand that. i even manage to find your father's posts about those vintage systems.

anyway, which quested have you tried before? it seems like you recommend the quested quite a bit. and how does it compare to the harbeth?

pardon all the questions about comparison. I am very close to pulling the trigger on S7R so all comparison comments help!

 

Would be interested to hear your impressions. And don't get me wrong, I like my Quested a lot! Otherwise I would have sold them years ago.