Anyone ID these Harbs?

Kind of Monitor 40 but not.

 

Look like an early 'pro finish' Monitor 40 to me.

Tony.

 

Those are indeed professional M40s.
Me want!!!!

Joel

 

So the ports are in a different place and the badge isn't what I'd expect either and they'll be in a nice 'grey carpet' finish?

 

same but different:

 

It's the pro version, which is available in any colour you want, just as long as it's battleship grey. Also comes with useful handles on the side (visible in the auction if you look closely).
The seller doesn't specify if this is the passive or active type (or even the late lamented active type with eq), which indicates that he doesn't really know what he's got on his hands...
Ah, I see you've removed the link to the auction. Tart.

 

Well, they went for just short of 850 (not to me).

And this week the same seller has the actives up...

 

850 seems a good price, though not as good as 18.50... Of course it depends on the condition of the speakers and I don't know how the market in the UK is for these s/h.
IIRC, the active version simply has Alan's home brew mosfet amps attached to the back, because that's what some customers ask for.

 

Don't know if I've made this up or just read it somewhere on the net - which often amounts to the same anyway - but do studios such as the BBC replace monitors as and when they are no longer within their original specification?

 

I would expect there to be a replacement cycle, in much the same ways most large companies have an IT replacement cycle. For that reason I would guess that most are leased. Anything purchased outright would have to wait (to sell at least) until off the books.

 

The BBc regularly sell off stuff when moving house. if they open a new recording/broadcast studio they typically fill them with new stuff, bespoke. Tehn they sell all the old stuff off to auction houses who do corporate disposal auctions.

If you know the auction houses who handle this stuff you can find kaboodles of ls35'as and EMT's from time to time.