Dipping toe in water

Joel,

Sorry but they are an ex dem pair of Super HL5 and I just suspect they are showing their character which is far from bad I imagine the pronounced (to these ears) BBC voicing does make them far easier to listen to in close confines and expect many on the forum would be knocked out by their performance.

Ian, I'm not sure it's the amp. It's very neutral with good bass control. The only thing I forgot to do yesterday was experiment with the taps. The Mac's got 2 ohm taps so can drive just about anything. Don't forget it's had no problems with the mighty Proac D100's nor the painfully inefficient and hard to drive Dynaudio Microns. I'll play around later and report back.

 

AK,

Congratulations on your new toy. I believe that the stock RB250 comes in black and the Tecnoarm is silver. Also, the finish and performance of the Technoarm is to a much higher standard than the stock Rega. Now, if you have the stock RB250 and are tempted by an upgrade, then you are better off selling the RB250 and buying something like the Michell Tecnoarm which already contains the Incognito rewire and much better counter-weights (2 in total) than going down the route of Origin Live upgrades.

Anyway, whatever you do, think carefully before shelling out your hard-earned cash on the Origin Live Silver arm. It really is not worth the cash and is easily outperformed by the Tecnoarm, let alone the SME M2 tonearm which is SME's response to misleading claims made by OL about the Silver arm being much, much better than arms costing several times it's price which it clearly isn't. Note that the SME M2 is priced exactly in OL Silver territory (for a very good reason) but that is the only similarity between the two arms. Enjoy your new deck - it is a fine example of the breed.



Enjoy the music,

Lawrie.

 

Worth a go. "Soggy" bass does sound like it might be a control problem to me.

When you can get an amp recommendation out of the gurus on the Harbeth mailing list the two brands that get mentioned the most are NAD at one end of the price scale and Bryston at the other. Gives you an idea that 100wpc and above seems to be optimal. My experience with the 120wpc-ish Sonneteer and my K6s confirms that, I've tried a few lower-powered amps, valve and solid state, and not had anything like as much joy at anything other than lowish volumes (although biamping with the Leak is quite nice).

Have you still got that Crimson power amp?

-- Ian

 

Well Ian, the 4 ohm tap does bring about an improvement but the bottom end is still, shall we say, on the fruity side

What the extra control of the other tap did allow was for the midrange to come to the fore - given that the bass excess was probably interfering before. Well that midrange is glorious Very natural.

Damn, shouldn't have bothered

 

Fruity is exactly what I get with the Leak and the K6s, which is otherwise very lively and pacey with more appropriate speakers.

Get a kick arse solid stater up them, you owe it to yourself.

-- Ian

 

Merlin,
With SHL5s, fruity is wrong.
They ain't no stunt bass machine, for sure, but soggy and fruity they aren't either.
Accuphase, or anything really, should work.
How are they set up and on what in your room?

 

Joel,

I'm pretty sure they are interacting with the room and nothing is going to get over that which is a shame as they are delightful in many ways. It's a known peak around 42hz, but these Harbeths interact very badly with it. Hell even the D100's were fine - so I guess it's to do with the port

So a room issue rather than crap speaker issue which should be expected I guess. I really need to lay my hands on some 40cm solid stands, but I doubt that's going to do it.

 

Merlin, have you ever considered EQ?

For those following the Tecnoarm sub-thread, here's some pictures showing the new counterweight assembly and the perforated armtube.





-- Ian

 

I've actually got a Tact here but to be honest arsed...can't be.

I have tried them with solid state today 250w of Crown's finest and sorry but the bottom end is wooly and plain wrong in my room.

The timbral accuracy of the midrange is a clear selling point and I have not heard better with the possible exception of those large Proacs. But in the end, the balance is just not right for much of my music.

So they go back to the shop tomorrow and the search continues for something to fill the gap until the horn project comes to fuition. But the 1sc's are doing a fairly good job of it

 

Shame. At least you tried.

How about some big active ATCs.

-- Ian

 

To be honest Ian, I suspect anything front ported and tuned to around 40hz is going to give me problems, so maybe look for something tuned lower (say 30hz) or stick the JBL's back in and add a Behringer for the bottom end.

I find it interesting that Neil has not seen fit to post any of the insulting comments he has come out with "off Forum"

 

Cheers Lawrie

I have ordered a tecno weight and the michell VTA adjuster, will send the weight back if I don't notice much difference, will set it up properly and hope fully leave it that way, not into tweaking for tweaking sake, I have ordered a Shure V15 from hong kong, that may take up to a fortnight to get here, so may not be playing with it for a wee while.

 

Ah well, no skin off my nose if he doesn't like them. Lovely chap, but as deaf as a post.

-- Ian

 

Ian,

Its more a case of being blind than deaf, its the look of them which I find to be the problem. They quite hideous, possibly the most ugly speaker I have seen in a long time. (Its their dimensions I really have a problem with).

Give me a big pair of ATCs anyday!

I quite liked the sound of them (bass excepted), although I'd take the 1SCs anyday. Far more involving IMO.

 

You're screwed. That rules out 4343s, which are the grooviest (if flawed) speakers on the planet. The 4848 series does not cut the mustard, and the K2s are Krap.

Smoothy smoothy nicey does it I suppose. Pro(z)Ac users of the world unite

 

I do have to say they are about as stylish as Alan Shaw himself

That wouldn't have worried me if they worked in the room however.I'd rather see the money spent on the sound quality than on gay curves and contrasting wooden inlays

 

Joel, it was surprising just how much more zest and life the little Proacs had than the SHF5's. Anyway, isn't Prozac an anti depressant?

The four way JBL's are OK because I can apply EQ to the bass driver without interferring with the midrange. 4344's it is then

 

I like the look of them meself. But they do take a bit of getting used to, I admit, especially since Robbo is used to speakers no bigger than an ant.

I have to say Robbo's AR/Proac setup sounds pretty good to me, and does well with the music he likes, so despite being both deaf and blind, he's managed to grope his way to a half-decent hi-fi. :JPS:

-- Ian

 

It's an artificial stimulant.
I really don't like ProAcs (and I've tried a couple), they sound artifical and smooth to me. Fun, yes, in short bursts, but not true and not real.
But that's me, and that probably reflects the music I listen to and the way I listen.
My Harbeths get me closer to where I think the music is, and 4343s closer still to the natural groove, though they have big unsolvable problems elsewhere.

 

The problems start in the midrange with these speakers.