Big Harbeth fan, but never heard of the Compacts until now. I think you would be better off asking at the Harbeth Forum. My only thought is they might have drivers that are no longer available. As far as waiting for the price - if you love them that much, maybe you should consider buying before someone else does because I don’t think you’re very likely to find another local pair you can inspect and listen to before buying. Good luck.
Harbeth: HL Compact vs HL7 Compact
Harbeth fanatics, I need your help:
I fell in love with the good old HL compact. Heard them powerd by some GM 70 monos recently and must say I was blown away - absolutely agile, lively, transparent, beautiful tonality and lots of impact - looking at such a small cabinet.
Just can`t get them for an adequate price at the moment while a HL7 compact would be available but I live too far away for from the seller to hear them before I hit the button.
I tried to find a brief comparison between these models but did not find anything helpful.
How does the successor perform compared to the early HL? What are the main differences soundwise?
I`m happy for any assistance!
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I had a pair of HL Compacts which I enjoyed for many years. I'm not an expert on the various iterations of the C7 but my recollection is that the HL Compact was the first Harbeth speaker to feature the Radial midrange driver, which has since been revised and is now called the Radial 2. My pair dated from the mid to late-90s. I purchased them used when I was living in the UK. These were my introduction to the Harbeth sound and the magic of the Radial driver. While Alan Shaw has made many revisions to the C7 leading up to the current XD, I have found the more modern Harbeth designs to be less engaging through the midrange than my old HL Compacts which were simply breathtaking in their tonal fidelity and warmth. |
Thanks a lot guys! The availability of the drivers really is an aspect I didn't have in mind. Magical midrange - that's exactly what I'm looking for. So the magical question is which iteration to take. As far as I know the first model that had the Radial midrange driver was the HL7 compact. Which means the earlier HL compact didn't have it. I wrote an email directly to harbeth and they promised to get back in time. @dodgealum absolutely sure it you owned the HL compact? Their front was all black while the later HL 7' s corpus including the front was brown. |