Harbeth Super HL5 plus Break-in


The following is an excerpt from the Harbeth User Guide:

"After exercising your new Harbeths for just a few hours they will be fully ready for a lifetime of enjoyment".

After going to the Harbeth site it pretty much said the same thing as the user guide but added that the supertweeter would take a little longer to break-in.
My new Harbeth's sounded the same after I put on around the first 100 hours so I believed the above until around the 120-150 hour mark I noticed (or so I think) the midrange sounding more realistic to the point of more enjoyment! I don't know if I'm actually hearing an improvement or I'm just getting used to the Harbeth sound since the 5's are my first experience with Harbeth in my listening room.

I would like to hear others that have owned or still own the Super 5's and whether or not you have experienced the same thing as me or something else.
routeman21

Showing 2 responses by twoleftears

I have about 60 hours on 40.2's right now.  Frankly, they sounded great out of the box, but around the 50 hour mark there was some kind of fairly minor change, a little more relaxed, in the sense that I could turn the amp down a notch or two and still get the same level of presentation/enjoyment.  I'm more than content right now, but only time will tell if anything further develops.

Deja Vu (Harbeth dealer) certainly recommends open-topped stands (no "plate"), but also asserts that wood stands vs. metal stands will result in a mild difference in tonality, along the lines of the standard associations of wood vs. metal.  Anyone have any experience?

@routeman21  @hleeid  I'm curious what you are using at the interface of the bottom of the speaker and the top of the stand.  There seems to be a wide range of practice here, with no one solution emerging as a clear favorite.