Rega Elicit R with Harbeth HL5 Plus loudness/drive issue.

Hello out there,

My second - living room system consists of Rega Elicit-R, Rega Saturn, Audioquest Castle Rock Speaker cable, Audioquest Angel interconnect and Harbeth SHL5 Plus speakers on HIFI Rack stands. My room is rather large, very well damped, and unusual in shape - typical condo living room - close to 20 X 30.

Mr. Alan Shaw claims that his speakers are very easy to drive, with minimal phase shifts and any amplifier above 25W should drive them with no issues. Rega amp that I own has 105W at 8, and 127W at 6 Ohms.

My problem is that I have to set the volume control on the amp at noon - 1 o’clock to get sound’s pressure that I would not even consider loud - perhaps 80dB......when I turn the amp up past 1 o’clock, low end is gone and sound becomes hard and mechanical which indicates clipping. I can never get dynamics and drive from that combo and sound is rather veiled and rolled-off.
Nobody from HUG can help as moderators deleting my post before it reaches common forum board claiming that I should talk to the local dealer and they do not want anything negative there.

It looks like 127W is not enough to drive those speakers even thou Alan claims is more than enough. Does anybody here have similar experience? is that happening because my room is quite severely damped? When I do the hand clap test - there is almost no echo - would that affect sound pressure that drastically?

Also, is that normal for Rega Elicit R to operate in the noon - 1 o’clock attenuator position?

Thanks for all suggestions!