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Harbeth 40.2 40th Anniversary with Simaudio mono blocks

I would like to report my findings on driving my pair of Harbeth 40.2 40th Anniversary speakers with Simaudio Moon 400M pair of mono blocks, 390 Moon pre-amplifier and 260D CD transport.

I have a decent size room 25 X 35’ but irregular in its shape - it a condo so portion of the roof is high and whole construction is open between my room, living room, kitchen, and stairs - volume wise it is close to 1350ft2.
It is important to mention that the whole place is very well damped with several double decorative carpets, many record and book shelve units, tables, and heavy curtains.
Speakers are 10’ apart and 12’ from the listening sofa. Front of each is 5’ from back wall. There is no wall behind the sofa.

I have initially tried several amps from 30 - 650W a channel and have to say that I truly do not understand why would anybody even think about running 40.2s (and other Harbeths) with low powered amplification. I do not listen to music loud - 85dB at my listening spot is the loudest I go.
I am actually amazed how those large monitors came to life with Moon 400M - the scale, dynamics and sound staging is unbelievable!!! How can it be that those large boxes, set not that far from back walls, throw such an enormous, deep staging and lifelike imaging? Listening to Anna Maria Jopek, Allison Krauss, Patricia Barber, Nina Simone, Shirley Horn, transformed me to the concert club - first row seats!
Amazing Jeff Hamilton Trio "Live"album - track number 8, "Yesterdays", will challenge your speakers, amplification and room’s acoustic. Listening to that track on 150W amp was like driving BMW 750i on lowest octane gas - There was no depth to the sound, most of the Hamilton’s drumming sounded like me with a little stick hitting plastic box.
When 400W(8Ohms) a channel with 80.000uF capacitnace a channel got connected, the difference was night and day - way far from subtle. The performance gave me a goosebumps.

I have seen several Harbeth owners being disappointed by the sound of their speakers while driving them with 30W amplification. Can Fiat 500 outperform Mercedes S560? Or can you buy that S560 to feed it with 87 Octane gas?
All I am saying - next time you will be at your Harbeth dealer - ask them to hook up powerful amplification. Take the step even further - compare the powerful amp (300-400W) to the 50W one at lower (80dB) level and hear the difference for yourself. You do not need to drive 200MPH, to appreciate the 470HP of S560....

I have tired many speakers and amplifiers in my room - Pass Labs, Dartzeel, Hegel, Ars Sonum, Accuphase, Luxman, Cary Audio, Leben, Shindo, Wilson, Dynaudio, Reference 3A, Merlin, Spendor, Kiis, ProAcs, DeVore, Raidho and what I have accomplished now is by far the most pleasurable experience from them all....

If you want to know specifics, just ask and I will try to do my best to answer.


arturgorniak
fjn04
1,561 posts
 
prof2- what amp was driving the O/96 when you heard them. My guess is the O/96 and 40.2 are closer in efficiency than specs might indicate. A cavernous room is what it is, and any speaker will need more current to fill a large space. 
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
7,650 posts
 
You're a lucky man. They are in the top three of the best speakers I have ever heard. They must be sublime with all of that power.
arturgorniak OP
80 posts
 
@prof 

I had Devore 0/96 in my smaller but dedicated room for 1.5 years. I have tried at least 20 different amplifiers starting from Shindo separates ending with Dartzeel LHC208 integrated. Luxman L509x proved to be the best match to my room and tastes. 
Judging from experience, 0/96s are nowhere close to their specified rating of 96dB....I would give them probably 89-90dB which still makes them for pretty efficient design.

After all that time spent with Monkeys, I have to say that I could never get imaging right - soundstage was wide but shallow and, even with $30k Shindo separates, scale was simply not there. Because of low (relative to the floor) tweeter placement, all vocals were really low positioned without any projection into the room. 

I am nut if it comes to the instruments and players positioning - I like speakers to throw large and holographic soundstage with depth and hight. Devore 0/96s were exactly opposite - anytime I played them, there was a large wall of sound hitting me with imaging being vague and smeared. 
If you like real live music in a small venue where you can feel drum on your chest - perhaps you should give the 0/96 a listen.

Another major issue that finally caused monkeys departure from my place was the quality of female vocals. They were very shouty and unpleasant (all of that using Auditorium A23, Audience 24SX, Cardas Clear Beyond speaker cables).

My summary - greatly overpriced BUT beautifully made boxes reserved for narrow market segment that values equipment locally made in US. 

Interestingly enough, I also had Super 9s for 7 months and I can honestly say that I enjoyed those MUCH more then 0/96s. But vocal shoutness disqualified them for me once again.


prof
3,435 posts
 
Thanks for the detail arturgorniak!

Very interesting.

I'm used to owning speakers that really disappear and image/soundstage well, so that was one of my concerns with the Devores.  I never could get depth with the smaller O/93s but for whatever reason the O/96s seemed to do it quite well.  Still, they are generally known for the "wall of sound" imaging.

I've been very interested to hear the Devore Super 9s as well!

When I was looking to see if I could replace my big Thiel 3.7s with a smaller speaker I bought the Harbeth SuperHL5plus and had them for a while.  I'm a huge fan of the Harbeth sound and loved the tone of the SuperHL5s.   But in the end, strangely I could not get the image depth from them that I every other speaker has been able to reproduce in my room.  And I found my Thiels superior overall (though the Harbeth squeaked by with magic for vocals!).

I'd heard the Monitor 4.2s a few times, store demos, and really liked them.  But the last time I heard them,  about a month ago,  there was a track playing - vocalist, muted trumpet, bass - that completely astonished me.  I don't know that I'd ever heard such a combination of 3D dimensional imaging WITH the corporeal, round sense of life-sized body, to the vocalist and the horn player!
arturgorniak OP
80 posts
 
@prof 

I heard 0/96s, 0/93s, Super 9s in 6 different rooms and system. The sound signature I described above maintained itself across. On the top of that, 96s sounded dark and recessed in my room while fatiguingly bright in my friend's live room....go figure :)

It is worth to mention that I have tried both HL5s Plus and 30.2s in exact same room I have 40.2 set-up - I could not get them to sound involving, no matter what I did. 
As a matter of fact, I almost gave up on Harbeth because of that. When my local friend and Harbeth dealer ordered pair of 40.2 Anniversaries, I borrowed them with intention of trying Harbeth one more - last time.
Magic swap me out of my feet!!!! I could not believe how good those puppies sounded !!!! How large and detailed images they were throwing into the room. (And the voice reproduction is simply unmatched by others) 
Like I said initially, I have tried MANY speakers in my room - some close to $40k...but nothing came close to my current 40.2 Anniversaries and I did not even mention the unbelievable Olive finish!!!!!

Keepers for sure!!!
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