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Moving up the Harbeth line

I was fortunate to move my home office to another room which is a bit bigger than the previous one. Dimensions are 12x13 with almost 20-foot ceilings. As much as I love my Harbeth P3esr's, I can't help but notice that they've been outclassed by the bigger room, especially the high ceiling. This pair of speakers has been a mainstay in my home office/study for a number of years, and I find it to be a perfect fit for my listening habits and music preferences. But in the new setting, it's not able to fill the room as well as it used to. For examples, horns and piano now sound much smaller and distant. So that got me thinking of an upgrade. I have been using a Raven Audio Blackhawk MK3 for a few months and would want to stick with it if possible. There are very few speakers that have allowed me to make an emotional connection with the music, and Harbeth is certainly one of them. So my preference is to stay with the brand.

Now, before the 'search bar is your best friend' folks come swinging at me, I have read a few threads on similar topics but they all seem to be inconclusive, or at least I'm not able to decipher a reasonable consensus. Having spent way too much money on this addiction, err, hobby, in the last 12 months, I have to resort to buying used equipment only, and that too has to wait for at least 2-3 months. So, doing an in-house demo is going to be difficult if not impossible. And, AFAIK, there are no dealers nearby (Dallas area) either.

I would love to hear from people who have moved up the Harbeth food chain. The M30.x seems to be a logical next step, but I see an equal number of negative opinions (too polite, too boxy, pipe and slippers) as positive ones. Is there anyone who thinks that the M30 retains the same magic as the P3esr's but serves it in relatively bigger portions? Because that's what I'm mainly looking for to be honest -- a bigger version of P3esr. Or do you think the cons negate the pros offered by the bigger cabinet size?

Next up is SHL5+. Again, the opinions vary widely. Some are saying that this particular model deviates the most from the classic Harbeth sound. Another concern is that my room might be too small for them (?). Also, I cannot pull them more than one and a half feet from the front wall. Is that going to result in ugly bass problems?

I'm not against trying another brand, but would prefer an opinion that is based on an actual comparison with Harbeth speakers.
128x128arafiq
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arafiq OP
1,592 posts
 
Appreciate the responses. So I measured the distance again, and I was a bit off. I sit almost 9 feet away from the speakers, not that it makes that big of a difference. So the previous room was not that much smaller at 10x13 but had 10 foot ceilings. I suspect the high ceilings in the study are contributing to some of the problems I mentioned.

I have a REL T/Zero in another room where it's hooked up to a sound bar. I will try it out this weekend. I called Raven Audio and they say that in order to benefit from the subwoofer crossover function, I cannot use REL's preferred method of using the Speakon connector/speaker binding posts. I have to use the specific sub out connections on the amp. I will give it a shot first, and then think about moving up to a bigger Rel like T5, but only if needed.

@yogiboy I think you might be right. Even if I were to buy a HL5+ or M30, I would keep the P3esr's until and unless I'm 100% sure that the upgrade is worth it. Otherwise, it's quite easy to resell used Harbeth speakers without incurring much of a loss.
arafiq's avatar
arafiq OP
1,592 posts
 
@mspot -- you might be right about the power specs on the Blackhawk. But from now having owned it for a few months, I can tell you that this unit goes just as loud, with appropriate dynamics, as my previous Cronus Magnum II which was rated at 100 watts/channel. But I've also read that Harbeth seems to favor solid state more than valve. So that is a possibility that I might explore eventually.

Having said that, looking for tube friendly, high efficiency speakers is not out of the running. My concerns are twofold though -- I've never warmed up to a few high efficiency speakers I have listened to, namely various Klipsch Heritage models and Devore O/96. Second, I fear that I won't be able to experience the Harbeth sound, which to me is something very special.
arafiq's avatar
arafiq OP
1,592 posts
 
Also @whipsaw and @big_greg -- both the M30 and SHL5+ remain very high on my wish list. I need to decide which one will be a better fit for my listening room. I feel that M30 is probably going to be in the sweet spot that I'm looking for, i.e. retain the same characteristics of P3 but offer a bigger scale, and just the right size for the room.

@big_greg -- how far are your SHL5 speakers from the front wall? As I mentioned, I can only place the speakers up to one and a half feet from the front wall.
zm
119 posts
 
I ran the SHL5+ for a few years relatively close to the front wall (probably 1.5 feet, as you're considering doing), and I consistently had bass issues I was never quite able to solve.  I'm not keen on over-generalization from a single case study, but I do suspect they in most applications they need a considerable amount of distance from the front wall to perform their best and avoid these kinds of problems.  I had thought this would not be an issue because of the front porting, but in my case I was wrong about that.

In your case, I would definitely be leaning towards the M30 if you don't stick with the P3ESR.

big_greg
6,554 posts
 
I had my SHL5s about 2 feet from the wall. They definitely sound better when pulled further out into the room, but they sounded great there. 
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