I haven't been this excited in a while!

@arafiq 

Well, I sent you a PM to continue our conversation from a year ago and just the mention of past speakers that were for sale and trying other speakers made the Audiogon police sniff a possibility of losing out on some fees and now I have to have a payment method to continue the conversation there.  This community is so solid and trustworthy and it is very disheartening to be treated like mischievous children.....ugh.  

I see you also had a negative experience with the Maggies.  I don't criticize Magnepan as I know many love the sound they produce, I just think that very few of us have the right room to allow them to produce this sound.  I have never experienced a speaker that was so sensitive to placement.  The sound change was remarkable as I moved them around in my asymmetrical music room but never sounded right.  When I moved them out to wait on a buyer, I set them up in my dining room for a little while as it is a symmetrical room.  They were still not in an ideal position but with much lesser electronics, sounded pretty good.  Audio Research has used them to develop their gear for many years, along with Wilson Audio and Sonus Faber.  I hope to find a dealer some day that has some properly set up to fully appreciate what they can do.

I have had the Harbeth set up since Thursday afternoon.  I have not given their placement much attention, I simply put them where the Sophias were and adjusted the toe-in to try and focus the voices in the center.  My space does not allow much movement as I cannot move my seat and the speakers have only about 5-10 inches of space around them.  I will go to Lowes and pick up an 8-pack of furniture sliders tomorrow to experiment with what area I have.  

The bass is big and punchy!  These M40.1s will rock when asked to.  On some albums they sound a bit bloated and heavy in the bass, I want to call this mid bass but of course I am not certain what frequencies are creating this.  It would be interesting to have a graph of the sound in my room like we see in pro reviews.

It is very obvious how I have lost the detail which the Sophias gave.  The voices and instruments are not as focused...everything is kind of smeared in the soundstage.  With the Sophias, on a really good recording the vocals were so realistic and made you feel like the artist was there.  I didn’t take note of the albums but there are some which the Harbeth also are super impressive in how musical and realistic they sound.  

I feel that I am still early in the adjustment phase of not only setting up the speakers but also my ears and brain getting used to the sound.  

I know that with the other Wilson speakers, it was an immediate NO.  They were bright/hot in my room and there was no denying this, it was annoying and no amount of positioning had any effect on this sound.

The Harbeth are different and very enjoyable, just too early to know if they are the overall sound I want to stick with.  

I updated my virtual system showing them. They are quite handsome speakers in my home with the wood floors and trim.

dhite71

An Audiophile after my own heart. Next time I visit Memphis, we will have a meet-and-greet. You certainly had the best supporting cast (ARC and Transparent) around Wilson Audio loudspeakers. 

Happy Listening!

Congrats on making your trip and getting your speakers. Your reaction sounds about right... grossly comparing before careful placement. It'll be interesting to hear your comments after you get your sliders. 

On the subject of PMs. I think Audiogon instituted a requirement of having a credit card on file to reply to PMs about a year ago. While I am not sure... I'm guessing that this requirement helps prevent folks or even AI from setting up multiple accounts. I would think it is security related. The on line environment is changing rapidly, especially with AI. 

Happy Friday

I have had the Harbeth about 2 weeks now.  They are still very engaging and really impress me.  One really interesting factor that I have discovered is how they present my vinyl compared to streaming.  I have not invested as much in my streaming gear as my vinyl.  This is because I have not been able to appreciate the SQ difference going from a modest streamer to a high end model.  I have another thread on this so won’t go into detail on that, just that while I don’t have as much money invested across my digital front end compared to my analog, it sounds great.  In my experience, buying newly produced music on vinyl offers no SQ advantage over digital.  For example, Van Morrison’s latest album sounds exactly the same on both sources.  Where my vinyl does shine is on older music and some audiophile releases.  Back to the Harbeth, now digital sounds better than vinyl whether it is old or new vinyl.  The warmth that vinyl offers combined with the Harbeth sound(in my room)is too much and the midbass is bloated.  I did try moving everything out from the front wall about 2.5 feet(speakers and my seat).  This improved the sound and helped with the midbass bloat, but unfortunately is not realistic for my space.  I am not ready to abandon vinyl, but IF I was, these Harbeth would make that a much easier transition.  I have not moved my Wilsons back to see how I react to their sound and will likely do that this weekend.