Looking at the Harbeth range, some may well roll their eyes - scoffing at the folksy wooden box design as the product of pipe & slippers, tweed laden, nostalgic types. Presumably as they waft around in their full-placket polo shirts, low rise trousers and desert boots, sipping on oat milk lattes. But in that judgement, a real gem of Hi-Fi is discarded as the detritus of progress. The Harbeth’s artisanal crafted speaker hides the continued refinement over decades to tune what are truly refined classics.

The world moves at a pace - forever forward. The latest, newest CAD designed, user first experience, hyper-connected machined perfection. Alongside this is the ever growing counter-culture of vinyl sales, vintage revival, craft and the yearning for the past, its personalities, possibilities, and events, essentially the "good ol' days" - in a word… Nostalgia.

From the 17th to the 19th Centuries, this fondness of the past, longing for familiarity was considered a psychological disorder. Swiss physician Johannes Hofer coined the term in his 1688 medical dissertation, from the Greek nostos, or homecoming, and algos, or pain. So convinced of this, great medical research effort went into finding the pathological nostalgia bone and treatment.

A recent article in The Hi-Fi press titled "The ugly truth behind Hi-Fi's growing infatuation with nostalgia" took aim at the entire Hi-Fi industry "It’s as though the industry at large has decided that the best way to move forward is to look back". and that manufacturers should be creating new exciting sounding connected, Future-Fi products that wouldn't look out of place in Wallpaper magazine - creating products that become the new classics.

Myopic visions of nostalgia, miss the positive aspects of reflection. not merely looking back fondly or the past revival. To me, Nostalgia is an emotional experience always fleeting, always fragile and of having what you lost or never had, of hearing what you missed hearing. It’s the feeling that overcomes you when some minor vanished beauty of the world is momentarily restored by our senses; re-igniting cornerstone memories that make us who we are. Summoned by the music which moves us, it's powerful and restorative.

Harbeth was founded by H.D Harewood, who cut his teeth at the sharp end of the BBC's loudspeaker Research department in the 60s and 70s that resulted in the iconic LS3/54, LS3/6 and three-way LS5/5 designs. That research, amongst other studies, identified that speaker cone materials were paramount in defining the sonic properties. Today, the mid range drivers are injection-moulded and use the second generation of a special formulation of polypropylene ‘RADIAL’, which stands for ‘Research And Development In Advanced Loudspeakers’. The whole process of design, manufacturing, assembly & testing is carried out at Harbeth’s Lindfield production facility helmed , for the last 34 years, by Alan Shaw . Indeed Shaw is personally and solely responsible for product design and “voicing” all Harbeth loudspeakers with the true craftsman approach of art and science.

The Line Up

Only five models make up the entire Harbeth range - P3ESR XD, C7ES-3 XD, M30.2 XD, SHL5plus XD and the M40.3 XD. They are masterminded by a single designer and the model selection is based on the optimum Harbeth for your system, room size and power handling. The cabinets are handmade and feature the finest veneers. All are rated at 6 Ohm and are easy to drive with two 4mm binding posts. As I write this, we currently have the P3ESR XD, C7ES-3 XD & SHL5plus XD in store and available for audition.

Setup & How they sound

For this experience we partnered the speakers as follows; The baby Harbeth P3ESR XD were driven by the Rega Elex-R and Bluesound Node running Qobuz for a source and then with the Naim Uniti Nova.

Standing at 30cm high, this iteration of the BBC mini-monitor perform really well in our 3m x 4m audition room. Great agility, dynamics and whilst the lower frequency registers are not going to rattle the windows, the roll off, mid range performance and bass accuracy means they never feel lacking, there is a certain feel that they reach lower than the 75Hz specification. The closed cabinet design makes the P3ESR XD extremely flexible in terms of placement, excelling at mid range and upper mids. Great vocal presentation and a treble delicacy.

For the Harbeth C7ES-3 XD, again the Naim Uniti Nova and then with the new Rega Elicit Mk5 and Bluesound Node. This was the optimum speaker for our audition room and any medium sized room. The Naim/Harbeth is an extraordinary combination. Great timing, clarity and openness in spades. The Harbeth secret for accuracy and lifelike sound is the meticulous attention to detail during the design stage. Critically important, but hidden, is the crossover, which carefully integrates the drive units across a wider horizontal and vertical arc. Incremental changes to this fundamental component have allowed this legendary loudspeaker to present the most challenging instruments with increased presence and transparency.

Finally, the Harbeth SHL5plus XD using the ATC CA2 preamp and ATC P2 power amp with the Linn Selekt DSM streamer. The 200mm Harbeth RADIAL2™ bass/mid and 25mm ferrofluid-cooled tweeter of the CE7 are now accompanied by a 20mm dome SuperTweeter to make this a 3-way vented design. This SuperTweeter never seems to make an obvious appearance, but gives more treble detail and texture. This worked best in our larger demo room - 7.5 x 5m x 3m high ceilings - commanding the space with an astounding wide and deep sound stage.

Conclusion

Classics are classics for good reason. Harbeth have withstood the march of time and if a design works, it is better to innovate and iterate to achieve greater perfection.

Overall, across the range the Harbeth speakers are an exhilarating listen. Their natural tone, clarity transparency, depth and imaging are captivating across all music genres. Book an audition to experience this for yourselves.

But why take out word for it? Come and have a listen for yourselves.

Thanks for reading - Max, James, Justin - Audio T Bristol

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