 Description of the company on the Internet page begins as follows: )
You cannot hear such statements every day, especially, when it is about a company, which should be the avant-garde of technological revolution. Because this is what audio is about – taking from the best, the newest, to create the nirvana during listening to music. At least I think so. However Harbeth Audio Ltd. is a different company. Founded in 1977 by the former head of research of BBC, Dudley Harwood, got its name from his surname – ‘HARwood’ and his wife’s given name ‘elizaBETH’. Harwood was one of most known engineers, the animator of the British scene since the 50-ties. But this story starts before the company was founded, in the early 70-ties, when Dudley was still employed at BBC. One of the most important needs was to design a small near field monitor, that could be used for mobile transmission studios. This is how the model LS3/5a was created (the review of its version presented by KEF HERE), the best selling and longest produced model in all loudspeaker history. )
It is also important, that at this occasion, the career of membranes made from plastic – the two engineers responsible for that were Dudley Harwood, who designed polypropylene diaphragms, and Spencer Hughes, the founder of Spendor, “father” of the Bextrene diaphragms (test of the Spendor A6 HERE). The Harwood couple developed the company, proposing splendid products, but they never succeeded to surpass the first stage and convert it to a bigger business. This is why in 1987 Alan Shaw bought it, nota bene the first European working in the Japanese NEC, he had everything in hand he needed to become successful - a fantastic product, passion and knowledge not only of electro-acoustic, but also business. Harbeth blossomed and became one of the most important players in Japan and Far East. The first Harbeth product was the HL Monitor, known as MK1, the first product in the world with a polypropylene diaphragm. The model Super HL5, we will test here, is its direct successor. Its 6th generation, keeps the classic BBC proportions and volume (‘two cubic feet’), that characterized for example the model LS3/6 BBC. It uses a proprietary 200mm woofer with a RADIAL diaphragm, SEAS metal dome tweeter, and a super-tweeter with a membrane from titanium. The enclosure, typical for this manufacturer, is a homage to the mentioned LS3/6 BBC, is made from thin walls, with little damping and bolted front and back panels. This is quite the opposite of most modern companies do, thinking of a maximally rigid, ideally damped enclosures. This all combines into a sound, which is so different from the ‘mainstream’, and so uncommon, that it gathers true ‘believers’, true followers, or even fanatics. )
Discs used for listening sessions: SOUND )
Listening to the Harbeth, it is hard not to think, that many modern loudspeakers lack something, that somewhere on the way, striving to maximum resolution, wide frequency response, etc, they forgot about the basic characteristic of audio devices in general, not only loudspeakers: communicativeness. Not that I would praise backwardness – no, not that: I am sure many companies are going the right way, trying to reproduce that what is found on the disc (vinyl, silver or hard) in a possibly truthful way. Still listening to loudspeakers like the Super HL5 shows, that we cannot forget, that finally audio is something meant for enjoyment, something to bring the joy of music, and not only stress related to finding flaws in the music carrier, equipment, hearing and the universe. Those are important things, maybe not on their own, but as markers, pointing towards exceptional resolution, timbre, etc. But they cannot stay alone, as everything loses sense that way. Something has to accompany those things, some added value. And the tested Harbeth are fully loaded with that added value, something that makes us forget about the mechanical essence of what we hear. )
In that context I think, that it is most important to show the mechanism, in which this kind of reproduction is being made. And in this an important role is played by elements, that differ from transparent loudspeakers like my Dobermann Harpia Acoustics, Wilson Audio Duette, etc. I think, that those British loudspeakers have an only average resolution and space also not exceeding other constructions. But I want to underline, that those are elements, which are an integral part of that reproduction, and not something I would like to bash. I was thinking for a long time, what is the phenomenon of the Harbeth – why I enjoyed listening so much, why so many people would go through hell claiming, that this is the best sound in the world. )
Frankly speaking, this was a really splendidly saturated, active bass. And it reached incredibly low, for the given volume. But it was not always that way. With jazz, well recorded jazz, like with the direct-to-vinyl recorded The Bassface Swing Trio The Bassface Swing Trio Plays Gershwin it was clear, that those are smaller loudspeakers than floorstanders. The contrabass was a bit drier, and its reverb shorted than with the Dobermann. Maybe this is influenced by the tuning of the speaker/enclosure/bass-reflex system, but with that kind of music bas is less saturated than in my reference system. This is not true when comparing to other stand mount speakers, because then Harbeth shows what bass is. But with electronic music the loudspeakers behaved completely differently. Yes! Lovers of that music genre should listen to the HL5 with some good electronics. Incredibly clean – this is one of the characteristics of those loudspeakers – and incredibly dynamic sounded the recordings from the disc Tour The France Kraftwerk. Here, with the piece Elektro Kardiogram, where incredibly dynamic and low bass is recorded, the woofer was touching the grille, so I needed to take it off. And although the company makes the measurements with the grille on, and recommends listening that way, but after some time, I was tempted to say, that it is better to take those off. For once, bass on some discs, especially vinyl, is so dynamic and strong, that the material of the grille moves, and secondly, taking it off opens the upper frequency range. And this is important here. )
Like I mentioned, the upper part of the spectrum is slightly withdrawn. This is not valid for the part responsible for the hard attack of the midrange. This part is quite strong in the Harbeth and we should search for electronics wisely (Simaudio Moon, Audiomatus, Audiolab), as the discs can sound shrill at times. But only when a sound engineer messed up, like on the otherwise brilliant disc Briefly Shaking Anji Garbarek. It showed splendid bass stretching, a very clean midrange and extremely well captured definition of the musical event as a whole (I still mean the same, the ability to play ‘aside’ to the sound, to play music). The Garbarek disc was issued as Copy Controlled Disc, with the Cactus logo, which makes me sick, a company, which is responsible for this kind of protection, audible as sanding of the treble and hardening of the midrange. The loudspeakers cannot handle this as well as some ultra-precise constructions, which can extract something extra from that disc. And sometimes a part of the midrange from the Depeche Mode disc Sounds Of The Universe – and this from the vinyl as well as the Japanese CD version – but it was not a dominating experience. Dominating was the impression, that everything was in its place, that the music is just playing. I had somewhat mixed feelings with jazz discs and with recordings from the 60-ties and 70-ties, like The Beatles. As you probably know, in a short while, September 9th this year, the Japanese plan to issue the complete discography of that band – mono and stereo versions aside, re-mastered in the digital domain for the first time. You can find information about that on the CD Japan pages, (HERE). Before this happens, I wanted to refresh the edition I own, the Toshiba-EMI re-edition from the year 2000. I started with my favorite disc Rubber Soul. The Harbeth played it in an incredibly committed, full and deep way, although at times it was clear, that they cannot differentiate the vocalists with such ease, or create such a deep stage as my system. But those are the items I already mentioned. Still I was listening, changing tracks, then discs, inhaling the coherent and strong sound with pleasure. )
And this is the way those discs should be ‘read’. Those are incredibly communicative, I mean they show music as it should be shown, in a coherent, full way. They are not especially resolving, and its sound stage is not very expanded. Due to a splendid microdynamic and very good reproduction of the size of the instruments we do get an incredibly intensive, involving emission. Yes, those are loudspeakers, which sound is based on the midrange, but where it is not underlined. Bass is fantastic, it shows, that British sound does not mean speakers with cut-off extremes of the sound spectrum. Maybe treble could be stronger, but this is not something I would cry about. We should also take care of the stands, the better they will be, the better will the loudspeakers sound. Harbeth does not offer any, according to the distributor, so you will have to search elsewhere. I know, that the Polish Stand ART makes some on request, those are massive, “closed” designs. Also the company Rogoz Audio offers stands for such kind of speakers. The British “Hi-Fi Choice” talks about Kudos 100 stands in the October 2002 review of the speakers, and in the Harbeth user manual we can see other, open frame constructions. The Japanese do it differently – the use open stands, but wooden, resembling a stool. Anyway, it is important for them to have the right height – somewhere between 35-40cm. I think, that the Super HL5 performed best, when the tweeter was a bit, but only a small bit, above the ears. Then it will be beautiful. DESCRIPTION )
Harbeth Super HL5 is a stand mount speaker (nominally). It is a three way, bas-reflex construction. This sounds similar to a large amount of loudspeakers we tested, but a single glance is enough to tell, that we deal with something different here. This is a very big box – simply – and completely out of dimensions, for modern times. I mentioned in the beginning, that it uses the volume adopted by BBC as a “golden middle”, two cubic feet and that its dimensions are homage to the first monitor made by that company. Both information are not fully true, because the dimensions, 322 x 638 x 300mm for the Super HL5, are a bit off the ‘classic’ 300 x 600 x 300mm of the BC-1. Not by much, but still. The loudspeakers require special, low stands, because they are very tall. Despite this, they are very attractive. And maybe they are intriguing due to their visible conservativeness – I don’t know. Anyway, they are extremely intriguing. This impression is amplified by a nice, natural veneer on the very thin MDF enclosure walls. The loudspeakers are paired in a way, that their frequency response matches in the field of +/- 3dB. We do also get a very well written, comprehensive user manual. It is a pity, that it comes only in English. )
Super HL5 are three-way speakers. On the front baffle we have three drivers: on top a 20mm titanium super tweeter, with a neodymium magnet, which starts working from 10kHz, so still in well audible frequency range, below that a 25mm SEAS tweeter, an aluminum driver similar to the one I have in the Dobermann. The lowest space is occupied by a 200mm mid-woofer made from a plastic called RADIAL. Its middle is occupied by a dust cup shaped like a phase corrector. The spider is very solid – cast. The front baffle is tightened with screws, as is the back plate. Below the woofer we have a bass-reflex port. According to “Hi-Fi Choice” it was tuned to 35Hz, so much lower than the resonance frequency, which is 55Hz. On the back we have double wire terminals, screwed directly into the back plate. Those are not especially worked out. The cross-over is mounted on a single PCB. We find there many core coils, foil capacitors and mass resistors. The cables connecting the PCB with the drivers are not very thick. The grilles are spanned on a metal frame inserted into a notch on the sides of the front baffle. The speakers have a higher efficiency from the Dobermann, what means, that the stated value of 86dB is lower than in reality, but are not very easy to drive. And I would not place them too close to the walls, as the nasality of the vocals gets underlined, as well as the whole sound gets heavier. And they do not need that. Harbeth talks about 75cm distance, but I think 1m is still on the low side.
CDs FROM JAPAN  |
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