Giving Harbeth a Shot (C7-ES3) in my Office System

JSQT

Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2018
Messages
174
Location
Salem VA
Although my main system has been sorted out now for many months, this lockdown situation has gotten me in my office for 6-8 hours per day, with my Naim Uniti Atom and Luxman MQ-88uSE/CL-40 combo.

A few weeks back, I lost a driver in my Monitor Audio Gold home theater speaker and had to bring my office Heresy IIIs into the theater to replace them. This meant I had to bring my Monitor Audio Studios into the office - a HUGE difference in most every way between the Studio and the Heresy IIIs (going to 4ohm impedance and 86dB sensitivity from 8 ohm/99dB Heresy IIIs).

With the JL e110 the Studios definitely have their strengths, especially with the Atom. I am listening to background music in my office while working, so piano, cello/strings, trumpets etc all sound really good with the Studios. However if I run the Atom into the Luxman tube amp, there is an impedance dip in the Studios that the Luxman doesn't like at all, and around 2-3kHz becomes VERY brittle.

The Studios also lack a certain timbre realism, at times sounding a little synthetic and above all they sound THIN when it comes to things like acoustic guitar, nylon guitar, percussion, drums, etc.

So I have got a demo pair of Harbeth C7 40th Anniversary heading my way along with a pair of 19" Sound Anchor stands.

I'm looking forward to hearing them in the system - everything I have read points to a good match with both the 25w Luxman (more like 30) and the 40w Atom. And since I am listening to the jazz and classical and acoustic singer/songwriter stuff in the office and leaving the Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, and Zeppelin to the main system (Uniti Nova/Volti Rivals) I am hoping this purchase locks down the office system once and for all.

Pretty excited but I have measured expectations - I've been down this road before! But all my research seems to point to this being a good move.
 
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