Thread: Harbeth Super HL 5+ 40th Anniversary Edition (And XD) Speakers

Just tootin' my horn a little bit on what I consider one of the most underrated and best speakers I've heard. It's really pretty hard to beat. Especially in it's class. At least for my smallish room application (27' x 16'). For those who have a little too much speaker for their room, look no further. This speaker covers both small, medium, and large speaker territory so well. Very rich sounding with a smooth, sweet, top end. It has a big speaker soundstage, wide and deep. It's also a very honest speaker. It adds nothing you don't want and pretty much everything you do.

It seems the 30 and 40 series and the smaller Harbeths get the most love. But, if you're looking for a somewhat smaller speaker and you have a limited amount of room, this one is a no brainer. It won't overwhelm the room. Beautiful deep, tight, bass. Clean, crisp, pure, mids and beautiful, open, smooth (I know, I said that before) top end. Extremely well balanced speaker. And they break in so nicely.

If you're looking for a true audiophile class speaker that's somewhere in between a smaller and larger size, for your smaller to mid sized listening room, check this speaker out. I think you'll really enjoy it. Great speaker. I think sometimes in their search for a small to medium room speaker, customers skip from small to large speakers and end up overpowering the room. The Super HL 5+ 40th Anniversaries won't do that. BTW, it's outstanding for acoustic instrument recordings.

I did write a review of this speaker over a year ago but I thought it might be interesting to revisit the Super HL 5+ 40th Anniversary speaker after some time has passed just to see if my enthusiasm for this speaker has waned. It hasn't. No connection to Harbeth. Just an extremely satisfied customer.

Nice speakers, with overwhelmingly good reviews. Beautiful too. Being 62, I like their classic sound signature. I looked them hard, but due to my low power DIY FirstWatt amps, I had to look elsewhere.

I’m glad you, like many others, like them.

Duplicate

Originally Posted by bluegrassphile

Just tootin' my horn a little bit on what I consider one of the most underrated and best speakers I've heard. It's really pretty hard to beat. Especially in it's class. At least for my smallish room application (27' x 16'). For those who have a little too much speaker for their room, look no further. This speaker covers both small, medium, and large speaker territory so well. Very rich sounding with a smooth, sweet, top end. It has a big speaker soundstage, wide and deep. It's also a very honest speaker. It adds nothing you don't want and pretty much everything you do.

It seems the 30 and 40 series and the smaller Harbeths get the most love. But, if you're looking for a somewhat smaller speaker and you have a limited amount of room, this one is a no brainer. It won't overwhelm the room. Beautiful deep, tight, bass. Clean, crisp, pure, mids and beautiful, open, smooth (I know, I said that before) top end. Extremely well balanced speaker. And they break in so nicely.

If you're looking for a true audiophile class speaker that's somewhere in between a smaller and larger size, for your smaller to mid sized listening room, check this speaker out. I think you'll really enjoy it. Great speaker. I think sometimes in their search for a small to medium room speaker, customers skip from small to large speakers and end up overpowering the room. The Super HL 5+ 40th Anniversaries won't do that. BTW, it's outstanding for acoustic instrument recordings.

I did write a review of this speaker over a year ago but I thought it might be interesting to revisit the Super HL 5+ 40th Anniversary speaker after some time has passed just to see if my enthusiasm for this speaker has waned. It hasn't. No connection to Harbeth. Just an extremely satisfied customer.

I think I can agree with you


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27 x 16 is not a 'smallish room', it's fair to say most would be thrilled to have that size room, especially if you could make it dedicated !!

Originally Posted by Mikado463

27 x 16 is not a 'smallish room', it's fair to say most would be thrilled to have that size room, especially if you could make it dedicated !!

Hey Dave, yeah 27' x 16' isn't exactly small. That's why I tacked on the "ish." But my listening area in the room is about 1/2 the room. Half the room is family room, a TV with a 55" screen, wood burning stove, and my listening chair. The other 1/2 is recording and music studio. It may not be a truly small room but every bit of is filled with stuff. My listening area is an 8' equilateral triangle. So 1/2 of the room is behind my listening area...if that makes sense? Anyway, I feel like the Harbeth Super HL 5+ 40th Anniversary are about as close to perfect for such a room as you can get. But that's JMHO. And there is hardly a day goes by that my system doesn't slap a big old grin on my goofy looking puss. I love my system...thanks for the 100th time to Mike Bovaird.

Originally Posted by Paul

I think I can agree with you


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Paul, those are gorgeous. And I'll bet they sound every bit as good as they look. Tower speakers seem to really be in style now while the popularity of bookshelf style speakers has waned. Not a thing wrong with tower speakers. There are some odd looking ones out there. And there are some beauties in both sound and looks.

Some just don't care for "the box" style speaker. But it still remains that some of the finest sounding speakers made are still bookshelf style. It's all about preference. Some like butterscotch ice cream, some like vanilla. Me, I like chocolate. I still love a great sounding bookshelf style speaker. There are countless top notch brands. OTOH, it's been a while since I've heard a great tower speaker. Hmmm.....I think I need another trip to Suncoast Audio.

Since I am a British speaker fan I have always thought Harbeth would be an excellent choice. I have never actually heard them.

Originally Posted by bluegrassphile

Paul, those are gorgeous. And I'll bet they sound every bit as good as they look. Tower speakers seem to really be in style now while the popularity of bookshelf style speakers has waned. Not a thing wrong with tower speakers. There are some odd looking ones out there. And there are some beauties in both sound and looks.

Some just don't care for "the box" style speaker. But it still remains that some of the finest sounding speakers made are still bookshelf style. It's all about preference. Some like butterscotch ice cream, some like vanilla. Me, I like chocolate. I still love a great sounding bookshelf style speaker. There are countless top notch brands. OTOH, it's been a while since I've heard a great tower speaker. Hmmm.....I think I need another trip to Suncoast Audio.

The chocolate is good way to put Harbeth sounds. I owned 14 pairs of Harbeth pretty much every generations. ( currently owns the 4 pairs ) they have a soul which once you hear what they truly can play it’s hard to get away with. Non of speakers I ever heard have the Harbeth Mid range. Which I think is most important while I listen to music. You can listen to your heart instead of ears or eyes.

Must confess my Rogers LS3/5a 15 ohms have very similarity on mid range tho. I’m so glad I pushed Mike to carry them


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