Harbeth and shindo amplifiers : Don't do it !!

Jerome W

Jerome W

Active member
Joined
Apr 5, 2013
Messages
1,289
Location
Near Paris, France
Hello folks,

To my great surprise, I realize that some of my posts may have a bad effect towards some readers and I have to apologize for this. I have received some messages from members interested in the combo and wanting to try Harbeth speakers and Shindo.
I am NOT an audio expert, neither do I have golden ears.
My writings reflect only my personal opinion and exerience.

I do not advise anyone to try to pair Harbeth speakers and Shindo amplifiers as I did at home.

Jonathan Halpern, the US Shindo importer consider this matching to be far from optimal if not very poor. Other members share this view. Jonathan is one of the best Shindo expert in the world and his views are much more relevant than mine.
2 friends of mine listened to my Harbeth speakers with the Shindo amps and they preferred clearly the little MC225 driving them.

I still do prefer clearly the Shindo CCQs with my Harbeth and have no will to change anything.
I discovered a very poor synergy while using the EMT XSD15 cart ( an «*invasive*» bass ).
I discovered that the sound improved by reducing the gain on my power amps and using the preamp at a higher volume. And the biggest improvement came when I realized that the sound came really to life after one hour of warm up of the amplifiers ( they never showed that with all my other speakers... ). I also changed the position of the speakers in the room.
Although I could not be more happy than with this set up now, this is just about my ears, my musical tastes, the synergy with all the other components of my system and my room.

All over, it is very clear that getting a great sound from this set up took a lot of time and efforts.
Please, do not follow my path.

PLEASE, do NOT buy blindly Harbeth speakers if you intend to use them with Shindo amplifiers.
The risk of being disappointed by doing this is very high*!
 
Thank you Jerome for the information. I think whatever makes us happy it what's important. Some rules were made to be broken. You'll never know if something sounds good or bad to you until you try it. One thing that I've realized, don't dismiss a certain combo until you've heard it. We all like different things.
 
Jerome - once again, we are forgetting the most important part of any system - THE ROOM! Who's to say the combo works or doesn't work in YOUR ROOM?

Mike
 
Shindo is pretty warm, laid back sound. Probably too much of a good thing and the tonality doesn't work.

Then again, Harbeth's American competitor is probably Devore among several others.
 
in other words, if I wanted Shindo, I'd just get Devore.

I had both the Haut Brion and Montille in my listening room and didn't find them a perfect match for Zu- the Montille was ironically better on my speakers. I felt I needed more energy/shove with both. The F2 monos are the ones I would love to try some day.
 
I don't get the point of this post. Why do you keep rehashing this topic? Sounds to me like you are trying to start a shit storm. This thread seems like a troll thread to me. Jonathan has given me loads of great advice over the years. Why start posts like this...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Chris,

I just think Jerome is saying that there is no harm in trying a certain gear combo even though someone else says not to do it. No harm, no foul. It all comes down to trying, listening and if you like it, go with it. That's all.
 
joeinid said:
Chris,

I just think Jerome is saying that there is no harm in trying a certain gear combo even though someone else says not to do it. No harm, no foul. It all comes down to trying, listening and if you like it, go with it. That's all.
Click to expand...

I get it but he keeps saying over and over. It is like he is trying to slam Jonathan in a back handed maner.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Jerome come on man!......I understand what your saying ,but your re-hashing this over and over on every Audio Forum your a member of lol ......
 
Joe and Chris : sorry guys, you are both wrong.
What I am saying in this post is just :
If you own Harbeth speakers, DO NOT buy a Shindo amp for them because it seems that to many people, this combo does not sound good and this is logical for J. Halpern because of a strong electronic mismatch.
DO NOT RELY on my opinion and experience.

The reason why I posted this, is because since I own my Harbeth, I posted a few times how wonderful are those speakers with my Shindo amps and even had an opened controversy with Jonathan.

I received messages from friends telling me that they are thinking of Shindo with Harbeth so I just wanted to warn them.

It took more time to me than with my other speakers to find the perfect set up in my room than with other amps. And even now, probably that some friends would not like the sound I get from the Harbeths with my Shindo amps. And maybe that as Jonathan states, my amps will suffer and experience problems from this mismatch.

So I just wanted to say :
DO NOT BUY BLINDLY SHINDO AMPS TO PAIR THEM WITH HARBETH.
Do not take the same risks as I did. There are "millions" of amps able to drive correctly Harbeth speakers. If you want a Shindo component with them, buy a preamp.
Listen to the pros. Not to me. My "reviews" are only the expression of a personal opinion, not meant to be universal.




Envoyé de mon iPhone à l'aide de Tapatalk
 
Cucumber_jones said:
I get it but he keeps saying over and over. It is like he is trying to slam Jonathan in a back handed maner.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

You and the other " Shindo guys " from the other site really see "Evil everywhere".
I am speechless.
I just posted a thread to say " ok I thought about all this. I may have a very bad influence on many friends who maybe will be very disappointed by buying a Shindo amp for their Harbeth speakers. So I have to warn them now. Listen to Jonathan, not to me. He is the expert and I am nothing". And you find the way to say that I am attacking him !!!!!

Poor guys.


Envoyé de mon iPhone à l'aide de Tapatalk
 
This whole thread seems silly to me with undertones of something else. Every match & synergy concern, as far as gear & speakers is always buyer beware, we learn this from around the age of 3 & up where we are accountable for our own actions, which i might add, includes stereo gear. To start a thread such as this will only become one thing, "a shit-fight". For me the very reason I come here to Audioshark is the ego's are checked at the door & we don't do "drag em out rootin tootin". Just a thought...... ;)
 
Oh....boy...Why I recommend the Harbeth to Jerome from beginning ? :P Enjoy many years to come with that combo Jerome.

I would love to hear your system in person.
 
Maybe you do "express yourself in a poor way". Did you grow up speaking French as a first language. Perhaps that is why I read the intent of your writing the wrong way.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
I tried out Harbeth 30.1 with 2a3 PP and 300b SE and found they needed much much more power
I tried out el84 PP , el34 PP, KT88 and preferred the el84pp, but still not enough power
I later tried the Harbeth's with Goldmund Mimesis 18 mono's sounded much better and later with Goldmund SR Evo mono's

I am ordering a Job 225 and Job P2 preamp
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top