Harbeth C7ES-3 XD

Randy Myers

Randy Myers

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Joined
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I tried the P3ESR XD and I was very impressed. In my small room, with subs they were great. It made me immediately want a higher model :). I have to also be conscience of both room size and budget. With a lot of research, reviews, etc., etc., I came to the conclusion that the C7ES-3 XD will fit the sweat spot for me, without subwoofers for now.

The dealer had great close out prices for the XD model since the XD2 are supposed to be coming. It seems like this is a small upgrade, if that. The shipment that they are waiting for has been delayed and will probably have a huge increase in price being that they are coming from England. So it was worth getting the last pair that was in stock! They should be arriving in a couple of days.

I am excited to get these and believe they should be exactly what I have been looking for. The reviews are over the top, Paul Seymour, among several other, was floored by them.

I know some people recommend the 30.3 model, but at least as many prefer the C7, stating a fuller richer bottom end. Size considerations also favored the C7 for me. Also, according to Harbeth the C7's are Alan Shaw's personal design and his babies!
 
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Hi Randy - glad you found speakers you like.

Just FYI Harbeth has a new distributor of late (dumping their long time distributor who did a great job) and things are not going well in regards to that.

Just be sure your dealer will in fact be able to secure the product and service you should you need it.
 
The speakers were in stock and will be here in a couple of days. They are a large online retailer that I have dealt with many many times over many years, and are an authorized Harbeth dealer (when I registered the P3s they accepted them as the authorized reseller).

Unfortunately, in this day and age there are very few B&M stores to actually go and listen to gear. Amazing when a town as large as and growing as fast as the Wichita area is right now, and not a single place selling decent audio. There is closing in on a million people in this surrounding area. Everywhere you look construction is going on.
 
Randy Myers said:
The speakers were in stock and will be here in a couple of days. They are a large online retailer that I have dealt with many many times over many years, and are an authorized Harbeth dealer (when I registered the P3s they accepted them as the authorized reseller).

Unfortunately, in this day and age there are very few B&M stores to actually go and listen to gear. Amazing when a town as large as and growing as fast as the Wichita area is right now, and not a single place selling decent audio. There is closing in on a million people in this surrounding area. Everywhere you look construction is going on.
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I hope you enjoy them and please keep us updated how they are working out for you.
 
Michaels HiFi said:
I hope you enjoy them and please keep us updated how they are working out for you.
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I will. They should arrive later this week. I got everything all set to put them in place as soon as they arrive. I am very much looking forward to listening to them.
 
I have a quick question. I am asking for opinions. My McIntosh amplifier has 2 ohm, 4 ohm, and 8 ohm taps. The new Harbeth are 6 ohm. I know it probably makes no difference at all, but would it be better to use the 4 or 8 ohm connection? I have only used the 8 connectors since I have had this amplifier.

The speakers and stands are suppose to arrive later today! I have the room set to go. I have used my headphones the past few days waiting for the speaker upgrade to arrive. I am looking forward to listening to conventional speakers without the extra boxes for subwoofers. My room appreciates the less clutter :cool:.
 
Randy Myers said:
I have a quick question. I am asking for opinions. My McIntosh amplifier has 2 ohm, 4 ohm, and 8 ohm taps. The new Harbeth are 6 ohm. I know it probably makes no difference at all, but would it be better to use the 4 or 8 ohm connection? I have only used the 8 connectors since I have had this amplifier.

The speakers and stands are suppose to arrive later today! I have the room set to go. I have used my headphones the past few days waiting for the speaker upgrade to arrive. I am looking forward to listening to conventional speakers without the extra boxes for subwoofers. My room appreciates the less clutter :cool:.
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I've run into this several times and the answer I get from the manufactures both on the amp and speaker side is always the same: try them both and see which sounds better.

In my experience there is usually one that sounds fuller and one that sounds a bit thinner and anemic.
 
Michaels HiFi said:
I've run into this several times and the answer I get from the manufactures both on the amp and speaker side is always the same: try them both and see which sounds better.

In my experience there is usually one that sounds fuller and one that sounds a bit thinner and anemic.
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Thank you for the reply.
 
I listened for a bit last evening. The C7 fit my room well. I think anything bigger may very well have been too large. Harbeth call these Compact... but I have to say the box is actually a bit larger than I thought they would be. This is good for me since it shows I probably got the largest box that will comfortably fit my room.

The mids and highs, the sound stage, the smoothness are all to die for. The bottom end does not go as low as the subs did, but the bass they have is vey tight and very clean. Therefore bass is very solid and clean but does not rock the walls down. This is ok with me. I most prefer folk (Cat Stevens, CSN, David Elias, etc.), prog-rock (Pink Floyd, Yes, Gentle Giant, etc.) and jazz vocals (Holly Cole, Vanessa Fernandez, Patricia Barber, Lyn Stanley, etc.), although I do listen to a bit of everything.

I am still adjusting them and dialing them in a bit, but not too far from perfect placement. These speakers definitely show me why I am a huge fan of British speakers.
 
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Randy Myers said:
I listened for a bit last evening. The C7 fit my room well. I think anything bigger may very well have been too large. Harbeth call these Compact... but I have to say the box is actually a bit larger than I thought they would be. This is good for me since it shows I probably got the largest box that will comfortably fit my room.

The mids and highs, the sound stage, the smoothness are all to die for. The bottom end does not go as low as the subs did, but the bass they have is vey tight and very clean. Therefore bass is very solid and clean but does will not rock the walls down. This is ok with me. I most prefer folk (Cat Stevens, CSN, David Elias, etc.), prog-rock (Pink Floyd, Yes, Gentle Giant, etc.) and jazz vocals (Holly Cole, Vanessa Fernandez, Patricia Barber, Lyn Stanley, etc.), although I do listen to a bit of everything.

I am still adjusting them and dialing them in a bit, but not too far from perfect placement. These speakers definitely show me why I am a huge fan of British speakers.
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Share some pics with us!
 
Randy Myers said:
I listened for a bit last evening. The C7 fit my room well. I think anything bigger may very well have been too large. Harbeth call these Compact... but I have to say the box is actually a bit larger than I thought they would be. This is good for me since it shows I probably got the largest box that will comfortably fit my room.

The mids and highs, the sound stage, the smoothness are all to die for. The bottom end does not go as low as the subs did, but the bass they have is vey tight and very clean. Therefore bass is very solid and clean but does not rock the walls down. This is ok with me. I most prefer folk (Cat Stevens, CSN, David Elias, etc.), prog-rock (Pink Floyd, Yes, Gentle Giant, etc.) and jazz vocals (Holly Cole, Vanessa Fernandez, Patricia Barber, Lyn Stanley, etc.), although I do listen to a bit of everything.

I am still adjusting them and dialing them in a bit, but not too far from perfect placement. These speakers definitely show me why I am a huge fan of British speakers.
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Congrats on getting the C7s set up and working. I've owned a pair of limited edition 40th Anniversary 30.2s in Silver Eucalyptus for about six years now, so I'm well familiar with the classic Harbeth audio attributes you're referring to.

My Harbeth 40th Anniversary Limited Editions 30.2s are also for sale, so if anyone's interested, feel free to reach out, I'll sell them at a great price to another Harbeth fan.

Harbeths1.jpg


Apologies for the slight digression, and enjoy your new Harbeths.
 
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I continue to dial in the C7ES-3 XDs. Looking over Harbeth's included document lead me to move the speakers slightly closer and slight back. This does seem to have had a nice improvement in the bottom end. I am also sure that my ears are somewhat getting used to having a more conventional box type speakers versus the small speakers and subwoofer setup that I have had for a very long time.
 
Randy Myers said:
I continue to dial in the C7ES-3 XDs. Looking over Harbeth's included document lead me to move the speakers slightly closer and slight back. This does seem to have had a nice improvement in the bottom end. I am also sure that my ears are somewhat getting used to having a more conventional box type speakers versus the small speakers and subwoofer setup that I have had for a very long time.
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That's fairly consistent with optimal positioning guidlines. Most recommend having the speakers and the listener positioned in an close to an equilateral triangle, with the vertex of the triangle from the speakers to the listener converging slightly behind the listener's head. In my case, I have my Buchardts 6.5 feet apart and the vertex of the triangle from both speakers to behind me in the listening chair is 7 feet. My ears in the listening chair are 6.5 feet from each speakers. Hope that helps.

Here's a representative example, but I would recommend pulling the speakers further out from the front wall than shown here. This is because the sound wave from a speaker in the mids and lower ranges emanates as a spherical wave, and not a "beam", as it were, and as such, can reflect off the front wall. I had my Harbeths pulled about 3 feet out from the front wall.
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I think I have them dialed in pretty good at this point. I also believe that a couple of days for my ears to adjust to this type of speaker has helped. The bass is much better than I originally felt. Yes, they are a touch bigger than I thought they would be but they do fit the room. They are reminding me more and more of why I feel in love with British speakers in the first place. So open and so natural sounding. The imagining and instrument placement is as good as I have ever experienced. They represent the class very well. So far I am very pleased!
 
Randy Myers said:
I think I have them dialed in pretty good at this point. I also believe that a couple of days for my ears to adjust to this type of speaker has helped. The bass is much better than I originally felt. Yes, they are a touch bigger than I thought they would be but they do fit the room. They are reminding me more and more of why I feel in love with British speakers in the first place. So open and so natural sounding. The imagining and instrument placement is as good as I have ever experienced. They represent the class very well. So far I am very pleased!
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That's great you're loving them. Feeling like you've bought great new gear is a fantastic feeling.
 
Ok, photos of my little room. Just a couple quick snap shots.
 

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I did some tests and to my surprise I heard differences. I switched to the 4 ohm connections on the McIntosh amplifier. I did not expect to hear a difference. I was wrong. The difference was immediate and made a fairly large improvement, to my ears. Much fuller sounding, much more bottom end. I no longer felt that the bass was lacking after connecting to the 4 ohm taps. This was shocking to me.

The second big difference was removing the grills. I have always listened to my speakers with grills removed. With the Harbeth they sound smoother with better imaging with the grills on. This again is a surprise. I understand that Harbeth recommends listening with the grills on. The company voices the speakers with grills, but to actually hear the differences is a surprise since normally I have heard little difference. Without grills there is a bit of a brightness to the speakers. The grills not only smooth the speaker but also enhances the imagining.

Therefore I believe performing the tests were well worth doing. This along with dialing in placement has really brought these speakers to a whole other level! So far I am trilled with this upgrade.
 
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