Opinions? Revel Studio2 vs Harbeth 40.2?

joeinid

joeinid

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I have a pair of Studio2 and absolutely love them.

I had Harbeth 40.1 many moons ago and really liked them, but when I compared them to my Strads, the Strads won. They should for the retail price difference but the Harbeth did have some wonderful qualities.

Now that the 40.2 have been out for a while, can anyone offer opinion as to their sound, maybe compared to the 40.1 as well. Just curious what the Harbeth fans think of the newer 40.2 series.
 
I wish I could have brought the 40.2 in for a demo pair, but it just wasn't in the cards this time. I've become more and more infatuated with it as time passes.
 
joeinid said:
I have a pair of Studio2 and absolutely love them.

I had Harbeth 40.1 many moons ago and really liked them, but when I compared them to my Strads, the Strads won. They should for the retail price difference but the Harbeth did have some wonderful qualities.

Now that the 40.2 have been out for a while, can anyone offer opinion as to their sound, maybe compared to the 40.1 as well. Just curious what the Harbeth fans think of the newer 40.2 series.
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I can’t help on the comparisons you asked for but I do have several other brands of speakers. We recently acquired the Harbeth 40.2. They have been burning-in the reference room for about a week now. Every once in awhile I will walk by the room where the music is playing. And I will be compelled to go in and have a 5 minute listen. The music that they produce is just that “compelling” in a musically seductive way. Not the most detailed speaker I have heard but everything just seems “right”. and you just want to keep listening to more music.

I asked the the wife to come in and have a listen. She has heard many many speakers mind you. She said, that they looked a bit homely. I can see that. But after listening she said, can we take these home. She has never said that before.

Hope this helps. Oh, I like them - a lot.
 
YES!

Great testimonial. Thank you.

CGabriel said:
I can’t help on the comparisons you asked for but I do have several other brands of speakers. We recently acquired the Harbeth 40.2. They have been burning-in the reference room for about a week now. Every once in awhile I will walk by the room where the music is playing. And I will be compelled to go in and have a 5 minute listen. The music that they produce is just that “compelling” in a musically seductive way. Not the most detailed speaker I have heard but everything just seems “right”. and you just want to keep listening to more music.

I asked the the wife to come in and have a listen. She has heard many many speakers mind you. She said, that they looked a bit homely. I can see that. But after listening she said, can we take these home. She has never said that before.

Hope this helps. Oh, I like them - a lot.
Click to expand...
 
Great testimonial from Caelin, with that being said My Studio II's replaced 3 1/2 decades of planars / stats. While I love the new Logan 13a's I have no 'immediate' plan to go back. For me and at their price point (15k msrp) I've yet to hear an equal to the Studio II's.
 
Absolutely agree how amazing the Revels sound.

:audiophile:

Mikado463 said:
Great testimonial from Caelin, with that being said My Studio II's replaced 3 1/2 decades of planars / stats. While I love the new Logan 13a's I have no 'immediate' plan to go back. For me and at their price point (15k msrp) I've yet to hear an equal to the Studio II's.
Click to expand...
 
having heard proac d30r twice in 2 rooms , proac d20r , spendors sp200r , sp100r , and harbeth shl5 in the past 3 weeks , the one that shines to me is the harbeth . i have a number of friends who rave about the revel too .

i think the harbs are good value and there is a huge amount of love for them and they sound awesome . i am not convinced to pay the premium on a anniversary pair though .

would love to hear the 40.2 though but not yet

https://youtu.be/HbYP18-Rl1I
 
Ha! I’m in.

I can’t see giving anything up, no matter what looks attractive. Having kept the stands from the 40.1 does give the 40.2 a leg up, so to speak :)

I have a feeling the Triodes and the 40.2 could be “the combination” to beat. Oh man. I need to stop thinking.
 
Mike said:
Post your pic of your stable of speakers Paul.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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As requested, this Pro Audio Bono Stands/Isolator foot and Stillpoints Ultra SS makes whole different Harbeth for me. the Bass sounds just amazing. One of the best bass I ever heard.

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ah thanks for that , they look great . i am going to make some stands . please don`t laugh but they will be chopping boards top and bottom with wooden legs and will look similar to the skylan stands and very little cost . maybe 80 pounds total . you can buy stands for hundreds

then i am testing some iso pucks at the moment which have really improved the imaging . however they might just struggle with the 40.2 as i think the total weight is 9kg per puck which would be 2kg less than weight of 40.2

https://www.soundonsound.com/news/isoacoustics-target-subwoofers-and-amps-iso-puck

the ultra ss look good but bit worried about damaging the veneer and them sliding off . the iso pucks have solid rubber top and really grip the speaker so it is secure against any body knocking them
 
Harbeth is a pretty difficult speaker company not to like. Big weighty sound and the 40.2 with the ATC 100s/150s were some of my runner ups when speaker hunting. I would be happy with either, but my preference for amps is SET so it took some of these fine speakers of my running.

I can't really comment on comparing to Revel - except that I prefer the sound of the wide baffle simpler approaches to music reproduction over slim multi driver towers. And in general I haven't liked any sort of metal dome tweeter including BE.
 
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