virajsingh
Member
Hi,
Just carried back to India a Harbeth P3ESR for a friend (who had bought it second hand on ebay Germany). Since he himself is away in UK (to listen to live concerts by Eric Clapton and Mark Knofler), I have have the good fortune of having them at my place for the next week and so I have already had them unpacked and am listening to them.
I had heard P3ESR play in a store in Eastern Europe (vinyl source...not the best condition vinyl I must say) and frankly did not find them very impressive. To make matters worse the dealer told me to be gentle on the volume keys of the remote saying the amp (a monstrous gryphon) was too powerful for them and the Harbeths had physical limitations (I also listened to M30.1 and M40.1; but that is a different story that I shall narrate some other time).
So I was hugely surprised to find them play so well in my system. They have enough bass (despite being rated 75 Hz on the lower end) and they are able to detail out some of the higher freq material that is not so detailed in my full range single driver back loaded horn speakers. Mid range and vocal are nice and a bit recessed compared to my fullranger but Harbeths sound just a very minor bit more musical. So far I have used only a solid state amp to run them but I shall try them out with a 845 tube amp as well.
They sound defies their small size and a well maintained 2nd hand pair for Rs. 65-70 thousand is a really good buy. If you can spend a bit more then do also consider Compact 7s.
Cheers
Viraj Singh
Just carried back to India a Harbeth P3ESR for a friend (who had bought it second hand on ebay Germany). Since he himself is away in UK (to listen to live concerts by Eric Clapton and Mark Knofler), I have have the good fortune of having them at my place for the next week and so I have already had them unpacked and am listening to them.
I had heard P3ESR play in a store in Eastern Europe (vinyl source...not the best condition vinyl I must say) and frankly did not find them very impressive. To make matters worse the dealer told me to be gentle on the volume keys of the remote saying the amp (a monstrous gryphon) was too powerful for them and the Harbeths had physical limitations (I also listened to M30.1 and M40.1; but that is a different story that I shall narrate some other time).
So I was hugely surprised to find them play so well in my system. They have enough bass (despite being rated 75 Hz on the lower end) and they are able to detail out some of the higher freq material that is not so detailed in my full range single driver back loaded horn speakers. Mid range and vocal are nice and a bit recessed compared to my fullranger but Harbeths sound just a very minor bit more musical. So far I have used only a solid state amp to run them but I shall try them out with a 845 tube amp as well.
They sound defies their small size and a well maintained 2nd hand pair for Rs. 65-70 thousand is a really good buy. If you can spend a bit more then do also consider Compact 7s.
Cheers
Viraj Singh
