Having spent a long time trying to find a pair of "bookshelf" loudspeaker with which to replace my old and ugly behemoths, and having a budget of up to £1,200, there was a lot of listening to do! Sadly, whilst there was pin-sharp treble a-plenty, and mid band accuracy although less common could be obtained, giving excellent reproduction of speach and small-scale acoustic music, bass was always inadequate and the focus was poor. All music needs its foundation, and poor foundation will always give an unsatisfactory sound.
So why not go back to floorstanders thinks I. Many models give a small footprint, and are not much more imposing than stand-mounters. This was probably the best Hi-Fi decision I have made during this episode of upgrade-itis. Again much listening gave, to my ears, a clear winner in the under £1,200 range; the Castle Harlech. If you haven't seen them, they are beautifully made, fairly compact; less than 10" wide and 13" deep, and sound amazing!

A word of warning, if your dealer has not run them in ask him to do that first, they sound very average straight out of the box. As these outstanding speakers are used their sound begins to focus and soildify. Mine continued to improve during the first four weeks of use. Also do not partner them with poor components they will make you weep for better!

With the Marantz CD 63-II KI and Audiolab 8000S, they sound totally fab. Bass is real solid and accurate, for once with (fairly) budget components a double bass sound like it should, not a generic low level "farty" emmission! This is true at any level. The accuracy does not diminish with volume, but the Harlechs can rattle the windows when asked. Moving up the octaves the bass integrates almost perfecly with the mid-band, giving grand orchestral sounds true weight and realism. The treble is as one would expect from what has gone before, high-lying female vocals and percussive sibliants are handled with breathtaking ability. Althought treble is silghtly forward, the stereo image remains rock solid. In fact one of the Harlechs best features is their ability to convey an accurate image even when listened to well off-axis.

In the UK they are £850, and speaking as someone who does not like parting with money, it could be the best £850 I have ever spent!

Deep punchy bass, wide open sound stage, quality of cabinets and general build.

Slight treble harshness. Need careful positioning.

I have been using the superb Casle Harlech's for six months now and have been very pleased with their performance. In order to control the treble of the metal dome tweeter I changed my speaker cable from Naim NAC A5 to Kimber 4VS. This was a significant improvement and transformed them from being an already good speaker into an excellent one. The most dramatic improvement came when my freind and i re-wired them with Kimber 4VS. After this procedure was carried out we sat down to listen to the fruits of our labour, and WOW!!! The diffrence was unbelievable. I would urge any Harlech owner to carry out the above, as when you actually see the cable inside you will wonder why you have put good quality cable from your amplifier to the speakers. Even without the above improvements i would nominate the Harlech as the best Casle speaker in their whole range and thats including the well reviewed Howards, which sound slow and stodgy in comparison. Despite needing careful placement i have found that they will work in both large and small rooms alike and blend well with the decor. They are exquisitly made. Despite being fairly easy to drive i would advise anyone concidering the Harlechs to make sure that their amplifier will give them its best. One final tip! If you want to stand them on anything, make it very thick and inert like paving slab not 1" marble,wood or glass. Buy with confidence and enjoy.

System:
Arcam Alpha 8 CD player.
Musical Fidelity A300.
Michell Gyrodec/Incognito modified RB300/Ortofon MC20 Supreme.
Quad FM3 Tuner
Castle Harlech Loudspeakers.
Kimber 4VS Speaker cable.
Assorted interconnects.

Similar Products Used:

Ruark Talisman 2, Casle Avon.

Warm, musical, relaxed nature. Genuine piece of attractive furniture.

Maybe too laid back for some tastes.

I was looking for speakers suitable for new Musical Fidelity A3 components and had been encouraged to try Dynaudio. Three different stand-mounters spent time in my house of which I most liked the Contour 1.3 Mk2 although there was a seaming lack of transparency to my ears.
During this process I got a lot of icy looks from my wife.
Then a local dealer revealed that he had a new pair of Harlechs at his mother's house as the store was full and invited me to try them for "at least two weeks".
On arrival my wife was surprisingly enthusiastic, maybe because the amount of visible cherry veneer matched the room so well. She later even moved things around to place the speakers to their best advantage.
These are the new S2 version and have completely new drivers. Even Castle's web page has not caught up with them yet (mine are serial no.52) so I phoned the factory and spoke to a technician.
The tweater is a home grown soft dome, five years in development, in place of the metal dome which was in fact bought in from Vifa.
The woofers are carbon fibre in place of polypropelene.
I guess that makes them mini Howards.
I could have a listen to the old version but it would take too much effort so I shall simply report that the technician said the new ones are a distinct improvement.
So how do they sound after two weeks of almost constant use?
Well, rather nice actually.
The rest of the family have put up with them remarkably well even when played at their optimal realistic sound level - not loud mind, I want to protect my hearing.
Modern rock I saved for when I was alone but I have to say that the Harlechs did a balanced job and all in all I found myself listening to CDs which had been gathering dust and actually enjoying them.
It's clear to me that you can spend a lifetime looking for perfection, so you may as well spare yourself the heartache and go for the first one you really like - a bit like getting married really.
Are the Harlech S2s perfect? No, but nor are the people we marry.
I suppose my ears have adjusted now but I believe some people might initially find them too laid back, they are too polite to shout at you.
An important plus point for me is that the treble sounds well controlled, probably a feature of the soft dome tweater.
The combination of MF and Castle has lent a degree of clarity which is now revealing which of my CDs should go in the bin. The quality of production has been shown to be sometimes shameful.
If I don't give them a 5 it's because nothing is perfect.

Similar Products Used:

Dynaudio, B&W.

These loudspeakers are characterised by their dynamic mid-band. The treble is clean but they are not bass-killer. Overall they are well-balanced and look beautiful too.