Honesty, with exemplary bass.

None considering its size and price class

My system includes a Naim CDX/XPS, Blue Circle BC 3 and AG 8000's - all sitting on Blue Circle BCC 1 isolation cones. Interconnects are Nordost SPM, speaker cable (for a little while longer) is bi-wired Straightwire Virtuoso, and power cables are Electraglides. I have the Compact 7's on 16-inch Sound Anchors with Blu Tack between the speakers and the stands. My room is 5000 cubic feet with 11-foot ceilings at the speaker end tapering to around 8 feet at the other. My friend in North Ontario tells me these speakers will perform better in a smaller room, as they did for him. That may be, but I heard nothing that suggested the large room was working against them. Their bass, for example, was deep, authoritative, and better detailed than I've ever heard from a 21 x 11 x 11 inch speaker. The 7's appear tiny alongside my 30 x 17 x 15 inch M40's, but they do not sound tiny at all!

To me, the Compact 7's sound robust, energetic, intense, dynamic, fast, clear, percussive, and naturally warm. They have a truly great lower midrange and bass: forceful, articulate, and spatially impressive. The midrange, thanks apparently to the patented Radial driver (also used in the 40's and HP Super 5's), is clear, immediate, true blue, and again articulate. The highs are clean, clear, and perhaps a tad dry. Overall, the 7's strike me as exceptionally honest and straight up - in a compelling and not an analytic way. Their natural warmth takes care of that. They make a very strong argument that a euphonious approach to music reproduction is not necessarily the best and certainly not the only route to musical pleasure, a strong enough argument to give Spendor SP ½ owners, whose speakers are more overtly appealing and solicitous, serious second thoughts. Quite frankly, the Harbeth 7s are more interesting than the Spendors. I suspect that musicians will prefer them. To turn a quote from a friend and former Spendor BC 1 owner and fan upside down, the Compact 7's are not speakers that "invite you to just fall into the music." They ask you to listen attentively and reward you if you do. They have an admirably earnest quality about them that I expect would never cloy.

One interesting test of speakers I always have to carry out is the low-volume test. I am not interested in speakers that can't convince and satisfy late at night when Junior (5) is trying (not) to sleep. I am happy to report that the 7's are superb at low levels. Astonishingly, I noticed NO decrease in bass clarity or authority. (Where the hell did Fletcher-Munson go?) And a new level of delicacy entered the picture. Karrin Allyson's latest ("Ballads - Remembering John Coltrane") became utterly delicious as I cut the volume gradually back. Harbeths are famous for doing the human voice, which is what, in fact, their professional monitors are designed to do.

The Spendor/Harbeth comparison is fascinating, as I expected it to be. The Spendor SP ½'s, as I remember them from a year and a half ago on similar Blue Circle electronics, are lyrical, comfortable, and pleasing. They win friends easily and instantly became my favorites when I heard them. They can also seem a little polite (they've been called "buttoned up" and "sedate" though I didn't really hear that - yes I know we're cutting this pretty fine), which is presumably a byproduct of their sense of ease. The Harbeth Compact 7's, in contrast, are bracing, articulate, and interesting. Another friend calls them sophisticated, and I can hear that too. Where the Spendors generalize a bit, the Harbeths make a specific case for every piece of music that passes through them. The Harbeths kills the Spendors in the lower mids and bass. (Bass foundation was the only obvious shortcoming of the Spendors when I heard them.) The midranges of both speakers are flat and tonally accurate to my ears. The Spendor mids seem a bit smoother; the Harbeths' are also smooth but seem truer and more knowing. Polypropylene vs. Radial? Very likely. Allan Shaw, Harbeth president & designer, tells us that polypropylene "eats detail," leaving behind a pleasant but slightly smeared presentation. Music coming from polypropylene cones can seem to lack character. Northern Ontario calls this charming little bit of euphony 'polypropylene bounce." Shaw designed a new material that he calls Radial that lets more detail through. To my ears, nothing pleasurable is lost with the move to Radial and a good deal is gained. Eventually, it will find its way into the entire Harbeth line I would guess.

The Spendor's highs also sound smoother but very likely this is because they are rolled off and thus feel a little prettier than the Harbeths. According to REG, the Harbeths go both higher and lower than the Spendors. Clearly a design decision has been made: that we can stand and may even come to prefer more of 'the truth.' I wish I could be more eloquent about how moving and engaging (as opposed to alluring) this approach can be: to hear something this close to the real thing, whether it's Allyson's voice or the sax behind her.

Note: As I reported in my Spendor review some time ago and in my Monitor 40 review a month ago, I'm sure Blue Circle hybrid electronics have a good deal to do with what I'm hearing. Harbeths are supposed to be fairly hospitable to a wide variety of electronic gear, but comparing my notes with others' - those using all solid state gear in particular, I'm convinced that the choice of amps can make a significant difference. Be kind to your speakers!

I have not written this with the intention of reaching a personal conclusion about the Compact 7's but rather to provide as clear a sense of what they seem to be up to as I can. I can imagine preferring either the SP ½'s or Compact 7's, depending on my mood. I know from talking with others that both speakers are loved by their respective owners, for all of the right reasons. Even REG, when I put it to him a year or so ago, said he did not feel one was clearly better than the other, and he has owned and enjoyed both. There is no gainsaying the allure of the Spendors and I do not; but, now that I've heard the Harbeths, it's clear to me that their charm comes at a price. What you have to decide is whether you're willing to pay for it with the degree of 'truth' you lose. What, in fact, do you want? If I ever come to the point of building a second, smaller system, I may have to cross this bridge. I could imagine throwing some French speakers into the mix - Reynauds and Triangles, say. But my guess is that's another aesthetic altogether and in my case, life is too short to worry about what's across the channel.

As I've said before, the Harbeth Monitor 40's trump both of these speakers. They get it all, which, at three times the price, they should. If you can afford Monitor 40's - and if you've the space and at least 100-150 solid watts - they are the obvious choice. If you've not got the green, the space, or the power, and you like the wonderfully natural BBC monitor sound, I urge you to hear both the Compact 7's and Spendor SP ½'s. At the very least, you'll learn something about yourself.

Similar Products Used:

Spendor SP 1/2's

Update on Compact 7.
Great performer in terms of transparency, overall balance, and natural sound reproduction.
Having listened to Compact 7 for so long, I am now used to the speakers that sound 'true' (i.e. natural vocal and hi-freq). Vocal is magically reproduced -- real life experience (depending on how good the recording is). The treble is presented with a great deal of transparency. For some people, the bass might not be very special, but it's fine to me. The dynamic of the mid-bass shows great authority and control; furthermore, lower freq is tightly presented (again, it's personal preference).
Compact 7 demand high quality electronics partners to make them sing really well. A very good pair of stands is a must.
Associated equipment in the system:
- Pioneer PD-65 CDPlayer (soon will be upgraded with Trichord Clock 3 and PSU).
- EAR/Yoshino 834 Line Pre-amp.
- Bryston 3B-ST.
- AudioQuest Midnight + spkr cables (bi-wire).
- Nordost Red Dawn interconnects.
- Target stands.
- Mana table.
- Powerline conditioner.

Check out also PMC, Dynaudio, and ProAc.

Well, "Jonathon" below is certainly entitled to his opinion, but I hope that any readers considering these speakers will take his comments in context with the rest of the reviews here.

I, for one, have a hard time believing he's even talking about the same speaker as the rest of us, beginning with build quality. From a design standpoint, the Harbeths are just plain ol' boxes, but the quality of the wood cabinetry is as good as any speaker at any price -- beautifully crafted and matched. The cabinets are also extremely well damped to control bass vibration; these are solid, heavy, exceedingly well-built speakers.

As for performance, the Harbeth 7s have the most natural and realistic tonal balance of any speaker in their price range, in my opinion. The only other speaker that's close is the (also BBC-derived) Spendor, but the Harbeths don't add that slight dollop of sweetening that the Spendors do. They are as neutral as they come.

So many "high end" speakers tilt their tonal balance towards the treble to enhance the impression of sharpness, detail, etc. It's a very common speaker builder's trick. They sound great in a ten-minute in-store audition, but they're quite fatiguing to listen to in the long run and they've got nothing to do with the sound of real, acoustic music. The Harbeths sound like real music in real space, with a superb sense of image to go with the incomparable tone.

As far as bass, I can understand how some would define it as a little "loose," but once again I believe many people's perceptions are colored by the overly tight, overly twangy bass you get from so many other "hi-fi" speakers. I go to jazz clubs all the time and hear the sound of real stand-up acoustic bass playing, and the Harbeths nail it. It's a matter of taste, and many like exagerrated bass, but it's not fair to say the Harbeths don't deliver the goods in the bass region; they definitely do. As for the quantity (as opposed to the quality) of bass, the Harbeths' go well below their stated specification of 48 Hz. From the top to the bottom of their range, they're beautifully balanced and articulate.

Considering that many minimonitors (from B&W, Thiel, Totem, ProAc and others) are going for $2K to $3K these days, the midsize-to-hefty Harbeth 7s are a tremendous bargain in their $2K price range. As good as some of those little monitors are for detail and imaging, they seldom impart any sonic information below 60 Hz; it's the equivalent of looking at a picture that's been seriously cropped. Much of the music lies in that 40 to 60 Hz region, and the 7s capture all of it. Some might consider enhancing the bass still further with a subwoofer, but I find I'm satisfied with the 7s by themselves.

I have owned and auditioned many speakers over the last 5 or 6 years; the Harbeths are the keepers. Five-star reviews are handed out on this site like candy on Halloween night, but the Harbeth 7s are truly five-star loudspeakers for both performance and value.

Similar Products Used:

B&W, ProAc, Thiel, Aerial, Spendor (the close runner-up!)

Natural,open,effortless and uncolored sound. Instruments and voices sound very realistic.

Little if any at this price point.

I purchased the Compact 7's June 2001. They measure 20 1/2"(H)X 12"(D)X 10 3/4"(W).Weigh about 27lbs.
They require stand mounting.

Its a two way front ported speaker utilizing Harbeth's Radial technology in the design and maufacture of the 8" midrange/woofer driver. Harbeths originate from the long and successful BBC history of speaker design,paying particular attention to cabinet, crossover, and driver design to achieve the least colored, most natural and accurate sound in a free standing box speaker. The Harbeth Compact 7's achieve this to a surprising extent.

Placed on stands away from room boundaries, the speakers present a wide open, detailed, very uncolored sound. Instruments and voices take on their natural timber and tone. The harmonics of music seem very right, along with proper attack and decay. Nothing over etched or too soft, just nicely balanced. Dynamic contrasts as well as low level detail during quiet passages or just listening at low volume levels are done very well. Subtle nuances of rythum and/or phrasing are captured with finess. Complex musical passages are unravled presenting wonderful insite into recordings. Addtionally, the macro dynamics,dynamic range, the big volume swings, ebb and flow with little constraint. The sound stays clean and clear without falling apart. The music remains coherent. They do all these things with a variety of music-large orchestra, chamber music, rock, jazz, vocal.

Stereo imaging and soundstaging are natural. Players and voices are located well in the sound field and the speakers do a terrific job of staying out of the way of the music and not making themselves known as sound sources. When listening to a favorite recording you are really connected with emotionally, you are drawn into the music and pretty much forget about the stereo. Harbeths unravel the recording space so you can hear a studio recording compared to an original live acoustic space-church, auditorium etc.

The pure, open midrange is complemented by strong,full and articulte base response. The Harbeths go lower than their rated 48hz. A solid 40hz seems reasonable. And it has speed with excellent clarity. Listen to a fast, well recorded acoustic base solo (i.e. jazz recording). The string attack doesn't blur or become smeared and the overtones come through in tact. Sounds like a well played acoustic base! Impressive coming from a small sized box.
The highs are handled by a 25mm aluminum dome tweeter. And it doesn't sound like it! Instruments like violins, cymbals etc. sound right without brightness or etching. Clean and clear. If the source material is bright, you will hear it. However, its not accentuated at the expense of what is happening elsewhere with the music. If the the violins are nasty and the woodwinds and french horns
(all playing together)are sounding fine, the nasty violins don't over power the horns and woodwinds. Nice sense of balance. The lower treble response does seem to be attenuated a little bit, at least in comparison to the Thiel CS-2's. Sound projects a little less forcefully from this region and the sound stage is set back a little from the speaker enclosures. It doesn't sound "distant", the music is still present and immediate. A different treble balance compared to some other speakers. Finally, the two drivers blend together seamlessly presenting music in a very coherent manner. A piano played up and down its range doen't have the lower tones becoming warmer,fuller or fatter than they should be and the higher notes don't become bright, thin etc. String sound remains well integrated within an orchestra-things sound whole and unified with a sense of ease. No listening fatigue. Assuming the recordings are decent!

Break-in and setup. Don't judge these speakers too soon right out of the box. They need time to losen up and show their strengths. Early on they sound constricted,less detailed with less base response. The highs sound not as smooth and don't seperate as well. At least 200hrs of settling in time. The 7's are not too difficult reguarding room placement, but it pays to muck around with them for the best sound. With my set-up, they are 1/3 of the way into the room off the wall behind them. 36" clearance from the side walls, 8 ft apart (outer edge to outer edge). Listening position is ~8.5ft back from the speakers. Room demensions: 14ft wide X 16ft long. Ceiling 8ft.

So, I'm very happy with the Harbeth Compact 7's. I think they are ideal, especially their sense of balance-all parts of the music have their proper proportion without anything being over emphasized. And the natural, uncolored sound of instruments and voices. All this from a pair of straight foreward, deceptively "simple" looking boxes.

Speakers were purchased from Garnet Lewis at Winter Tree Audio (www.wintertreeaudio.com)the North American importer of Harbeth speakers. Garnet is knowledgeable,low keyed,and customer oriented. Reliable and easy to work with.

System

JVC 1050 CD player

Sota Sapphire Turntable (1987 vintage)
SME lV tone arm
Audio Technica AT440ML cartidge

Classe DR-8 amp
Audio Research SP-8 preamp

Harmonic Technolgy phono cable, truthlink interconnects,pro-11 speaker cable.

Similar Products Used:

Thiel CS-2 owned them since 1987. Dealer demos- Dynaudio Contour Mkll, Spendor 1/2, Vienna Acoustic Mozart, Dunlavy Sm-1

superb soundstage imaging, very detailed and emotive, very neutral and natural frequency response, sounds great with a wide range of music, works well with a wide range of amplifiers

none, especially at this price

Here are my impressions after listening to the HL C7's for a week:

They're some of the best speakers I have heard, at any price. This became very clear when performing a side by side comparison with my Rogers LS3/5A speakers, which I still love. Like the Rogers, the Harbeths are "voiced" in the BBC tradition, but they offer much more. The HL C7's naturally have more bass weight and loudness by virtue of being larger. But in addition, they also offer a superlative mid range and high end which reveal subtle nuances of music that the LS3/5A's cannot. The bass is nice and tight, a perfect complement to the mid range and high end. Reproduction of the entire frequency range is very natural and neutral. They are not a strain to listen to, neither too "warm" nor too "cold".

The sound stage imaging is about the best I've heard, despite limitations in my system (old Apt Holman preamp and Hafler DH200 amp) and a less than perfect listening room. The LS3/5A's are known for their ability to image well, but the HL C7's are much better; more precise and three dimensional. The HL C7's presentation is crystal clear and open. In short, I have a greater sense of being in the same room with the musicians, the audible illusion of "being there".

So far they sound great on all types of music, but I find that they really shine when listening to vocals or acoustic music. The HL C7's reveal details of performances by Ella Fitzgerald ("Take Love Easy") and Diana Krall ("In Your Eyes") that I had not heard before. "Mas Alla" and "September Fifteenth" by Pat Metheny were particularly evocative.

Overall, I'm very happy with them. I listen to music because it evokes feelings that words cannot. The HL C7's have the ability to bring me closer to the music. If it were possible, I'd give them six stars.

I purchased these speakers from Garnet Lewis at Simply Music. Garnet has my highest recommendation; he is extremely knowledgable, friendly, and conscientious. I was hesitant to order speakers from someone on the opposite side of the continent, but Garnet made it a pleasant experience. I'd be happy to do business with him again. You can reach Garnet at 902-454-9253 or via e-mail at harbethna@hfx.eastlink.ca.

Similar Products Used:

own Rogers LS3/5A, demo'd some Sonus Faber, Thiel and B&W

Musicality, natural sound, outstanding midrange

Lack of a dealer network in US

Harbeth, a British speaker manufacturer, is relatively unknown in the US, though Harbeth speakers have received many gushing accolades in the British press. Comments about the Compact 7’s musicality and natural sound from Bob Neil and others in the Asylum, Robert Greene (TAS) and Martin Colloms (HiFi New and Record Review) piqued my curiosity and I decided to try them.


These speakers have delighted me. The midrange is beautiful – clear, natural and believable. The speakers particularly excel in presenting acoustic music-- voices, saxophones, piano and cello. It is startling how well the speakers capture the tone, harmonics and beginning and fading of notes. Coltrane’s solos in Kind of Blue (SACD) never sounded so compelling. Listening to Pablo Cassals play Bach’s Cello Suites (not the best of recordings), is a stirring experience. I am transported to the Paris studio where the recording was made in the 1930s. Similarly Schubert’s Impromptus performed by Mitsuko Uchida (Phillips) sounds so convincing, it is almost like I am really there. I feel I am hearing new nuances in Sinatra’s Capitol recordings. I am enjoying music so much that I am losing sleep.

The speakers excel at playing large-scale orchestrations as well as intimate recordings of small groups. In Joe Lovano’s new nonet recording, 52nd Street themes (By the way, an excellent performance and a great 2 track analog recording), I hear the details of each instruments clearly.

The bass, generated by a 80mm driver, is full. The bass seems to extend below the published 48hz and low-level resolution is very good. I was surprised by how much better the bass was compared to my old speakers, Proac Response 2, whose published bass extension was lower. According to Alan Shaw, the speaker’s designer, the superior bass and midrange are the result of a unique, patented polymeric composite cone design, which he developed from extensive fundamental research. Similarly, high frequencies are presented well, clear but without the etched sound that you sometimes get in the name of detail, which tires you out over time.

Imaging is pinpoint and the speakers excel in disappearing when playing well-recorded music.


How do these speakers compare with others? Overall, in my opinion, the midrange of these speakers is superior –more natural and believable-- to all other speakers I have heard including high-end models from JM Utopia, AudioPhysics and Dynaudio. I am most familiar with the Proac Response 2, which I have owned and enjoyed. The R2 is an excellent speaker but in my opinion, the Harbeth is better. With the Proacs, the image of individual instruments is small and specific; perhaps more self-consciously audiophile and the Harbeth, while retaining the detailed textures and tones of individual instruments, have a denser, fuller presentation, in addition to its advantages in bass and midrange.



The Compact 7ES is a vented 2-way speaker. Dimensions are 520 x 273 x 315mm, fairly large as far as stand-mounted design. Nominal impedance is 8ohms, and they are fairly easy to drive. The finish of the cabinets is beautiful. I chose a eucalyptus finish, which shows off the grain of the wood. It appears that production of this speaker has not scaled with its demand, as I had to wait several weeks before my pair was shipped. Harbeth is distributed in North America by Simply Music ( 902 -454-9253.Garnet Lewis is a pleasure to do business with)

Overall this speaker is highly recommended. It is a giant killer in terms of musicality and value for money.

Similar Products Used:

Proac Response 2, Dynaudio 1.1, Audiophysics Virgo

Tonal accuracy of an uncanny nature.

Not a weakness, just a reality of any monitor, I will add a sub to reproduce an organ's pedals. (An 8 inch driver can only move so much air!)

The Harbeth Compact 7ES is a delight in every way. The previous posters have, (with the exception of Jonathon's bogus first post,) been very eloquent in their positive descriptions. I totally agree and can't pretend to be as articulate. For me, this speaker's magic is in accuracy, which, as I was warned, can sometimes hurt. There is no hiding a system's weaknesses. There is nothing but the blunt truth to your recordings, (and that can be especially painful.) But when you build a balanced, synergistic system and play well recorded music of ANY kind through the Compact 7ES, it will absolutely astonish you with realism. I find I am not listening to my speakers; I am listening to the music. I keep telling people that I find myself laughing out loud with joy. And that, my friends, is what it is all about! I have a special order veneer, rosewood, which inflated my price. The fit and finish is absolutely perfect in every way. The pair is an absolute match. I could not be happier.

Harbeth Compact 7ES Monitor
Creek 5350 SE Amplifier
Bel Canto Design DAC-1 DA converter
Pioneer DV-525 Transport
Magnum Dynalab FT-11 Tuner
XLO Reference Type 1 Interconnect
Blue Circle Audio BC-84 AC filter
Blue Circle BC 61 Power cords
Mapleshade Golden Helix Speaker cable
Audio One Reference TosLink Interconnect (DVD-DAC1)

Similar Products Used:

PSB's Alpha AV/300i/and 400s, PE Leon Primas, JM Reynaud Arpeggiones

Monitor 40's: Beauty, clarity, warmth, scale, fullness, "weight," natural overall presenation.

Monitor 40's: Bass is excellent but does trail off below 40 hz or so, I think.

HARBETH MONITOR 40'S.

This is not a review of the Compact 7's. It is a review of their bigger brothers, the Monitor 40's. But if I wait around long enough for this site to realize that the Monitor 40's exist, I'll be too old to write this! So here, we go and I apologize if this breaks any rules.


Intro:

My Monitor 40's are on 12-inch Sound Anchors stands - with Blu Tak. My room is 5000 cubic feet. My ancillary equipment includes a Naim CDX/XPS, Blue Circle BC 3, and pre-production Blue Circle AG 8000 monoblocks on loan from Blue Circle. The AG 8000's are easily the best amps I've ever heard and will get their own review once they're actually out on the market. (150 watts, hybrid (two 6922's per channel), high-biased A/B, balanced.) They are a superb match for the Harbeths. In the system with the M40's, they are the first amps to excite me since the single-ended, Class A Blue Circle BC 2.1's, which I'm selling because their 75 watts aren't really enough for these 6 ohm/85 dB speakers. My cables are Nordost SPM. I used Electraglide power cords. I have Blue Circle Isolation Cones under all of my equipment.

Review:

When I hooked the AG 8000's to the Monitor 40's, I was initially a little puzzled. There was none of that special Blue Circle single-ended in your lap spatial magic I had grown to love in the BC 2.1's paired with mini-monitors. Then, about five minutes into the recording, as the amps and I warmed up a little, something began to happen. I became aware of what was going on in front of me rather than what was not. Spread out between and behind the Harbeths, I heard something startlingly like live music. The spatial immediacy was there but out in the orchestra where it belongs. The music sounded the way it does in a live event when it has just begun to float out into the hall and away from the performing space. And there was poignantly accurate tonality detail (I wanted to run away with the clarinet); breathtakingly natural clarity, separation of instruments, and low level detail; a gradual decay of notes I hadn't heard since my LP 12 days and the sense of a spaciously deep venue it reinforces; firm and realistic bass, weight, scale, and foundation; and confidence. Confidence? A uncanny sense that what I was hearing was absolutely what went on before the recording microphones. A sense that no tricks were being played. A sense that no one aspect of the performance or its reproduction was being 'featured' - that everything I was hearing was part of an integral, natural, totally honest whole. And the music-making was absolutely wonderful. This is clearly the way it's supposed to be but, at least in my experience, has never quite been.

For me, this 'package' is an education. I am used to a more solicitous presentation that curls around your feet like a cat. "Emotional" is the word often used for this. I'm used to having the music set forward a little so that its presence before me becomes the most notable characteristic. The BC 2.1's did this with my B&W Matrix 805's and I've heard them do it bewitchingly with Spendor SP 1/2's too. With the AG 8000's and Harbeth 40's, there was no particular characteristic. There was just this large, splendid, detailed, rich, smooth, palpably full array of seemingly live music. I could isolate aspects of what I was hearing if I focussed hard enough, but because it all felt so integrated, after a while I felt foolish doing it. In a word, I felt like my former priorities had been trumped.

The Spendor/Harbeth debate will go on, and it's a useful one, I think. The differences between Spendor SP 1/2's and Harbeth Compact 7's are extremely interesting and preferences there come down to matters of taste. So too with the smaller Spendors and Harbeths. But when you reach the level of the Monitor 40's, I think the conversation stops. These speakers strike me now, in this system, in my large room, driven by these extraordinary amplifiers, as a definitive answer to the question that all Spendor and Harbeth speakers pose: how can we get it all, with neither truth nor beauty compromised.

Similar Products Used:

Spendors, B&W's....

none

As a follow up to my previous review, here are a few more impressions of the HL C7ES speakers.

Now that I've had more time to listen to the Harbeth HL C7ES's, I find that I like them even more. They are one of the most natural sounding speakers I have encountered. They do the best job of "dissapearing" of any speaker that I know. When I listen to them with closed eyes, I can point to where each instrument is, but I can't tell where the speakers are, which of course is the desired goal. The HL C7ES's are very revealing in that you can easily tell how well an album was mixed. For example "Sportin' Life" by Weather Report is mostly mixed well, but there are some mistakes, such as putting different parts of the drumkit on opposite sides of the soundstage.

They also have the ability to sound great at low, mid, and higher volume levels. At low volume the detail is not sacrificed, and at high volume the subtle nuances are preserved. Most of the loudspeakers that I have encountered have a volume "sweet spot", where you can hear the details, but the louder dynamics don't overpower the sense of air around the instruments. Any less volume and you lose the details; any more volume and the nuances are overpowered by the louder dynamics. Happily this is not the case with the HL C7ES. They seem to be able sound musical and natural at all volume levels. They will not however disguise a bad recording.

They are very well made with a beautiful finish. Speaker appearance is not high on my priority list, but it is a nice plus.

My impression is that they sound better without the speaker grills. The reveal a little more nuance and detail, without sounding harsh or over-bright. Unfortunately I have to leave the grills on to keep my three year old son from putting his hands on the drivers to feel them moving. Maybe when he's a little older...

I'm very puzzled by the negative review submitted previously by another reviewer. The HL C7ES is one of the finest loudspeakers I have encountered. It seems as if we're discussing completely different speakers.

Effortlessly musical

Below 50hz

Over the past two years I have purchased and continue to own Aerial Acoustics, Linn, Meadowlark and ProAc speakers. My priorities in arriving at my purchase decisions were musicality and the capacity to resolve. In trying to judge the latter I looked for a speaker that reproduced notes truthfully without strain and allowed the music to both manifest itself and decay effortlessly. Musicality for me is a more elusive concept, encompassing a complete and accurate soundstage at low volumes, and reproduction of the information on the source without engendering any listener fatigue, while at the same time maintaining balance.

For me, no other speaker suits my taste in its modest price range more than the Harbeth Compact 7es. And thus it will come as no surprise that I would describe this speaker as musical and balanced. What is most appealing about this speaker is that everything about it, from its build quality to its drivers, seems devoted to this end. The Harbeth is the type of audio equipment that will heal the most jaded victim of audiophile neurosis, as the Harbeth Compact 7es accomplishes all this in an understated manner and at a fair price. Indeed, a comparison of the Harbeth 7es to offerings from the major audiophile speaker manufacturers like Dynaudio, B&W and Sonus Faber in this price range is absolutely no contest.

It would be unfair for me not to comment on some of the qualities of the Harbeth that I, at least, initially thought were not important to me, particularly imaging and dynamics. I was wary of certain speakers’ facility to image because I found that these speakers did so way beyond the live musical event at the concert hall. After listening to the Compact 7es, however, imaging became something I welcomed. The 7es’ imaging is comfortably balanced within the soundstage, adding a seductive dimension to the music without sounding “hi-fi”. Dynamics has always been at the bottom of my concerns. My serious listening is primarily classical. So what did concern me was a speaker that negotiated dynamic shifts smoothly, as opposed to range. In the context of my listening I wanted a speaker that can flow through the sudden orchestral shifts authoritatively without pause. The Compact 7es does this in spades.

While those of you who crave deep bass reproduction may find the Compact 7es lacking below 50hz, I do not. The bass it does reproduce in this range is so musical that in order to match its musicality I would have to move well beyond the $4,000.00 range. The speakers that do go deeper than the Harbeth under $3,000.00 are so outclassed by the 7es in all other respects that they would constitute an unacceptable compromise. An illustration how musically satisfying this speakers’ bass is that I prefer listening with my Paradigm Servo 15 off, because the subwoofer cannot match the Harbeth’s bass, even when the subwoofer is charged with the responsibility for information below 50hz.

Finally, I would like to comment and what ultimately may be the most endearing quality of the Compact 7es: its all around versatility. After living with the Harbeth and enjoying this quality, I realized that it is the lack of versatility in other speakers that in the past made listening to music at times a chore. Although the Harbeth 7es does not sound the same from every angle and it does benefit from proper placement, the 7es enchants irrespective of where I plant myself even if the speakers’ placement is less than ideal. Moreover it is not finicky with equipment. The Harbeth 7es is served very well by a good integrated amplifier that now from Creek or Music Fidelity offer at around $1,500.00. Finally, the 7es is at home with all types of music.

I do recommend before investing in the speaker any potential buyer consider system synergy. In the case of the Harbeth 7es, it needs power to open up, and because it has the soul of a monitor, it will have a tad of energy on the top if mated with cheap solid state equipment.

In short, if dynamics is not at the very, very top of your list of priorities for a loudspeaker I unequivocally recommend the Harbeth 7es, without qualification, irrespective of price range.

Associated equipment:

Source: Pioneer DVD transport with Perpetual Technologies PA1 + PA3; Audio Analogue Maestro;

Preamplifier: Blue Circle BC 21 & March p2000t;

Amplifier: Blue Circle 2.1; Blue Circle 22; Music Fidelity Nu Vista Integrated; Arcam Alpha 10P;

Speakers: Aerial Acoustics 5; Linn Tukans Meadowlark Kestrels & Heron “i” s; Pro Ac Response 1.5; Paradigm Servo-15.

Similar Products Used:

Aerial Acoustics; Linn; Meadowlark and ProAc