W największym skrócie: Harbeth to plastyczna i aksamitna średnica, która gwarantuje jedyną w swoim rodzaju muzykalność. Do tego fizjologiczna góra oraz niezły, choć nadal monitorowy bas. Taki skrót nie oddaje jednak esencji brzmienia; podobnie można przecież podsumować wiele innych głośników. Aby wejść w świat Harbetha, trzeba się oprzeć pokusie porównań i zamiast na ocenianie, nastawić się na słuchanie. 

Pomimo braku dźwiękowych przynęt szybko zaczynamy zdawać sobie sprawę, że jednak dzieje się coś specjalnego. Coś, co rzadko, o ile w ogóle, zdarza się w kolumnach innych firm. Pomiędzy słuchaczem i dźwiękiem nawiązuje się trudna do opisania więź. Zaczyna obowiązywać jakieś niepisane prawo psychologii słuchu, które sprawia, że czujemy się wręcz przyklejeni do fali akustycznej, jaka do nas dociera. Harbethy mają w sobie coś, co się wymyka racjonalnej analizie i co stanowi zapowiedź tak poszukiwanej przez wielu melomanów magii.

A tajemnica owej magii kryje się nigdzie indziej, jak w średnicy. Nie wiem, czy jestem w stanie oddać jej maestrię, ale spróbuję. Pierwszym określeniem, jakie się nasuwa w opisie, jest dźwięczność. Wynika ona między innymi z kapitalnej reprodukcji dźwięków cichych. Czyli takich, które słuchane na tanim sprzęcie, wsiąkają w ogólną masę brzmieniową. Oczywiście każde głośniki klasy hi-end bez trudu uwalniają je z tej pułapki i odpowiednio naświetlają, ale Harbethy robią to po swojemu. Nie poprzez podbicie czy też sztuczki przypominające działanie filtru loudness, lecz przez wyraźniejsze lokalizowanie tych dźwięków w przestrzeni. A zatem czas na krótką dygresję stereofoniczną. 

Moim zdaniem maestria Harbethów polega na tym, że owszem, pokazują taką głębię barw, jaką naprawdę rzadko można spotkać we współczesnych głośnikach, ale pozostają na tyle elastyczne, by w odpowiednich proporcjach oddać gradację nasycenia średnicy – od rozwodnienia typu plakatowego, poprzez pastele, aż do wspomnianych głębi, przypominających farbę olejną. Oczywiście te trzy kroki to tylko zapis umowny. C7ES-3 XD pokazują bowiem tyle odcieni, że nawet zaawansowana terminologia plastyczna nie wystarczyłaby do ich określenia. 

Oprócz bogactwa barw imponuje swoboda prezentacji. Pomimo że nie brak dźwięków wyraźnie dociążonych, zachowana jest także pewna lekkość i przejrzystość. Nie odnotowałem nadmiernego zagęszczenia środka. Nie ma też oznak ospałości. Jest za to powiew krystalicznie czystego powietrza, kultura i sprężystość. Owszem, wszystko zostało doprawione nutką miękkości, ale nawet ona jest dokładnie odmierzona i kontrolowana. 

Bo emocje muzyczne mogą być różne – raz będzie to przeżycie mistyczne, innym razem końska dawka adrenaliny. Co kto lubi i nie ma jednej recepty dla wszystkich. Właśnie na tym od lat zarabia Alan Shaw. Chcecie usłyszeć, jak brzmi bardziej purpurowy odcień purpury? To może sięgnijcie po album Deep Purple i posłuchajcie po cichu. Koniecznie na Harbethach.

Link do recenzji: Harbeth C7ES-3 XD – Hi-Fi i Muzyka

Lately I’ve taken quite a liking to Shostakovich’s near-maniacal Fourth Symphony—the one that got him into so much trouble with Stalin—in the blazing and blazingly engineered version by Myung-Whun Chung and the Philadelphia Orchestra (DG CD). The opening, a shriek from the strings punctuated by cymbal clashes followed by tympani and augmented brass in a march that is both parody and scarily menacing, is here served up with playing and reproduction of amazing virtuosity and fidelity. Midway into the movement comes that furious fugato for strings, taken by Chung at an insane tempo that should be impossible to play with any sort of articulation, yet this storied string section brings it off like child’s play. The dynamic range is awesome—the 80–100-piece orchestra typical of the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries is for this piece increased to 140, with augmented brass and percussion—yet these compact Harbeths took it in stride, including even the crushing, pile-driving climax that follows the fugato.

Grand pianos can in their own way be as demanding as a full symphony orchestra. The first piano recording I played, within a day of setting up the C7 XDs, was Mitsuko Uchida’s magnificent new Beethoven Diabelli Variations (Decca CD and Tidal MQA streaming), my candidate for the best new recording released these last few years of any work for piano. The Decca engineers found an ideal perspective: close enough for the piano to appear vibrantly present with exceptional clarity and definition yet with just enough ambience to keep the recording from being dry—indeed, the warmth, body, depth of tone, and apparent fidelity to the wealth of color, nuance, and character, the miracles of exquisite touch and phrasing for which this singular artist is renowned, are gloriously reproduced by these Harbeths.

Voices? Well, superlative reproduction of voices is by now so solidly inside the Harbeth wheelhouse it seems unnecessary to remark upon it unless it happens to be absent, which is most emphatically not the case here. I recently lucked upon an original LP version of Hyperion’s famous album of sequences and hymns by Hildegarde de Bingen, the twelfth-century abbess who was a mystic, a poet, a composer, and a visionary (eventually canonized as a saint): A feather on the breath of God, by the Gothic Voices. As recorded by Tony Faulkner, the singers should appear slightly set back from the plane of the speakers but palpably present. There are only eight singers. They sing solo, in duet, trio, or quartet, but never the whole group together. Thus, there should be no “depth” between or among the performers in the normal understanding of that word, and if they appear too distant, the response of your playback chain is somewhere recessed. But they are captured with an uncannily real-sounding dimensionality, roundedness, and purity, while the rich atmosphere of the venue, a London church, above, around, and extending well behind them should be very evident. Set the level right with the C7 XDs and you will hear what Peter Walker meant by his metaphor of “a window onto the concert hall” when trying to describe his goals when he was designing his QUAD ESLs.

First, over most of its range the C7 XD is one of the most neutral transducers in my six decades as an audiophile, and unquestionably one of the most musically natural. Second, it boasts a coherence, transparency, and resolution not unworthy of comparison to my longstanding references: three generations of Quad ESLs, from the 57s to the 63s to the 2805s. Third, it exhibits a lack of coloration that again rivals my Quads. Fourth, to say that it is capable of a dynamic window that belies its compact size and its apparent simplicity is an understatement that borders on the risible. It was at this point, about two months after I had unboxed the speakers and begun listening to them, that I consulted my 2007 review. And it is at this point that I urge you to stop reading this review and read that one: Google “Seydor Compact 7,” since much of what follows begins where it leaves off.

Link do recenzji: Harbeth C7ES-3 XD – The Absolute Sound

Transients are strong, smooth, and tactful with all music presented to the Harbeths. Singularly pure in tonality, it takes nuances of sound in its midrange that you may never have known were on your sources, (vinyl or digital) and shockingly brings them into the soundscape for the first time!

Describing the Compact 7ES-3/XD will be much harder than the enticing thoughts that enter one’s mind as you start to listen to this loudspeaker. Their BBC heritage takes no prisoners as you first experience its expansive, accurate, and natural sound permeating the front and sides of your listening room.

Solo piano works were uncompromising in tonality, depth of the instrument, and stereo imaging. An example is Barenboim’s1970 remastered EMI recording of Beethoven’s piano sonatas. You will find here that a variation of the early Blumliein microphone technique was involved and you can see Barenboim’s hands at center stage as the clarity and ambiance envelope the instrument fully. Exceptional sound indeed!

Admittedly being a fairly conservative writer myself, I will ask, “Can the Harbeth C7-es3/XD possibly bring a concert piano recording effectively into the front of your listening room”? I will go out on a limb here and say, “Pretty close” indeed. Please buy this virtually “perfect” sound recording of Beethoven Piano Sonatas (Vol.2 CD or Vinyl) by James Brawn on MSR classics as a showpiece for your system and see just how close you can get. The sound of the Steinway here is magnificently balanced, displayed, and reproduced better than any recording of a solo piano I have ever heard; particularly so with these new Harbeths!

This speaker reveals, not unexpectedly, excellent depth, lateral width, and an airy openness that imbues a delectable concert hall ambiance and is well out of the speaker cabinets themselves. On some fundamentally refined classical recordings, you cannot detect that the speaker enclosures are in front of you. This is one of the indications of a truly great design!

This speaker reveals, not unexpectedly, excellent depth, lateral width, and an airy openness that imbues a delectable concert hall ambiance and is well out of the speaker cabinets themselves. On some fundamentally refined classical recordings, you cannot detect that the speaker enclosures are in front of you. This is one of the indications of a truly great design!

As for the midrange, here is where most if not all the music evolves, and this Harbeth midrange is one to marvel at. Transparent, see-through sound permeates your hearing with all the natural tonality of each instrument planted before you. Singing voices are truly exceptional in tonality naturalness depth and detail. I must admit that the C7ES-3 XD should, and does equal or outshine in many ways the magical midrange of my 45-year-old Spendor BC1 loudspeakers. This is a miraculous feat under any circumstances.

Link do recenzji: Harbeth C7ES-3 XD – The Sound Advocate

Link: Harbeth C7ES-3 XD – Hi-Fi i Muzyka – Wyróżnienie Roku 2024

Link: Harbeth C7ES-3 XD – The Absolute Sound – 2023 Golden Ear

Link: Harbeth C7ES-3 XD – The Sound Advocate – Product of the Year 2022

Link: Harbeth C7ES-3 XD – What Hi-Fi – Sound+Image Award 2022

Link: Harbeth C7ES-3 XD – Part-Time Audiophile – Reviewers Choice

Link: Harbeth C7ES-3 XD – Tone – Exceptional Value Award