Love the presentation of this style of speaker. I listen to a lot of acoustic, especially vocals and these excel at that. Just wanted to start a thread to answer any questions or exchange feedback.
@M0N @don @NickMimi being some owners.
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Great speakers, enjoyed a lot of harbeth in general, big atc/pmc person as well (somewhat related to bbc monitors). Also generally have liked spendor, falcon, and stirling broadcast bbc monitors.
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Just super effortless when it comes to vocals and most acoustic instruments (especially guitar).
I went from Harbeth C7 40th to 30.2 XD and both are superb in their own rights.
30.2 is definitely more flat/neutral, but not boring. It added a lot more accuracy, staging, crispness, speed, and control (especially with low end).
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I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss both my old 7ES-3’s and LS3/5A’s on occasion. Had great experiences and got great results with both.
The 5A’s were as expected and had outstanding midrange and vocal performance. The top end extension was surprising and with a sub or two provided me with a very complete and enjoyable sound.
The C7’s surprised with how lively and fun they are. They threw a wicked soundstage in the room I had them in too. Honestly probably the best results I’ve gotten out of a system so far (again, with subs).
My room and goals have changed since but I’ll always have fond memories of both speakers.
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Love my Falcon LS3/5A’s. The higher quality my signal chain gets, they continue to increase and impress in performance.
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I feel the design scales ridiculously well.
I honestly had no idea they were so much more capable until i stopped by DejaVu Audio in VA, looking for my next upgrade speaker and the owner schooled me on room placement. I’ve spent the past few weeks now re-learning all my speakers and discovering capabilities and qualities about them i had NO idea they were capable of. I am very fortunate to have enough various equipment and space on hand to be able to do that.
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What lessons have you learned so far with placement?
Currently i have the speakers 7ft into the room from the back wall, and at a width of 7ft w/ a Tiny bit of toe in. this wide forward stance produces a deep and grand sense of sound in the room. Previous to this i had Only tried them well Further back sitting on the A/V rack. That positioning had no where near the grand sense of depth In the same room.
Previous to this i had felt they would only play well in my office or my Near-field room which are both much smaller spaces. Again, very wrong, the speakers are capable of playing well in a smaller space but have NO such need and are under no restriction. Obviously due to their size they have limits in reproduction capabilities of the sound produced compared to a massively larger designed speaker BUT they are quite capable of filling a 16x18x24 ft room w/ a deep wall of sound.
They have a very wide sweet spot and give the audience a wide seating area In a medium sized room like this Or you can place them on a desk and bing that same area in by many Feet and enjoy their sweet spot in a comfy little triangle.
I also did the exact opposite w/ my Older Klipsch Heresey speakers and managed to tame their big bold sound in my near-field room. Widening the stance and trying different levels of toe-in and forward facing postures along with pulling them near the walls and further out until i found what was The most pleasing position to me. The sound varies very much with those speakers especially.
The Change in the Falcons depth and width of sound was the most pleasing feature, especially since if you close your eyes and listen you do not get any sense of a small speaker performance. I wish i could better describe the sense of scale and grandness that i am experiencing but it is fairly easy to replicate Now and mess with as long as there is no furniture and such blocking me and allowing me the freedom to simply move the speakers around, I can sit back close my eyes and listen to the differences, anyone can sit there and easily Ask for their preference with me moving the speakers around from point to point on the floor.
PS, they happen to also play pretty well with the Vinnie Rossi, Lampizator Combo and i think that has allot to do with the pleasurable SQ.
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Please welcome @slowfan!
He is local to me and was the one that purchased my 30.2XD. He is hungry to learn and is shifting away from analog temporarily to go head first into digital. He is looking for more information about servers and DACs that will match with his Harbeth.
And yes, I’ve been helping him out too, lol
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So he’s already headed in the wrong direction 
Welcome @slowfan
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Lol
Welcome @slowfan !
@Veritas @Polygonhell @orrman Thanks for the introduction and welcome. @Polygonhell lol, short hiatus until i get digital under contol. My records are not going anywhere. Sold them once and never again.
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One of the nice things about digital is that you never have to clean the files and you can replay them as many times as you want, they don’t wear. Don’t know if @Veritas told you that yet.
Welcome aboard, a lot of digital head here to help and lots and lots and lots of reading material!
I remember the pain of cleaning my records. I couldn’t bring myself to do the initial cleaning and went with https://www.perfectvinylforever.com/ the second time around. Owner claims if handled properly, you only have to use a carbon brush.
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I’ve had a pretty extended tenure with 30.2xd and you can follow my journey in this thread and any upgrades I have made with electronics + cables.
If I were to go back to the Harbeth house line, I would still likely come back to the 30.2xd.
If you like the Harbeth sound, then you can’t go wrong with the 30.2xd. It is definitely a chameleon of a speaker and it will sort of sound like what you throw at it. If you throw boring electronics at it, it will sound boring. One trait that I found is that it seemed like it could scale infinitely. I kept throwing more and more money at it. My electronics and cables definitely exceeded the 30.2xd, but it kept on keeping up.
I’ve heard it slow and gushy with tons of tube gear. I’ve heard it speedy and have a lot of resolution with some SS gear. I’ve also heard it with amazing 3D presentation. Vocal-centric, timbre-centric, speedier, however you want it, you can push it towards that way.
By nature, it is decently neutral with great vocals and great timbre and you just focus it towards a trait that you like.
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@Rmsanger This is the aspect many seem to miss, not you in particular but others who hear about the “Harbeth House Sound”. It’s not their house sound, it’s the BBC spec, and the goal is transparency, hence why it seems like a Chameleon of a speaker. It’s eating what you feed it.
There are a whole series of BritFi speakers which follow the BBC spec, or originated from it. Such as the Falcons loved by @NickMimi .
Edit:
If you read up on Harbeth’s history, the HL5 is their house speaker where it evolved from the HB-1. Just a little fun fact for the backstory, only since you mentioned house sound.
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[quote=“Rmsanger, post:456, topic:33, full:true”
How was it to live with these speakers? Was it super amp picky and placement picky? Any drawbacks from longterm ownership I should be aware of?
What do you think is a good used price for these?
[/quote]
@Rmsanger I currently own @Veritas 30.2s. I’ve always been a fan of Harbeths. It was the clarity in the midrange that connected with me. In selecting a speaker, the vocals and certain instruments sounded amazing which made every other part of the song right.
One of the first things that I read when I first joined this forum was that the 30.2s scale infinitely from Veritas. My gear isn’t shabby, but not in the same tier as Veritas’. Man, I just threw $3500 (MSRP lol) worth of cables at it and it just gobbled it up. New LPS on my TT and again just leveled up. Ive heard the Harbeth with El34s, 845s, Rega Brio, and Modwright 225i. They all had their virtues. Or what Veritas said 
. My placement game is so suspect.
Long term, the sound I am producing atm is so different than the sound i fell in love with, but having a ton of fun. I don’t have any plans to change them out unless someone talks me into some Danish speakers.
I havent been looking too actively, but ive seen them in the neighborhood of 4k. Sometimes people will thow in Ton Trager stands for the hell of it. Finish will impact the price also.
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@Rmsanger if I may add, not only will finish affect the price but also make sure you cross-check the version as there have been several “anniversary” additions which had better components, most of which ended up in a later revision of the model.
Then there are many “B” stock being re-sold, if not identified in the add they are typically identified on the speaker itself.
Some things to keep in mind if you are considering used, it may seem minor yet it can be a difference in cost of thousands not a few hundred.
Good luck.
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Thanks for the feedback fellas I think this will be the way to go. Do you think it’s critical that you get the matching stands? I see many 30.2s sold without stands so wasn’t sure.
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