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Old 2nd Aug 2018, 2:49 pm   #33
D_S_J_R
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Suffolk Coastal, UK.
Posts: 603
Default Re: The BBC monitor sound Loudspeakers from Spendor Rogers, Harbeth....

I had a wonderful afternoon in the company of a pair of Harbeth 40.1's, which sang in my dealer pal's particular room and these were driven by an old industry stalwart Crown DC300A (mk 1.5 with satin front and overload lights). They did what I remember all good monitors doing, they just went louder and louder with no fatigue until the 300A lamps suggested that was about it... At more reasonable volume on another occasion, I compared this pair to the SHL5, which was then the current model. I thought the 5 was just a *touch* more 'seamless' on the bass to mid crossover region (you'd never know unless compared directly on suitable speech and similar material), but obviously the 40.1 bass was better (my own SHL5's react in this living room the same as the 5/9's do ).

I've not been able to get the 40.2's my dealer friend has into the dem room so far, but I'm told that like the SHL5+, the bass is tauter still which further benefits the lovely clear midrange. Would be great to hear from any of you who've been able to listen to them.

You lot may laugh, but the Bc2's with replacement SA2 drivers (from an engineer at Spendor) weren't sounding right. rather than the thunderous SHL5 bass in this room, they were sounding almost 'weedy' and fatiguing after prolonged listening irrespective of sources and amps. As the later driver seemed to be better behaved at the top of its range than the identical looking (surround aside) original, I decided to see about dropping the tweeter (HF1300) level down a bit. Derek Hughes (Spen's son and accomplished designer in his own right) very kindly gave some pointers on a proper additional L pad as the original tapped inductor used for this purpose can't easily be changed in value (at least by me) and after a bit of trial and error, I think I have them better now. Interesting how, in this room and with my tired old ears, taking the top down is heard by me as an increase in bass and midrange... (And all these audiophools of which I'm still on the fringes, tell you to ONLY trust your ears!). A bit 'organic' sounding now in comparison with moer modern speakers, but acoustic instruments are still well reproduced not too dissimilarly to the better known BC1 model, but with better controlled bass for the more percussive music I play a lot.

I'm still hankering after a listen to the latest version of the JBL 4312SE though, now the sqawk and screech of the originals has gone. Martin Colloms quite liked the 4312mk2 that was around briefly twenty years ago and these new ones appear further developed with stronger cabs and new tweeter design.
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Dave
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