Monitor 30.1 now at Radlett Audio

[hifi_dave]

I received my demo Monitor 30.1 speakers in luscious Tiger Ebony, earlier this week and they are sounding rather good indeed.

Please contact radlettaudio@hotmail.co.uk for more info or to book a demonstration.

[Labarum]

Would you care to describe what differences you hear between to 30 and 30.1, Dave?

[hifi_dave]

I haven't yet done the comparison, just enjoying my music through the M30.1 this afternoon. They obviously share the great Harbeth strong vocal prescence, lack of colouration and transparency, giving you just as it is.

Another fine Harbeth.

[muypogi]

I haven't yet done the comparison, just enjoying my music through the M30.1 this afternoon. They obviously share the great Harbeth strong vocal prescence, lack of colouration and transparency, giving you just as it is.

Another fine Harbeth.

Between the 30.1 and the Compact 7ES3, which would you recommend to a potential buyer? I have a Compact 7 ES3, but I'm curious as to how the 30.1 sounds vs the Compact 7, the former being smaller and more expensive. . .

[hifi_dave]

Refinement is the word which springs to mind but honestly, they are all excellent speakers and appeal/sell to different people with varying requirements.

There is absolutely nothing missing with your present speakers but you can always visit your dealer to audition the M30.1

[Drdennis]

Stereophile arrived yesterday with Sam Telligs' review of the 30.1. He loved it, but it is a bit of a tease, as the review is to be continued next month.

[Labarum]

Stereophile arrived yesterday with Sam Telligs' review of the 30.1. He loved it, but it is a bit of a tease, as the review is to be continued next month.

Is the review available online?

[tobes]

Yeah, I think Sam Tellig reiterates what 'hifi_dave' is saying above.

He talks about the superior tonality and resolution of Harbeth speakers in general and says the M30.1 gives a bit more of these than the C7 (for his taste and the music he listens to most - classical/jazz).

"It delivered a sound that was simultaneously more resolving and more sweet" and he goes on to talk about the tonality and truth of timbre of Harbeth speakers and says of the M30.1 vs C7 "....it resolves with more delicacy and definition".

From his first report, I think its safe to assume that Sam will be keeping the M30.1's.

[hifi_dave]

Glad we're all singing from the same hymn sheet !!!

[GregD]

When I move to a larger listening room soon, I think I'm going to find it hard to resist a pair of M30.1 speakers...

[Don Jr]

I heard the 30.1's in August and I wish I never had. I can't stop thinking about them. I love my C7ES3's and will keep them forever but if some money falls out of the sky and bounces off my head the 30.1's will be mine as well.

I'm not good at describing how a speaker sounds but 'sweet' would be a term I'm comfortable with. We listened to Melody Gardot 'The Absence' and I drifted away into a dream like state. They really are rather special.

[hifi_dave]

They certainly are.

[DSRANCE]

The C7 ES3's have more obvious "warmth" of tone to me, whereas the 30.1's appear slightly "leaner" to start with, although the bass rolloff seems differently set, as the latter still has great bass extension, just more even in smaller UK rooms and at a lower level than the "fruitier" sounding C7ES3's - in my opinion. Rooms which favour one model may not necessarily favour the other I feel.

Being a now experienced LS5/9 listener, I've fallen madly in love with the 30.1's, even over the SHL5's, since they take all the best from the original BBC design and take the level of seamless transparency to another level WITHOUT EVER making the sound sterile or "cold" in tone, quite the opposite in fact, since this extra clarity creeps up on one over a good few minutes of listening as one becomes aware of things going on in the recorded mix that weren't so clearly reproduced before. The SHL5 would be better in a larger room I think and more efficient too, but for near to mid-field listening, it has to be the 30.1's for me

[weaver]

It has been a little over a month now, so a slightly belated recommendation from me for both hifi_dave and the 30.1 that he supplied.

The only problem is that I haven't had enough time to spend with them!

A slight concern I had prior to their arrival was that in moving from my previous HL1/4 to a smaller cabinet in the 30.1, I would be loosing some bass depth as it is not a small room (4.5 x 8m) - this could not be further from the truth. I should stress that I did not have both sets of speakers in the same room at the same time - but moving forward I don't feel I'm missing anything at all that was (or may have been) there before.

[A.S.]

It has been a little over a month now, so a slightly belated recommendation from me for both hifi_dave and the 30.1 that he supplied.

The only problem is that I haven't had enough time to spend with them!

A slight concern I had prior to their arrival was that in moving from my previous HL1/4 to a smaller cabinet in the 30.1, I would be loosing some bass depth as it is not a small room (4.5 x 8m) - this could not be further from the truth...

And the physical reason for that is this: the Mk4 has an Audax-made woofer with an extremely stiff and somewhat temperature-sensitive synthetic-rubber cone surround (around the rim of the bass unit). The Mk4's surround is tight (to the touch) and even though the cabinet is larger than the M30.1, the bass is (technically) overdamped because of the viscoelastic drag effect of this stiff surround. When the temperature changes, the bass quality markedly changes with this strange material, and straight out of an unheated aircraft cargo hold, the Mk4 had no bass. If you are really curious you can run a hair dryer over the Mk4's surround or a can of freezer spray and you'll hear the difference. Caution! The glue joint may fail so be careful as there are no spared available.

The M30.1 surround is much more pliable, the bass is more lively and the damping is just right for the cabinet. So, once again, physics gives us the answers!

[Simon]

... I think I'm going to find it hard to resist a pair of M30.1 speakers...

I did find it impossible. Mine are on order!

[weaver]

That explains that one then - thanks Alan, my assumption was along similar lines but more owing to the age of the Mk4 than the original material.

The other effect that was equally an "impression" rather than something I have managed to pin down was this:

When the 30.1 first arrived the stands I had to hand which were about the right height were Mission Stance - a central (filled) pillar with two smaller ones behind and a small-ish top-plate, around 62cm high.

As I said above, the room is around 8m long - there is a sofa around 2/3rds of the way along and behind this a table and chairs; I listen from both the sofa and when sat at the table (dining table height) so I try and get a balance of speaker height for both seating heights - though the higher position is also a couple of metres further from the speakers. The Stance I thought were still a little low even from the sofa.

I then saw some stools of the right sort of size but some 10-15cm taller, cheap enough to try (or just use as stools if they didn't work out as stands) so ordered a pair.

For whatever reason I felt that overall the sound was now better - this really is with the minimum of time spent on set-up or 'critical' listening - but if I had say how, it would come down to more even top to bottom.

The bit I found strange was that from the sofa position the sound struck me as 'louder' for the same volume than it had been on the shorter stands (there is a digital read out on the pre and in the evening this is most often on 1), conversely from the dining table it was quieter than I would have expected. Having switched between the two seating positions a few times it now seemed that there was a greater difference in (perceived) volume between the two spots than I am used to.

I would expect that getting closer to a speaker would mean that the sound would get louder - but there did seem to be more of a difference than I recognise in this room.

I then started trying to reason this one out: had raising the speaker relative to my ears resulted in more sound directly from the bass/mid and less from the tweeter? - but I was definitely thinking louder rather than fuller or warmer.

Next thought was cancellations, certainly from the sofa with the shorter stands, it had appeared that something in the mid - low cello range had been a bit recessed which with the taller stands was now more present; could that be enough to raise the overall perception of volume?

What about the relative quietness from the table position, there was nothing obviously missing from there but could it just be that being the other side of a large sofa, even though this is well below seated head height, enough sound was being absorbed to emphasise the difference?

I suppose what I am getting at is that I have never been so aware of the perceived volume in the room changing simply due to my position in it; I am used to the balance of sound changing (top to bottom rather than left to right) but this is different.

The other major change in the room that is worth mentioning, though it happened just before the 30.1 arrived, is that there is usually a 3 x 3m, thick wool rug on the (wooden) floor between the speakers and the sofa which is not there at the moment and this has had an effect on the sound in the room as a whole. As far as the 30.1 are concerned the room has been consistent.