MULTICHANNEL (AV) WITH HARBETHs

[Philippe Monteyne]

Dear Alan and all,

This may have been covered before (sorry if it is the case)... but did anyone hear a multichannel system with Harbeth loudspeakers? Does this make sense? I'm asking because I'm equipped with C7s since 1995 with in a good musical system and enjoy a lot of course. On the other side, I also have one of these cheap 5.1 kits for the home cinema around my flat screen TV, which is not very musical I'm afraid (not ideal when a movie has a nice musical track). I'm thinking about upgrading both systems separately (new amp to replace my old valve amp that drives the C7s and a better home cinema kit). Alternatively, would it make sense to try to integrate my C7s in a multichannel sytem? What about adding a central front P3 and two rear P3s, all driven by a good multichannel amp (I hope some are really musical?).

Thanks for any feedback, Philippe

PS: great paper on Harbeth and Alan Shaw in Hi-FiNews... I strongly recommend !

[harbethpr]

I have Compacts 7s at the front, and P3-ES2s at the rear and another as the centre channel - it sounds awesome. I did invest in a sub-woofer, but find I hardly ever bother to switch it on, there is just so much clean bass without it.

[Philippe Monteyne]

Thanks for sharing this experience of a multichannel system with Harbeth's. Which amp do you use for this?

[wtaylorbas]

I have an entry level HT setup that serves our family needs and I do enjoy my SACDs & DVDAs multichannel listening.

I like listening to serious music in stereo. I recently used a vintage Pioneer SA 9100 to the speakers (response 20Hz to above audibility) and liked the sound very much with well controlled bass which I do not get via my AV receiver.

Can any of you suggest/recommend an AV processor that would be as good as a HIFI amp?

Regards

[hifi_dave]

Having sold Megabuck AV systems in the past, I can say 'no' but it all depends on the budget applied.

Hopefully, many thousands of Pounds worth of AV will sound as good as a budget Hi-Fi system but if the budgets are equal, the Hi-Fi in stereo wins hands down. IMHO.

If the budget is modest I would always take the stereo route for music reproduction.