Sonus Faber Grand Piano Home to SHL-5?

[pingpong]

Hi all,

I have read a lot of good stuff about Harbeth speakers. Unfortunately I do not have the chance to listen to one yet

Currently I am using Sonus Faber Grand Piano Home (GPH) with Pass Labs X150.5 Power. Lately, I found that the music from my system no longer excites me, guess I need some spark to revitalise the music in my house.

Say if I plan to replace the GPH with the SHL-5, will I miss the GPH, esp the bass? I listen mostly to jazz and vocal. will the PassLabs 150.5 be a good match with the SHL-5 too?

Thank you.

[keithwwk]

Hi pingpong,

IMHO, for the music you listen, jazz and vocal, that will be a very huge positive sonic and muiscality jump if you upgraded to SHL5. The gap between them are really huge. As for passlab, the SHL5 will tell you how good your pass is, especially the bass and mid. Anyway, do not blame the SHL5, it just telling you the true.

Cheers!

[pingpong]

Hi Keith,

Thanks for your reply.

you seems to know the Pass Labs quite well. Sorry for my bad English, I don't quite know how to decipher your comments on the Pass Labs. good or bad? Pls kindly PM me if it is inconvenience for you to post your views here.

thanks

cheers

Hi pingpong,

IMHO, for the music you listen, jazz and vocal, that will be a very huge positive sonic and muiscality jump if you upgraded to SHL5. The gap between them are really huge. As for passlab, the SHL5 will tell you how good your pass is, especially the bass and mid. Anyway, do not blame the SHL5, it just telling you the true.

Cheers!

[hifi_dave]

Pingpong,
Just do it, you won't miss the SF at all except for (maybe) the styling IMO.

Even the bass, which is one of your concerns, is superior on the HL5 - deeper, cleaner and faster. Through the mid and top, the HL5 is so much more natural and open and the extra pace of the HL5 will wake your system up. In comparison, the SF is fat and warm and cuddly, which is fine if you want to doze but the HL5 will give you real involvement.

[ryder]

Hi,

I have owned the Sonus Faber Grand Piano Concerto, not the Home series. The SHL-5 would be an improvement to your Sonus Fabers, depending on your musical tastes and listening preferences. As mentioned by hifi_dave, the Sonus Fabers are colored speakers with a distinctive warm midrange with rolled-off treble and slightly muddled bass lines which give a veil to the music. Good for some late night listening of smoky jazz or if you want to doze off halfway through the music session. When matched with my equally warm Plinius amp the end result was a disaster. Matched with Krell amps the sonics are more presentable. I never find Sonus Fabers to be an engaging speaker especially if excitement is what one is seeking.

The Harbeth SHL-5 is a much more neutral speaker and will be a huge improvement if tonality, harmonics and timbre are important to you. You will be looking out from a cleaner window with the SHL-5's as everything will sound clearer and more dynamic with improved coherency from top to bottom. Music will sound more truthful to its source which in my opinion is one of the more important aspects in sound reproduction as musical enjoyment is further enhanced. All speakers are colored to a certain extent and it is difficult to pin-point on the degree of neutrality that one holds especially when different components and amps are mixed and matched. Nonetheless, once you have listened to the Harbeth you would then realise how colored some speakers are, especially with the Sonus Faber Grand Piano Home that you own.

I reckon your Pass Labs X150.5 is a quality amplifier although I do not have experience with this unit. The SHL-5's do pack some punch in the bass department. It all depends on the amp that will be matched with the speakers. As mentioned earlier by some other folks here, the SHL-5's are very revealing speakers and will show the true colors your amp or source are capable of.

[jim123]

Hi,

I have used the GP Home before I sold it and replace it with the SHL-5 and share the same opinion with Ryder that the Sonus Faber speakers are colored with warm midrange and muddle bass. I used to convert mp3 to disc and was able to enjoy it with the GP. But after I replace them with SHL-5, this converted CDs are not listenable anymore with the Harbeth. Harbeth speakers are just so neutral and revealing that they will expose the weakest in your source.

[Vlado]

Currently I am using Sonus Faber Grand Piano Home (GPH) with Pass Labs X150.5 Power. Lately, I found that the music from my system no longer excites me, guess I need some spark to revitalise the music in my house.

Hi PingPong

I'll suggest first to give the Harbert's an audience with a different amplifier (some common mid class amp) and then compare the sound with the Pass Labs amp.
By my experience the PL amps sound is different to most other amps.

Good luck!

[Ferdinand777]

I used to own Sonus Fabers speakers, Electa Amator, Concerto, Concertino and have also heard the Grand Piano and the Stradivari. I agree that Sonus speakers are very good speakers but the are a bit colored sounding , however in a good way.

I have grown out of that sound especially after living with the Harbeths for 4 years now. At present, I use both the C7es3 and the SHL5s and have no more desires to own any other speakers other than Harbeths. Being a Harbeth dealer myself I tend to be bias but hey, Harbeths just sounds very natural and once you are accustomed to that sound, anything else sounds different.

[hifi_dave]

The HL5 has given me more enjoyment than any speaker I have heard over the years. I have heard a couple of massive, megabuck speakers in the past which have been very impressive on 'large' pieces of music and loud rock but they weren't fun listening and not something I could listen to at length. Most others are just not good enough.

The HL5 does it all for me and are my benchmark - at least until I get my 40.1's next week !!!