Hi everyone,

We have gone far into this forum with technical issues, speakers' placement and room treatments. So far, that we almost tend to forget some critical issues existing before we buy and listen to speakers and components.
First is the question of where and how do we receive live sound. Is it -or better should it be- the maestro's position, is it between the performers, or is it in an appropriate position within the audience? We seem to have forgotten how we experience live music, so we started talking in depth about this or that placement, this or that amp or stands or room treatment. Why? Because everything starts from the recording and how it should "store" the event, in order to deliver it to our ear system resembling a typical sound quality & pressure that reaches a typical listener's position. Because this is all about it. Resemblance... A reproduction is a kind of resemblance.

The main reason that we have become Harbeth fans and happy owners is that our speakers are designed exactly with these principles in mind. To reproduce human voice and instruments' sounds, delivering them as they should be heard from a given position of a listener. You don't hear a singer, a sax or a guitar by sticking your ear to a mouth or to the instrument's body... The recording itself is trying -theoretically- to capture the event using the same sceptic. I guess this is what we call "natural sound", otherwise what are Harbeths famous of.

So, to be more specific, I am humbly calling everyone to tune up his/hers ears to live sound first. And keep on doing it often enough. Then listen to Harbeths playing, and decide whether the sound is very close, or not, to what/how he heard it. Placement, amp combos, cables, room treatment and accessories come second. And, IMHO, they do not play a -so to speak- critical role in "getting" the music itself. They become important to a certain degree as far as we have successfully reached the first step, that is the comparison measure between a live performance and the home reproduction.
Then, words such as "front, rear, fast, slow, soundstage, low end attack, tight, crisp highs, nuances, etc., etc." do receive their importance. But only after it...
Just some thoughts,

Regards,
Thanos