Where did you first hear a pair of Harbeth speakers?

[weaver]

Hopefully that's the main options covered, if it was 'other' then please specify.

Thanks

[keithwwk]

Me is other. I heard it at seller (owner who want to sell his P3) house.

[hifi_dave]

I voted 'at a dealer's' because I am a dealer and I first heard them here.

I knew of Harbeth, of course, but I was on the search for speakers that weren't in-yer-face like most are nowadays. So, I contacted Harbeth to hear a loan pair only to be informed that they didn't have such a thing and that my best bet was to buy a pair !!! This I did and got in a pair of 7ES-3 a few weeks later. I eagerly plugged them into a modest system and sat down to audition them and that's where my love affair started. Within ten minutes I was on the phone ordering the rest of the range and that's my story.

[Rapid 17]

I've recently bought a pair of Super HL5's from hifi_dave having never heard any Harbeths before. They are superb speakers.
Also, although I have never met hifi_dave I would say he's a gentleman to do business with, many thanks Dave.

Geoff.

[PK_fin]

I voted other. I have not heard any Harbeths at a dealers, but I have had M30 and C7 to test at home. Planning to try SHTL5 too. Plus a couple of pairs of another brand.

[John Geisen]

I first heard Harbeth speakers at CES in the new distributor's room, Walter Swanbon . I was a Naim dealer and Chris Koster, the Naim distributor in the US, at that time, recommended both Harbeth and Walter to me. It's the best decision I've made and I owe a lot of my success to both Walter, who was willing to take a chance on me and to Chris, who was selflessly helping me expand my line. I speakers I heard at the time were M30's.

[singslingr]

I heard my first Harbeths at a dealer's store but it was only for 5 minutes or so, by most standards of logic not really enough to form a firm opinion.

However, I believe buying hifi is an emotional decision that sometimes defies logic, so quite naturally I ordered the PESRs immediately.

[Double D]

My first exposure to Harbeths goes back.. many.. many years to the old HL1mk3 that a friend of mine had that he had paired with some beautiful old Luxman stuff at the time.. it was sublime to say the least. I don't think I ever forgot that system. Flash forward many years, and now I have M30's in the main rig, and P3ESR's in the vinyl room.. delightful.

[davidlovel]

I first heard Harbeth at Heathrow HiFi shows 20+ years ago. Alan Shaw was typically demonstrating the speakers alone, often to a very small audience - presumably because the Harbeths were not so 'impressive' as some other speakers. I liked their BBC sound but thought the HL5 and Compact as basically the same as the Spendor SP1 and SP2. As we had both of the latter in the family I did not listen for an extended period, but I do remember some interesting hi-fi conversations with Alan. It was not until 5 years ago that I heard something better than the SP1, the Super HL5.