My first ever Harbeth listening experience = Instant P3ESR sale!
On Saturday just gone, I travelled down to see David Wren at Radlett Audio in Essex, UK. Specifically, I went to demo the P3ESR. It was my first ever time for hearing Harbeth loudspeakers. Since I've been very enthusiastic about Harbeths just from what I'd read here on the HUG and elsewhere, I was looking forward to the session immensely.
I took with me plenty of suitable CDs to test the speakers - a few favourites plus a few difficult and interesting CDs too. Yet from the first few tracks I knew I'd found an amazing speaker (in the P3ESR), that lived up to everything that's written here about it and even living up to my huge expectations too, and more.
Throughout the listening session, it is no exaggeration to say that I was repeatedly shocked and astonished by what the P3ESR was capable of. As some HUG members may have read, I am an LS3/5A owner and I thought that that would make me reasonably prepared for what I would experience with the superficially similar sized P3ESR.
I did not prepare me one bit! I played a Capitol Records CD of Frank Sinatra (Come Swing With Me) and the voice was delivered with such grace, human warmth, impeccable timing and rhythm, amazing detail and emotion that it brought a tear to my eye. Dave wouldn't know that as he was sitting behind me in the room! In short, the P3ESR finally gave me a personal Holy Grail of hearing Frank Sinatra as if he were singing in the room with me. I thought the LS3/5A had come close, but the P3ESR shattered that pretence and delivered resolution and emotion on a whole new plane of fidelity. I have been searching, hoping for such an epiphany for years and finally Harbeth have delivered.
I was also amazed at the P3ESR's performance with rock/pop material. I had expected magic from jazz, classical and vocals but in a way the P3ESR's grasp of rock/pop like Donald Fagen and REM was even more astonishing because I hadn't expected it. Their rendition of Fagen's The Nightfly was the best I have ever heard it on any speaker and that includes speakers at yes, 10 times the price! That shouldn't be right - but it is!
Time and again I would get a sudden feeling of surprise as a particular musical moment would pass by with an uncanny and alien lack of harshness and distortion. But it was a wonderful and thrilling surprise each time. I was shocked at how Donald Fagen's vocal on I.G.Y. was no longer recessed in the soundstage and covered up by other instruments forcing it to get lost in the mess that is (relatively) every other speaker I've heard, including the LS3/5A.
I also played REM's Automatic For The People on LP and again it was easily the best rendition I've ever heard. Michael Stipe's vocals were so clear and were delivered with real feeling that I've heard hints of before, but nowhere near as powerfully as Saturday afternoon with the P3ESR.
I took along a piano recording of some solo Mozart works because I'd read that Alan considered piano sound to be the crowning glory of the Harbeth sound. Well, I have never heard Mozart's piano sonatas played in such a riveting, exciting way that keeps you interested and draws you in as it goes along. The P3 succeeded in making solo piano almost like a small orchestra by the amount of musical colour and brilliance it seems to bring out of the piano. Not colouration! But some kind of colourful essence of the music I'd not had access to before with other speakers.
Another shocker was the scale and bass power from the P3ESR. I played an RCA Living Stereo SACD of Liszt'z Hungarian Rhapsody no.1 and was actually open-mouthed at the depth and presence of the bass strings section. I - involuntarily - said aloud "How can they do that? I joked with David about subwoofers hidden in the cupboard behind the speakers, but I could have been fooled. It sounds over the top to say that, but the sense of bass fullness and power is something to behold with these little marvels. Those who haven't heard the P3ESR may doubt this but believe me they really deliver quantity and quality in the bass region - enough to satisfy me indefinitely.
Needless to say, I placed an order immediately for a pair in Rosewood and left smiling knowing that I'd saved myself thousands of pounds by not buying any of the contenders I had been lining up costing up to £9K instead, that don't sound as good as this insane give-away bargain of a speaker!
David Wren's room and setup at Radlett Audio were perfect and allowed me to really hear what is so special about the P3ESR and he deserves praise for putting up with my classical and jazz that maybe weren't quite to his tastes!
I can now understand why Stereo Sound Japan gave Alan and the P3ESR the Grand Prix Award. It's marvellous and just about perfect! Well done Alan and all at Harbeth and thank you for giving us such a dream speaker at such a very fair price.
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Originally Posted by GregD
