Harbeth HLP3ES

Harbeth, an old school that work closely with BBC in it’s heyday. Now it come up with some innovative feature like super tune structure abd the radial driver. Run by Alan Shaw and he mention he use his daughter to voice his speaker. This is a good marketing as at least I still remember after all these years.


The original HLp3 is originally design to replace what is lack by the ls3/5a.It said to have improved upon on the dynamic, extension, high and low. HLP3ES is the second generation and even more improvement is expected. I have checked in a 1997 magazine and it stated a suggested price of GB$799 and a ls3/5a price at GB$699. It stated the HLP3ES as sound “Make beautiful music in a unflappable fashion, with a superbly unforced sense of scale.” The specification stated as 83 db, 120 watt, 6 ohm and dimension as 30 x 18 x 20 cm.

I listen to this speaker after the B&W 801 s3.
Upon listening there is more high in quantity. However the high lack the refinement that I used to be. This is unfair as this speaker may still some time to run in. Female voice is singing like the nose been cover up. Male voice is singing more “man” than I used to be. Bass is good but it really need a better stand. This speaker can handle much louder compare with ls3/5a. And again this speaker need more time to cook. I will come and to listen again later.

KLau

The forgotten king 2 Second encounter,B&W 801 matrix s3

It’s more than 2 weeks and it time to visit this ‘king”(B&W 801 MATRIX s3) again. Yes,sound much better compare to last time.I can hear an integration between mid bass and the mid. I don’t feel the bass is lag behind from the rest. Although as a whole I still feel the music is presented slower than I used to be.

B&W use this tweak too, normally we put at the side but B&W put it below the tweeter.

This speaker can really handle mid. The midrange flow effortlessly. My only complain is the speaker should have more authority. It still lack the majestic sound of a big speaker. This system moving on the right track and I feel there will be more to come.

KLau

Rogers 11 Ohm

In HiFi world, rarely anyone does not know about Rogers LS3/5A. I wonder whether LS3/5A makes Rogers famous or vise-versa. I thought I will not acquire Rogers 11 Ohm after fall in love with 15 ohmer until I saw these pair with Ebony veneer. They are not really perfect conditions but nice sounding! Dating with Wong's Rosewood 11 Ohm would be interesting.

The forgotten king,B&W 801 matrix s3

B&W 801 S3

B&w is no stranger of making quality speaker. Abbey road studio use a lot of b&w speaker especially the flagship model like the 8o1 series to mix classical music.

A pair of 801 series 3 has been maul to my buddy room and it’s time to listen to this king again. Previously this king was the flagship model of B&W but later replace by the nautilus and now the diamond series.

The associate gear for the night was Jadis JA80, Clone MFA pre and Mark Levinson Dac and transport in a medium size room. The speaker is standing on the original puck

Upon listening the impression i get is very clean, calm and gentle character. Music seems to be slow down, giving more time to enjoy the music. Mid is transparent and with sparkle high but the main problem seems to be the bass. There not much mid bass with very loose low bass and lag behind the excel mid and high. I heard some very weird sound emitting from the bass. The sound is more compose when we crank out loud

There is some uniqueness.The circle area is actually hollow.I heard mid low emit from there.We try a torch light buit cannot see anything as the light can't go through the cloth.

Maybe the power amplifier need more juice. We should give more time for my buddy as the speaker is only landed on his room 2 weeks ago.

Long live the king!.

Klau

Infected! By h1f1 virus (3)Speaker & Cd player

Speaker

I search through PASAR ROAD KL and look at all the possibility. Car audio, tv speaker driver but at last settle on a pair of rm20.00 national 8 inch full range.

This a diatone P610mb.I like this fullrange.

This is excellent in term of price/ performance. After a while the upgrade bug keep bothering and I decided to buy speaker after reading too many hifi magazine and none of them mention full range and diy speaker.

From there I have owned more than 10 pairs of speaker like mordaunt short ms10, Aliante spazio, chariot syntar 2, rega el8, klipsch tangent , goodmans maxim,jbl,b&w….etc and I just can’t stop buying more and more.

At that time mostly I restricted to buy middle to entry level bookshelf speaker. I still renting a room in KL and I only dare to dream to own a big speaker.

Source-cd player

Now come the source, I bought my cd player blindly consequences on rely entirely on hifi magazine and the look alone. The pioneer pds904 with the cd put upside down is really macho to look at. It spin the cd like a turntable.

The tweak that I have done to the cd player is:
1) Change the power cord
2) Damp all the electrolytic capacitors.
3) Shield the transformer , this cd palyer use 2 transformer and I think 1 is for digital and another is for analog.
4) Replace the cd mat. This is 1 of the radical tweak and it is not easy.I replace the cd mat with a cork mat. You can diy a cork mat but it is a hard wok.(Who say diy is easy?) First you have to sand off the thickness of the cork sheet until it is the same thickness as the original mat.

Later when you get the desire thickness cut out the shape and just put in.

The thickness must be balance all the way or the cd player may fail to read any cd’s.(Other may use others thickness but adjusting the lens but I did not how to do this).

You don’t have to use any glue as the cork is automatically stuck at the place when you put in. Please don’t throw away the original mat in case you may need to use it back.

Even after I tweak the cd player I still don’t like it .(maybe I didn’t try hard enough)This is the consequences of reading too many hifi magazine and buy solely base on recommendation......continue to revolution.

Klau