Spendor is probably the best known of the three, and theirs is the typical story: In the 1960s, the BBC's engineering department declared that monitor-loudspeaker technology could not continue to improve without some…
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The best, most enduring audio products have in their favor more than great sound: They have some sense of history as well. Particularly good examples abound from the British companies Spendor, Rogers, and Harbeth, some of whose products were actually commissioned into being by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Better that, I suppose, than existing to fill a price point.
In one respect, the M40.1 actually was unsurpassed: I've never heard a speaker reproduce the sounds of voices and acoustic instruments with less timbral distortion or more textural realism. Brass instruments had almost shockingly believable color, and just the right balance of bite and natural decay. The sounds of fretted instruments such as guitar, mandolin, and banjo—things I hear almost every day in real life—were convincingly real and consistently enjoyable. Violins, solo or massed, never sounded righter to me than through the M40.1.
But the Harbeth delivered more than…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, reflex-loaded stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" fabric-dome tweeter, 8" plastic-cone midrange unit, 12" polypropylene-cone woofer. Impedance: 6 ohms nominal. Sensitivity: 85dB/W/m. Frequency response: 38Hz–20kHz, ±3dB. Suggested amplification: >50W.
Dimensions: 29.5" (750mm) H by 17.25" (432mm) W by 15.75" (400mm) D. Weight: 75 lbs (34kg).
Finishes: cherry; add $1000/pair for eucalyptus.
Serial Numbers Of Units Reviewed: 0000L, 0000R.
Price: $12,995/pair. Stands: $595/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 20.
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Linn LP12 (with Linn Basik power supply), Thorens TD-124 Mk.II turntables; Naim Aro, EMT 997 tonearms; Miyabi 47, EMT OFD 25 & OFD 65, Shindo SPU, Ortofon SPU Synergy A cartridges; Auditorium 23 Hommage T1 step-up transformer.
Digital Sources: Sony SCD-777ES SACD/CD player; Sony PlayStation 1 CD player.
Preamplifiers: Shindo Masseto, DNM 3D.
Power Amplifiers: Shindo Cortese, DNM PA3ΔS; Shindo Corton-Charlemagne, Quad II monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Audio Note AN-E/SPe HE, Quad ESL.
Cables: Interconnect: Audio Note AN-vx, DNM…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
My estimate of the big Harbeth's voltage sensitivity on its tweeter axis was 84.5dB(B)/2.83V/m, which is within experimental error of the specified 85dB/2.83V/m. This is lower than average, and suggests that a goodly powerful amplifier will be needed to achieve high playback levels. (I note that AD's 10W Shindo amplifier didn't cut it.) However, the M40.1's plot of impedance magnitude and phase angle (fig.1) suggests that the Harbeth is easy to drive in terms of its demand for current. The impedance drops below 6 ohms only in the middle of the midrange, and then…
Manufacturer's Comment
Editor: Many thanks to Art Dudley for an excellent review of the Harbeth M40.1. Perhaps I could comment on the differences between the frequency-response measurements we made days ago at the BBC's anechoic chamber in London, the in-room listener-at-home curves, and those made by Stereophile.
Making high-quality loudspeaker measurements that can be confidently repeated by other researchers is not easy, and is far more difficult now that big, expensive anechoic chambers with controlled, reflection-free environments are rare—and expensive and inconvenient to…
John Atkinson wrote about the Harbeth M40.1 in November 2008 (Vol.31 No.11):
Art Dudley reviewed the Harbeth M40.1 loudspeaker in October (p.153). A large, stand-mounted design in the British BBC tradition, the M40.1 costs $12,995/pair, plus $595/pair for its substantial, 14"-tall stands.
Art was extremely positive about the M40.1's performance. "Harbeth has the rare ability to bundle tonal neutrality with excellent performance in virtually every other regard that matters," he said, and concluded that, "Here, finally, is a loudspeaker that achieves flat frequency response without…
Manufacturer's Comment (From December 2008, Vol.31 No.2)
Editor: Art Dudley's rave review of the Harbeth Monitor 40.1 in the October issue, and its swift placement in Class A of your "Recommended Components" section, is most gratifying. Three cheers to AD and John Atkinson for their efforts. Critical acclaim is wonderful, but what is even more important to us is the unanimously positive feedback from customers, both consumer and professional, affirming our belief that we have achieved our design objective: to take all the strengths of the previous generation of the BBC-style three-way…
Don't be confused by the MBL 6010 D's oddly baroque, even retro looks. Behind all the glitz—the oversize, perfectly finished, black-lacquered faáade; the two big, solid brass knobs plated with 24-karat gold; the ornate lettering; and the incongruous digital volume display—resides a thoroughly modern, remote-controlled, unusually versatile, and well-thought-out solid-state preamplifier. Not that the 6010 is a new design. It's been around for a long time, and the current "D" iteration is at least five years old.
Why review it now? Well, I'd been wowed by MBL's 101E Radialstrahler…
The review sample included the balanced-input and MC-only phono-preamp modules, which brought its total price to a breathtaking $26,490. Yes, the 6010 D is a beautifully finished, well-built, full-function preamplifier in a large, heavy chassis, and MBL cites for it some eye-popping specs—but could its sonic performance possibly justify the price?
Using the 6010 D
I suspect that few audiophiles will use the 6010 D's second set of outputs to route their signals to another room, but if you're one of them, you'll welcome MBL's dual system. Everyone else will pay for a feature they don…