I do not know how this happened, but I’d read reviews and forum posts about the KLH 5’s and they kinda bubbled to the top of my consciousness again. I’ve got maggie .7’s in my basement listening space, and they are just sooo wrong. Small space, the speakers look weird, and I just wasn’t grooving to them.
So I thought, hmmm, maybe I could try the KLH 5’s down there.
Saw crutchfield had some scratch & dent examples, and I chatted up the advisor guy about what might be scratchy and dented about them, and the next thing I knew I got sucked into the whole thing and the credit card came out. I decided for a few bucks more to go with the outlet ones, which basically were perfect. Open box, really.
Well, two days later I got 'em in the house, and I thought I might start them out upstairs in my living room and I am kind of in love with how they look. They sound great, too. A bit more lively than my Harbeth 30.2 XD’s, so we’ll see if they get fatiguing. They need some time to break in, I reckon. They seem to “disappear” more than the Harbeths, i noticed that right off the bat.
Might move em downstairs eventually, but I love them here. I listen up here much more than downstairs, so they’ll break in faster, too. (I moved the Harbeths downstairs, and I’ll give that setup a listen this weekend.)
I’m still looking at a pair of these when I’m in a bigger space, they seem to tick all the boxes for me, I especially like them with those light grills that you have, they really stand out.
Lovely
They have the upper “tone control” on them also don’t they, be sure that’s set as you need it, or they could be a little bright
I wouldn’t be surprised. Cool thing is that I could swap 'em in and out of the basement whenever I wanted.
I’ve said before, I’m not as critical a listener as many of you. I mean, I LOVE great sound and cool gear, but I’m not going to be doing a lot of the tweaks I read about in these and other pages.
Aesthetics is a big part of this room, I will be honest. And if the harbeths blow me away downstairs, where it’s more a listening cave than up here, well, it’s win-win!
They sound great out of the box, so we’ll see what – if anything – changes over time.
My son and I are having fun taking turns with the roon remote. Everything from Billy Cobham to Talking Heads to David Grier to Cake. It all sounds great. The Harbeths obviously also are great speakers, but I’m loving these so far.
Only thing I wish is that you couldn’t see the frames through the grills.
If it were me, I’d have the grills off. In fact, I have always had the grills off of all my speakers except for a few… The Definitive Tech BP10’s I had years ago, and of course, the Maggies… For obvious reasons.
The KLH 5 look like they are designed with your living room in mind. These classic speakers are jaw dropping beautiful, especially in your room. In case they make sound that is remotely associated with the music you have in mind, I wouldn’t move them anywhere.
They certainly fit the style of your equally gorgeous Thorens turntables.
That’s the thing. They are so engaging and bring me into the music seemingly more than the Harbeths. (Although the Harbeths sound great, also.) Could be honeymoon phase, not dismissing that.
Listened for hours the past couple of days, and they are NOT fatiguing, so that’s a great relief.
I have a feeling these KLH’s are somewhat Klipsch-like and, truth be told, I have contemplated stuffing Cornwalls in here. Those would completely dominate the room, but I’ve wondered how cool they would sound.
This gets me partway there, at least. And they look the part.
yeah, it’s a cozy space. I use it MUCH MORE OFTEN in the winter. No reason to go downstairs in the summer except to do laundry!
it’s a small room, and these Harbeth 30.2 XD’s are arguably more than the space needs.
I have both Aegir and Vidar monoblocks (from the fine folks at Schiit), and I was using the higher-powered Vidars with the Magnepans. But the Aegirs are much better with the Harbeths.
With the tubed Freya+ preamp, it sounds downright elegant, I’d say.