The perks of hating one of your local dealers

[rainsoothe]

So yes, since I hate my local Spendor and Harbeth dealer, and having a new year's vacation in London, I took the opportunity to visit some UK dealers and audition some stuff - namely Harbeth P3ESR and Spendor s3/5r2. Why? Because I'm an idiot and was wondering how much better my Naims could sound with similarly priced speakers (I had a pair of pre-loved Spendor S3E that were part of a deal, and I like their sound a helluva lot).

Long story slightly shorter:

- Harbeth P3ESR have magical midrange and highs, but their size makes them lack any sense of authority - I'd take even budget options that can at least mimic some kind of weight over them
- Spendor s3/5r2 - ok, so dealer didn't have these, so I auditioned
-Neat Motive SX3 - pretty shouty for me
- Spendor A5R - very nice for me, but wouldn't risk a floorstander purchase without testing in my boomy, Romanian room. Although I have to say bass was very well judged. Had a pretty enveloping sound, but sounded a wee bit forward with the Naims at times.

Now for the kicker, the dealer, after asking me what kind of sound I was into, said they had a pre-owned pair of B&W 805 (first gen diamonds or s, can't remember) for 1200 quid. They sounded ok, I guess, but left me rather indifferent. They also had a pair of pre-owned B&W PM1 that had already been sold, but I really wanted to give them a listen, for future reference and, maybe, bay-fishing.

So here I am, PM1s with matching stands (those specific ones, turns out buyer withdrew or something) in my living room, having them arrived yesterday, after dealer obtaining a box for them from B&W, 1300 pounds poorer, with a smile on my face.

I would write something about them, but most reviews are pretty spot on. Very cohesive, juicy sound. Easy to listen to, but engaging at the same time.
Makes me wonder why they were discontinued, but haven't heard the recent B&W offerings in their price-range. CM5 s2 are pretty bad imo.

Time to experiment with Tellurium Q Black / Ultra Blue and Nac A5.

Ok, sorry I said this would be short, apparently I underestimated my ability to blabber.

Oh, and very nice visiting KJ West One, and big thanks to Sophie at Grahams (for bringing up the PM1s to begin with).

 

[Macspur]

Good read, thanks for sharing.

Not sure why you bothered trying such small speakers as the P3's though. Despite how good the Harbeths are, a speaker of that size is never going to give you weight or great scale.

Mac

www.realmusicnet.wordpress.com

 

[lindsayt]

What do you think of the bass from your PM1's?

 

[Andrewjvt]

Glad your sorted.
Now why do you hate your dealer?

 

[Gazzip]

Glad your sorted. Now why do you hate your dealer?

Indeed. I also need to know this. I have no interest in B&W, Spendor, Neat or Harbeth, so please dish the dirt on the dealer (names not required).

 

[chebby]

Glad your sorted. Now why do you hate your dealer?

Indeed. I also need to know this. I have no interest in B&W, Spendor, Neat or Harbeth, so please dish the dirt on the dealer (names not required).

DVDPlanet?

(Looks a bit 'lively' for a demo room and way too big for Harbeth/Spendor mini-monitor type speakers).

 

[rainsoothe]

Glad your sorted. Now why do you hate your dealer?

Indeed. I also need to know this. I have no interest in B&W, Spendor, Neat or Harbeth, so please dish the dirt on the dealer (names not required).

DVDPlanet?

(Looks a bit 'lively' for a demo room and way too big for Harbeth/Spendor mini-monitor type speakers).

Dunno if they use that space anymore. And it has mostly to do with attitude (arrogant type, and like other brands that they don't deal are bad). I once phoned to ask if they could match the price for Atacama stands I found on the web, and with a pretty violent tone, the guy on the phone said "I don't care what price you found on the web". When asked to talk to a superior, he said "why? What do you need with a superior? I'm the superior". The next day, I got a phone from a lady superior, and had a nice 1 hour chat, where I explained what happened the day before, and she explained how it's wrong to "demand" deals (which I didn't, I just very politely asked and got perplexed by the aggressive chimp reply I got), that kind of stuff. There was, of course, no apology, more like "I guess you were both in the wrong" conclusion. Therefore, any of the brands they stock, I get from the web (futureshop for atlas-cables, etc.)

 

[rainsoothe]

What do you think of the bass from your PM1's?

It's surprisingly full for a speaker this size, imo, and has a nice energy. Sometimes it can sound a bit one-notey, but it's mostly when I'm in another room and it's reflected back by a column. Also, waiting to test with the other cables, since I know the DNM speaker cable I use rolls off the low frequencies a bit - I used it to cure boomy-ness from other speakers. In the dealer's room there was no such effect (as in the limited texture for the low registers), but they were using QED XT400 (which was the only thing differing from my system, apart from interconnect, which was stock Naim). I will report more on this during the week, after I've gotten some playtime with the afforementioned cables.

 

[rainsoothe]

Good read, thanks for sharing.

Not sure why you bothered trying such small speakers as the P3's though. Despite how good the Harbeths are, a speaker of that size is never going to give you weight or great scale.

Mac

www.realmusicnet.wordpress.com

Well, you know, reading around on the web will let you read reports of people being very satisfied with different stuff. And their scale is actually not bad, I just assumed their bass would be lesser then other speakers. I just didn't think it would sound like it was coming out of half a box of shoes. The next Harbeth in my theoretical pricerange was too big for what I can (or want to) accomodate, so I didn't wanna bother the dealer with setting it up just for kicks.

 

[rainsoothe]

Ok, small update: so the culprit of the one-note type of bass was in fact the DNM, because of its roll-off at the frequency extremes. The PM1s don't do miracles with the bass, but it is surprisingly punchy for speakers with 5 inch drivers. Ended up with NAC A5, despite the obvious advantages of Tellurium Q black (bigger soundstage, clearer and smoother everything, better separation between instruments and voices sounding a bit recessed on the Naim cable), because naca 5 seems to be more groovy and flow-ey. Most would prefer the TQ, I imagine, which is not by any means clinical.