SHL5 Plus
Harbeth Audio Ltd have released a new loudspeaker the SHL5 Plus at the Munich High End Audio show. Harbeth Audio has advised that Parmenter Sound was the worlds first Harbeth Audio distributor to place a order for the new SHL5 Plus loudspeakers. We are very pleased to hear this news and look forward to promoting and demonstrating the new Harbeth SHL Plus loudspeaker in New Zealand.
Harbeth News Letter May 2014 Munich Special
SoundSpeak.
Rarely does British loudspeaker legend Harbeth Audio launch new models. When it does, we can be sure that it will be something very special.
The wraps come off a totally re-engineered version of Harbeth’s best- selling traditional BBC-style monitor loudspeaker as the Super HL5 appears in revamped ‘Plus’ form.
Munich High End 2014 sees the world’s best-loved speaker brand revealing significant improvements to this classic. It now benefits from the brand’s exclusive RADIAL2TM cone technology as used in the mighty reference Monitor 40.1 and multi-award- winning M30.1.
Harbeth’s designer, Alan Shaw, says, “The two cubic foot monitor concept put Harbeth on the map, over 35 years ago. To be honest, I’ve always been in awe of Dudley Harwood’s original model which he developed as he retired as the head of the BBC loudspeaker R&D team to found Harbeth. “
With so many effusive users around the globe and amid continuing critical acclaim, up-rating the fifteen year- old Super HL5 success story was no easy task. “Every time the subject of updating this masterpiece has been raised in almost the same breath, a host of satisfied customers have cautioned me, ‘don’t mess with the perfect’! Only recently has technological advance paved a path to retaining all the old plus-points whilst genuinely improving this beloved model”, adds Alan.
The legend lives on!
New model features
• Enriched musical experience to bring the concert hall home
• New crossover for a smoother sound
• New bass/mid unit with Harbeth unique RADIALTM2
• Exceptionally flat response
New technology gave designer an irresistible itch...
Three elements of the Super HL5 worked so perfectly together that they’ve been cloned from the outgoing model to the new. The cabinet, a critically-damped ‘thin- wall BBC design’, makes a perfect match for the new- generation RADIAL2TM bass/ midrange unit. Likewise the main tweeter and super- tweeter.
As the designer, Alan Shaw, explained, “The drive units are so well balanced in their acoustic performance that I never even considered a fruitless search for trendy, eye-catching alternatives. Why re-invent the wheel for the sake of it? If sound quality is paramount, the designer should concentrate his efforts on teasing out and resolving peripheral
issues – when technology allows.”
Every Harbeth design gestates only because technology has made a worthwhile improvement practicable, not merely on a designer’s whim or fancy.
The Harbeth designer is under no commercial pressure to force the pace of development. That ensures longevity of the products and a widespread assurance that buying a Harbeth is a fine future- proof investment.
“Technology does not move in a linear path”, adds Shaw. “It may be years, and indeed it has been years, since new techniques hinted at the possibility that the re-examination of a design would be fruitful.”
This is exactly what
has happened with the transition from the Super HL5 to the Super HL5 Plus. “I wasn’t looking to upgrade this speaker now – new technology just made the upgrade irresistible.”
Is there ever a ‘right time’ to relaunch a much- loved model? How many designers have agonised over that issue?
Shaw’s work on the Super HL5 Plus has taken the design to a new level and one step closer to bringing the concert hall home – something every Harbeth aspires to.
At this level of performance, the accumulation of a number of individually small design improvements equates to a very significant increase in overall performance.
