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My Harbeth C7ES-3 story...

kray said:
I’d love to go LFD or Luxman but out of range right now. Trying to stay in $1k used territory.
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I totally understand. I have been saving for a while and using gear from the 90s mostly. LFD is also very nice and another good pairing.
 
Congrats on the Harbeths!

I also have a pair of C7ES3s and I know I'll never part with them. Mine are on the 4 post Sound Anchor stands with quarter inch Sorbothane pads between them. Every so often I switch the Harbeths out for my Magnepan .7s, but that never lasts for long and I can't wait to get back to the C7s. They just sound right.

I guess I should probably just sell my Maggies. :idea:
 
Route 66 said:
Congrats on the Harbeths!

I also have a pair of C7ES3s and I know I'll never part with them. Mine are on the 4 post Sound Anchor stands with quarter inch Sorbothane pads between them. Every so often I switch the Harbeths out for my Magnepan .7s, but that never lasts for long and I can't wait to get back to the C7s. They just sound right.

I guess I should probably just sell my Maggies. :idea:
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What are you powering the C7's with?
 
kray said:
Well I bit the bullet.

just bought a used LFD IV SE integrated. Seems every review out there is praising this guy with Harbeths
let you know when I get it next week.
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you dog!

I will be really interested to see what you hear and think.
 
StuartB said:
you dog!

I will be really interested to see what you hear and think.
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ha. Me too. So far my tube pre into solid state amp has added a little something special but I’d love to have that with just the LFD integrated. Crossing my fingers.
 
So I thought If I’ve gone this far down the rabbit hole why not go all the way.

just bought a used Belles Aria too.

so I’ll be having a nice shootout next week.

LFD vs Belles

After I’ll have a lot of gear to sell :D
 
kray said:
So I thought If I’ve gone this far down the rabbit hole why not go all the way.

just bought a used Belles Aria too.

so I’ll be having a nice shootout next week.

LFD vs Belles

After I’ll have a lot of gear to sell :D
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My dealer said that the Belles compares favorably with the Mistral 2018 but higher up, perhaps not. I love my Belles.
 
Art K. said:
My dealer said that the Belles compares favorably with the Mistral 2018 but higher up, perhaps not. I love my Belles.
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Should be interesting Art... I would love the Belles to be even 90% of the LFD as the Belles has phono and a bypass, so I can hook a tube pre into it if I desire. and let's not forget a REMOTE!

I'm rooting for the Belles already. Stay tuned...
 
It's the quietest amp I've owned. No cross talk, no hum in the phono. Just dead quiet and once run in very musical.
 
So got the LFD mk IV today. Let it warm up for a couple hours play. The Audiolab 8300a is a great value at $1300 new (even better used/open box price) but

the LFD definitely beats the 8300a. Just better dynamics from top to bottom. I always felt the top end extension wasn’t quite there on the 8300a. No issues there with the LFD.

Belles Aria supposed to arrive tomorrow. Sending back the 8300a so it will be a shootout just between the Aria and LFD.

LFD is so far a definite keeper. Can’t really find a fault in it yet. So it’s the one to beat.

this is all with the RME ADI-2 DAC. Interestingly I’ll have a Schiit Gungnir Multibit Gen5 DAC to test with in next couple days as well. Word is it’s soundstage is bigger than RME. If that’s true I’ll be a happy audiophool
 
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You’ve got some pretty nice gear rolling through your system. I am still very interested in the Belles/LFD comparisons.

Have fun!
 
Did I mention how much I hate UPS.

Belles Aria Was out for delivery since 8am and a no show all day. Paid extra for Saturday deliver and now reschedule for Monday. UPS constantly no shows on me. Not one single issue with FedEx.

:mad::rant:
 
RE: Belles delivery: i've had to take ton of time out of my life to get to the bottom of it... it's gone from "think we lost it" to "oh it was on wrong truck" to we'll try to get it to you end of day today since it's still on wrong truck.... Ugh...
 
trying to get some dedicated time in and going back and forth between the Belles and LFD, changing connections etc.

it's been really diifficult to tell much of a difference between these two. I wanna say the LFD is just a small tad fuller sounding right now.. using some test tracks.

Everything right now is Qobuz streaming over Ethernet to Microrendu via Roon.

The build quality on both is good, but definite edge goes to LFD. It's solid as a rock. Kinda deceiving too via pictures it looks unassuming but feels high quality in person.

I'll have some more time during the week and weekend to test more... then Thurs I get the Schiit Gungnir MB DAC to compare to my RME.. fun times lots of stuff to test :D
 
I would be interested in seeing the interior of the LFD. I have always heard that it was unspectacular in appearance, but very impressive in sound.

Have fun!
 
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