HB1 MK2 owner experience
Hello all,
I am considering the above speakers and would like to know if any one has heard or read a comparison of these. The HSU are second generation and have been named home theater sound's product of the year for 2008. Any assitance would be appreciated. Thanks
I have had a pair of these for about a year I think. I run them with Hsu’s smallest sub, the VTF-1. Room is about 15x15 feet with various ledges at window height and an open door in one end, a recessed door in another, carpet and a blanket across one wall. Somewhat of an acoustic nightmare, but I am able to place the speakers away from the wall at least 8” and from the side walls about 3 feet. A 40” TV is between the two speakers and the blanket rising to about 4 feet from the floor is behind the tv. The speakers sit about 3” from the floor on acoustic isolation wedges. The optimum sitting distance is about 6 feet away.
I mention this because I believe there are caveats with these speakers where positioning is critical, but I say that with another caveat, which is something I’ve heard other people mention: these speakers appear to be very sensitive to... bad recordings. Bad mixing. You’re going to hear some failings in some of your stuff while others will shine anew.
I’m running optical digital out at 96 kHz 24 bit from a Mac mini to a 125 watt Pioneer tuner amp set up for 5.1 or stereo. Stereo is the 96, which the amp accepts, 5.1 is the ps3.
These speakers are not fatiguing and they are not overly bright per se, but the detail and sheer reach for lack of a better word of the upper end of these is such that failings in that range on recordings are quite pronounced. 80’s music from CD’s does not sound great often but maybe it never did because of those xfer assumptions back then and so on, but remastered things (I’m using lossless digital from iTunes) sound wonderful, like the Eagles remastered on these is gorgeous because those original recordings were by an engineer who knew what he was doing, and subsequently remastered by similar.
Jazz vocals and recordings, which are often good and by people who understand audio and seek a particular reproduction aesthetic, sound amazing on here because the space is represented so well, the 3d space. You can hear the kickdrum reflecting off the floor. You can hear the room of the recording. The sound field up and down is very large. Vocals like Diana Krall or some Radiohead tracks create a presence that is palpable.
In thickly mixed electronic tracks like J-Pop MELL for example, these speakers reveal a LOT of sounds and effects that simply were not noticeable before; there is a granularity of fineness to the midrange. You feel like it has very high resolution, like retina display for your ears, and as engaging and compelling.
But...
Maybe it’s my system but these continued to sound rather bright for me and I finally gave in and on the Mac have very carefully eq’d them to be softer top end. But I wish to explain: I never would have had to do that if all my recordings were perfect. In other words, great recordings sound epic on these, no changes as long as you position them carefully (just keep listening and moving them tiny amounts... a swear a fraction matters on these, at least in my house) and isolate them from too many reflections. The horns radiate outward so much that if they are too close the sides will overlap and cancel each other out. These really need a bigger room than I have.
I had them on stands but I wanted more presence in the 400 Hz range. I put them on acoustic isolators on the floor and carefully positioned them so their ports were augmented properly by the rear wall. These have quite a bit of output which can be ‘tuned’ by moving the speaker away from or towards the wall. You can have the speaker on, and bend down and hold it, facing it, and hear the room around you reflecting it. That’s how I ended up aiming these so they wouldn’t cancel each other out and why that blanket is on the back wall, and so on. My room is too small.
When you hear them, you know that something very special is going on.
Also, they’re beautiful without the grills. The drivers are gorgeous, and they’re about the same size which makes for a rather unified front, yet delineated by the shapes circle/square. The tweeter has angles I’ve never seen before, some impressive coating and a most curious clear/chrome center, concentric clear circles, opaque chrome. The woofer appears equally impressive, that light and rigid cone shining black.
Anyways, for the price I don’t see anything near these. They sound huge.
