Thank you guys.
Here are some pics :
I just put them where the Wilson's were and played back and forth between the MC2205 and the Shindo CCQ, both driven by the Giscours preamp.
Listened to 2 digital recordings : Tracy Chapman "Let it rain " and Eric Bibb "An evening with Eric Bibb" and 2 Lps : Norah Jones "Feel like Home" and Patricia Barber " a Fortnight in France".
I do not like those Skylan stands. They are filled with their material but boy, those do vibrate a lot. Actually they seem to vibe and resonate exactly like the speakers while in my mind a good stand should decouple the speaker from the floor but maybe this resonance is part of the game, I do not know. I will order AVF from PAB and I guess that they will improve things a lot, especially in the bass.
So here comes my first question to Jonathan Halpern who told me that he heard my amps with them and that they would not work. "Did you have the 40.1 on the Skylan stands ? or other stands ?"
I noticed that these speakers give a really big sound, full heavy weight. The bass can be difficult to control and imho those stands do not make them justice.
But honestly, the CCQ drive the 40.1 very very easily. There is no strain at all and the level reached is very high without any sign of distorsion while the volume is only at 9 oclock on the Giscours. Compared to my WP8, I had to lower actually the gain of the CCQ.
The mids and treble are just to die for and the whole music is the most natural and lifelike I have listened to in my room. The tapping of the audience on P. Barber recording is extremely natural : something I never heard at this level. This sound is always pretty tough to deliver by speakers and here the result is just unbelievable. The voices are wonderful, clean and very very understandable :the level of details, transparency and naturalness is very high.
The mids of the PMCs are as good but less neutral because they are more forward. The Harbeth imaging is very very close to the Wilson one. PinPoint and huge huge depth. But the Harbeths are less directionnal than the Wilsons.
Now the bass : very deep and full and goes very low. On some recordings, it appears a bit slow, fat and over represented. On others, it is just exceptionnal.
Of course, the 2205 gives a bass with some degrees of increased speed and tightness but clearly I would not say that the CCQ have problems to manage it :
what I hear is just the common and usual difference between SS and tube bass.
Different texture and speed. But clearly on less resonating stands, the bass performance will surely improve.
Jonathan, I think that what you encountered to make you state that the CCQ won't work with the Harbeth's may be due to :
- the poor isolation of the stands ( I can feel vibes everywhere in the room, while with the Wilsons and PAB AFV feet, nothing seems to vibrate in the room )but I guess that you tried other amps so I'm not sure that the stands may have played a real role in your statement
- cumulative transparency : both the Shindos and the Harbeth are highly transparent. They let you hear everything. An approximate recording will sound great on this gear but if the bass was not recorded perfectly, you will hear it as unfocused and slow. My Wilsons are much more forgiving in this area.
So it is easy to say " Oh the CCQ cannot drive this boomer", while they are just showing the limits of the recordings. I did not listen to many recordings but What I listened to is enough for me.
Overall, the Harbeths are by a large margin, the most natural speaker I ever had. They sound like huge and energized LS3/5a's. The music is both lifelike, vivid, and very easy and not aggressive. They do not have much to envy to the Wilsons in terms of dynamics and they produce much more low bass.
I may spend A LOT OF TIME with those before getting back to my Wilsons.
I have huge problems at this time in my private life I just do not want to share and these speakers sounded so good tonight that I had to write my feelings.
Sorry if this mini review was not very clear and in good order.
Thanks for the nice comments folks and do not hesitate to give suggestions and opinions.