David Johnson

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
4.33 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $190.00 from A major dealer; Lond

Summary:
Purchased new in 1981 with a Linn Sondek. Despite the attentions of a small boy on the tweeters and the removal of the foam on the rear ports (which would have disintegrated anyway), they still sound great. I got new foam grilles from the factory in 1990 and with solid stands and careful positoning in small room the overall sound, and particularly the bass response, never fails to impress visitors. The best hi-fi buy I ever made.

Strengths:
Sweet treble. Lack of small speaker 'boxiness'. Bass there when it's 'there', so not tiring to listen to.

Weaknesses:
Very few compared to similar sized speakers I've heard. Compared to some £2000 B&W contemporary speakers heard, they lack control in the bass, but what the hell: when I'm playing vintage tapes from a Revox, it's the real deal!

mystic fred

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
4.00 of 5, 5.00 votes

Price Paid:  $199.00 from middlesbrough

Summary:
HEYBROOK HB2 (mftd.1981). i still have these speakers after 24 years simply because i haven't yet heard anything good enough to replace them. even celestion dittons lose out to these in the tweeter department, and modern speakers such as monitor audio bronze/silver i have tried just sound plain dull (bi-wiring doesn't work much either so don't bother!). only thing is the grilles deteriorate but they sound better without them. sometimes these speakers sound so real it makes you jump! i bought another used pair of these from devon this year for £70.00 on ebay.

Strengths:
highly sophisticated sound especially on vinyl, spacious clarity, wide soundstage, tight clear bass. shows up cheap source/amps, needs quality front end. suitable for all types of music (except rap etc.needs 12/15" bass drivers!!).

Weaknesses:
non weaknesses really, though positioning/height is critical (not really a weakness),they can tend to sound a bit "nasally" sometimes, also they don't like being overdriven. some amps may find these a job to drive.

Similar Products Used:
celestion ditton 15xr, monitor audio bronze/silver, b&w dm20.

Price Paid:  $240.00 from Audio Advisor

Summary:
I''m running the HB2s off an NAD 3240PE intergrated amp and they sound terrific. I was initially a little disappointed with the bass (to be expected, perhaps, in a bookshelf). It sounded empty or hollow. But after moving the speakers around and letting them ''burn in'' I really like them. They are a terrific value. The sound is precise and full.

Strengths:
There has been no bleed or mushiness. Each sound has integrity - especially in the mid to upper.

Weaknesses:
Though I generally like the look, the faux-wood wallpaper-like finish on the blond pair peeled slightly and looks a little cheap.

Similar Products Used:
B&W

Price Paid:  $330.00 from 10 Ocatves, Bombay

Summary:
I read a review earlier in this section mentioning some other material for the woofer cone. The pair that I own has a high-grade Kevlar 160 mm driver with a smooth, 25mm silk dome. I''''m driving a pair off a NAD C320(USD 350), which is 40 @8 ohms. I also have a NAD C521 CD player(USD300) player. The setup sounds marvellous, in my study which is about 15x15. The speakers are about 4'''' away from the rear wall on custon stands, but they hit hard. I''''m basically a car audio buff and I wanted tight and clean bass. I thought I''''d need an active sub, but I''''m more than happy with the low end of my system. The mids are clean and crisp and the highs are accurate. The HB2s are sturdily built and are deep chested with the vocals. The soft clipping on the NAD never allows the sound to be unpleasant even at high SPLs. At nearly a 1000$s, I think it is one of the best setups that one can put together in India.

Strengths:
Price/Performance

Weaknesses:
Somewhat shabby with wind instruments, I don''''t listen to too much of ''''em anyway.

Similar Products Used:
Monitor Audio Bronze ser. Bookshelves. Got ripped off for them. They couldn''''t come close to what my corrent setup does.

Price Paid:  $25.00 from Hi-Fi shop I used to manage

Summary:
Hate to admit this, but I use these little gems on a non-home theater, stereo TV system driven by a Harman Kardon hk395i(mid '80s) receiver. The sources are an early '90s Sony Hi-Fi VCR, the variable audio outputs of a Toshiba 30" TV, and, occasionally, a Sony portable CD player. What I really liked about them when I picked them up off of the Used Equipment bench at my store was the exceptional build quality of them. I was just looking for a good, sturdy pair of speakers to play TV/video through so I could disable the deplorable speakers built into the TV. What a find. I've recently(just for giggles) put them onto my main system which consists of a VPI HW-19III turntable/Audioquest PT-5 tonearm/Audio Technica AT-OC9 cartridge(eliptical stylus older production, not micro-line stylus newer production) phono front end, Forte' Audio Model 40 preamp, Forte' Model 6A or AVA Super 70+ power amps along with various Monster, Tara Labs, and Audioquest cables and the sound was absolutely wonderful!! They need to be on stands with the tweeters at ear-level +/- 2" or so and well away from the rear and side walls. This opens up the soundstage wonderfully and the bass doesn't suffer the way it does with other British "mini-monitors"/"bookshelf" speakers I've heard, i.e. Spendor, Spica, etc. However, to get the best bass from the system, a subwoofer would really flesh out the overall response very nicely. Seeing as these are vintage early to mid-'80s, the "cheesy foam grilles" I mentioned above are starting to fall apart and my plan is to fashion a new set of fabric-over-wood-frame grilles to replace them, which I can't imagine would affect the sound very much. It's a real crying shame that Heybrook no longer markets their products in the USA!( assuming they're still in business).

Strengths:
Good soundstage, Good frequency response for a 6.5" 2-way, very sturdy build quality.

Weaknesses:
Cheesy foam grilles, only connectors are female banana jacks(no binding posts)

Similar Products Used:
N/A