Harbeth NLE-1: Three Months on My Desk

7 July

I have owned the Harbeth NLE-1 for over three months now, sitting on the desk in my study as near-field speakers.

Connection is simple and straightforward for a pair of active speakers. I hooked them up to a Bluesound NODE 2i as the source, via RCA cables. Because I use them near-field, I set Personality Mode to high, which gives an extra octave of bass at low volume. Over the past few months they have run between three and five hours on the days I work in the study.

The NLE-1 does exactly what a good near-field speaker should. It sits there and delivers the music against a pitch-black background, with a high level of accuracy, never losing a detail however small, and never fatiguing even after long hours of listening. For the first time in ages, after a long stretch of my desk being occupied by Bluetooth speakers, I am finally hearing music in a form close to the original recording, whether it is ABC News, ABC Classic, Qobuz or my Spotify collection.

In a recent review for SoundStage! Australia, Barry J. Johnston compared the NLE-1 with the ATC SCM25A, a speaker that is almost three times the price. On the midrange, he wrote:

"Where the ATC delivers midrange as information, the NLE-1 delivers it as unobstructed involvement... It draws you in without demanding that you work."

The full review is well worth reading: https://www.soundstageaustralia.com/index.php/reviews/1030-harbeth-nle-1-active-loudspeakers

Book a listening session with the Harbeth NLE-1 at our Sherwood studio.