So as some of you know I’ve been forced to sell up to save pennies and refocus on life a bit. However a lot of generous friends have ducked in to help and as results of their own upgrades, the following are either on long term loan, or have been sold to me at prices that allow me to come out of it with some cash.
So Harbeths and Luxman are out, in with marantz and focal
Nice! That can’t be too painful to adapt to!
For my tastes the Focals are a BIG upgrade! 
I’m probably in a minority of 1 here, mind…
Well, they’re a lot more “hifi” and very different.
Each speaker has its own demands. The Harbeths like good clean power, the focals do too, but you need to be careful not to excite that top end.
I used to have 1007be back in the day, these are 1028’s and a little more balanced. The marantz amps are an excellent partner though.
Never heard the pairing, but it did strike me as a potentially great combo, cancelling out some of both’s more contentious traits.
Enjoy! 
Yeah I mean at MA9 level they’re pretty neutral, but I’d be lying if I said they weren’t a hair smooth. Not enough to completely cancel out the focals, but somewhat.
Source will be the trick
With friends like that who needs enemies 
That’s a good result in all seriousness, speakers>no speakers etc. And if you can get a sympathetic match then it should be all good.
Looks like you’ve already done so, but don’t be afraid to toe-out the Focals further - stridency notwithstanding, you will often improve soundstaging as well. Tilting forwards can also be worth experimenting with. They also generally work best at as much of a far-field position as the room allows
Yeah they’re pretty toed out, as much as im happy with, any more than this and the treble doesn’t get any softer, but it started to get disconnected feeling. They’re firing just past my ears now and the balance is decent.
It’s different but my ears will get used to it no doubt! New dac / pre arrives tomorrow so will see what that brings to the mix
Oh and as far as position goes, I’m about 2.5m away from them, so they’re quite far field
No where near far enough!
Yebbut heat shedding triodes and trafos…
The WE Tungar FC supply runs quite warm but not nuclear
I’m starting to feel this myself.
I find if I’m a couple of rooms away, that helps!
So i remembered I still had my mates Audio Research LS28 SE valve pre. Inserted between dac and amps, this is a huge difference, and I really mean huge.
Huge smoothing and fleshing out of mid and upwards. Much more textured and less spitty.
However, adding a £10k pre to my system doesn’t help my issue
Just be glad your friends didn’t lend you some Naim to go with the Focals.
From the evidence of Lopwells past.
Taking away doesn’t either 
Needs more holes n drivers in them there 
This’ll delivery much of what the LS28 excels at but at a stupid low price (nice find, 1028s were the best Focal of that generation)
Conrad-johnson Premier 18LS pre-amplifier
Condition: excellent+. champagne gold fascia panel; black chassis
Manual, original carton, remote control. One owner, purchased 2011. The only solid state pre-amplifier that conrad-johnson designed to be given the Premier prefix. High quality component count and build quality. Typical conrad-johnson sound; large and deep sound stage, extremely elegant sound.
£750 | Commissioned sale, buyer pays seller direct | REDUCED PRICE
can’t find that item any more, but sadly also no good, as i need balanced outputs (and preferably balanced inputs), i have very long runs between pre and leftmost amplifier.
New dac / pre arrives today though, so we’ll see what that does to the balance
