How do they copare? XBA-H3 vs XBA-A3
long story short A3 wins in clarity and details than H3
Now details
Trebble:
XBA-H3: has a harsh treble a trebel so revealing so evidnet when playing harpsichord music be it bach or couperin or this one pictured from Froberger edition a taskin a french with robust sound, the trebel on the H3 makes all the mechanism sound too umm well mechanical, with ochestral pieces it tends to distort, also happens with organ pieces.
A3 treble is a bit subdued, more organic feeling to the poor harpsichord and nice detail to the orchestral pieces so evident in sinfonia to the cantata BWV 29 (sony classical CD Greatest Hits Bach), Bach's magnificat also resounds and never spikes hard,
Mids: H3 mids are so shy that makes things so V-shaped, it loses so much details on this area, especially on big works like chorals and orchestrals.
A3 have more forward mids and sound (at least for me) close to reference /neutral sound all amounts of details nicely heard, instruments that go MIA on the H3 are clearly present in the A3's
BASS: h3... dreaded bass, yep, same quantyt like A3 buuuuuuut... H3 bass lacks the effort it doesn't rumble. periodit can't go deep, back to froberger taskin cembalo and bach Partita No. 1 BWV 825 (ithink): allemande, bas sin H3 doesn't hit hard i cannot hear the rumbles of those harpsichord used, the froberger boast a massive 16' register and was meeehhhh..... same for JL krebs organ works (weinberger brothers or so, play for label mottete) fetaures an organ with bass reeds also again I booed the H3, they cant go deep as those reeds demand and create a boomy mess
A3 in contrast big deep bass (not that bass like) and rumbles!, reaches effortless to the deep lows of that 16 foot register i was instantly amazed on the krebs organ prelude screw* loud & deep bass reeds nicely represented, the partita by bach also rumbled nice when hitting the lowest of the strings of the cembalo, yet not over powering the other frequencies.
Iamgin: H3 presents a weird skewed to the left imaging, the boomy bass and acoustic chamber design (too thik profile) creates a echoey music that for the N00b classical listener saya wow, reverb in every music!... just my 2 cents, sounds at times like bathroom recorded music uughhhh, Bachs sinfonia to BWV 29 coudln't be worse on those boomy kette drums crappy reverb
A3 have a nice imagin to the center out of the head, represented as is, reverb is present when the recording has it, the partita BWV 825 has little reverb, represent as such on the A3 (infact with A3 i can hear (call me crazy) instrument's internal reverb (resonance)) wheres H3 add artifical reverb giving the impression it was recorded on a bigger hall (with tiles like bathrooms ARRGHHH)
H3
Boomy bass makes things like kettle drums so overpowered and lacks rumble
mids shy contributing to V-Shape and not neutral
Highs: harsh
imaging: bathroom like reverbs, skewed to the left
A3
deep & rumblig bass not overpowering, kettles sound like kettle drums and deccay perfectly
Mids mre forward contributing to detail
Highs a bit subdued but not harsh neither lose details
Iamging: centered or as recording mics were placed
More close to neutral / reference sound
A3--> perfect for classical music, H3--> nope
Veredict H3 FOR SALE, XBA-A3 KEEPERS