Current or Previous Harbeth Owners…

I realize “better” is subjective, but a speaker that does what Harbeth does, but better.

I have a set of Pass Labs XA100.5’s,

Sound quality wise, getting a harb 40 would be a waste of these Pass Lab amps, i.e., these are good amps.

20k for that Harb is broad daylight robbery of old men on social security. The Harbeth with its poor quality design/build at most is worth 1k or 2k. It really does not sound any better.

Get a Wharfedale Elysian

Or

Get a Mofi Sourcepoint 888 for 5k and pair it with those Pass amps....Both the Wharfedale and Mofi were designed by higher aptitude British guys, i.e., much higher aptitude than heritage Harb’s daddy and hence they tend to walk all over 20k Harbs.

@deep_333 hahahahahahahaaa,I've seen some delusional,absolutely asinine statements on this site but yours has to rank right up there in the top 2 or 3!

I'm a bit in a similar position trying to upgrade from another BBC speaker, the Spendor SP2/3R2. Admittedly I couldn't test a lot of brands, but I couldn't find the "better" sound, at least not for a decent amount of money. I have recently tested  a pair of Sonus Faber Serafino at home and they didn't quite cut it (a very forward but otherwise wonderful tweeter, by the way). I would have liked to also try Devore, Fink, Tannoy (and maybe Fyne) and the other BBC type speakers - Graham, Stirling, maybe you can check them out, I couldn't. So I have just bought the bigger Spendors, the Classic 100 (the equivalent of the Harbeth M40.x). Small room so bass is a challenge, but we'll see what room treatment can do about it.

I have also owned a pair of Harbeth M30.2 Anniversary and frankly preferred the Spendors. You can read my impressions here: https://forum.audiogon.com/posts/2700741. For others or in a different system the Harbeth's could simply be the ticket.

My history of speaker ownership, in no particular order.

Quad 988, Kef Reference 5, Stirling LS3/6, Klipsch Heresy 3, Kef LS50, Magnepan 1.7, Spendor BC1, Harbeth C7 40th anniversary edition.

I have also heard numerous speakers in shows, dealers, etc.

I now own Harbeth 40.3. Out of the speakers mentioned above I have kept only the Stirling LS3/6 because they are made by Derek Hughes, whom I admire, and resemble the 40.3 sound but in a much smaller scale.

The Harbeth 40.3 imo surpass all speakers that I owned previously. They excel in tonality, realism, voices, dynamics and they are tube friendly which is important to me. I have tried them with a MC275, Quicksilver mid monos, Cary CAD-300sei, and they have always sounded their best.

YMMV, but for me, the 40.3 is a truly end game speaker.

@chrys71 Indeed! Harbeth 40.x is a phenomenal speaker. It's for a select group of audiophiles who appreciate good tonality and timbre, realism, and vocal purity. In my case, the most potent combination was a solid state class A amplifier paired with a tube preamp -- best of both worlds. You'd be surprised how much more the 40.x can offer when a powerful amp takes control of those 12 inch woofers.