Differences between Harbeth, Spendor, Graham, etc. ?

Hard to answer that. I only heard 2 Harbeths: one was the 40.2 (at an audio show in a fairly large room). I loved the sound of it, but you can’t fit that one.

My 30.1s are being used in a nearfield audio situation, which absolutely shouldn’t work, but does. They sound lovely. The mids and upper bass sound wonderful to me. None of that thin/parched/straining to sound good thing here.

Head-to-head I might think the 40.2s have a bit more meat in the mids/upper bass, but that’s because they’re quite a bit larger and are 3-way, not 2-way.

BTW, I pair my 30.1s with a sub, which some will tell you doesn’t work, but for me it works very well. A good sub (mine is JLAudio e110) will only enhance the entire bass range & lower midrange of any speakers, including this one. But I should note that I use a quality external/electronic crossover to match the sub to speakers (Marchand Audio XM66 with variable crossover points and 24 dB/octave slopes), which no doubt figures into the good sound I get with this combination.

FWIW, another pair of British speakers that please me to no end are the vintage KEF 102.3s. These are approximately the same size as the 30.1s and have the same driver compliment (8" woofer + 1" fabric dome tweeter). But the 103.2s are sealed/acoustic suspension, which makes the upper bass in particular sound even a big tighter and more dynamic.

@desktopguy 

How far are you sitting from the 30.1's... or is the answer already provided by the "desk-top" portion of your moniker?  

Just 3-4 ft away. Neither pair of speaker should sound good in this configuration, but both sound wonderful to me.

In all honesty, though, I’m definitely not hearing the soundstage/imaging either pair of speaker can do. I’d need to get at least 5-7 ft away from them--and also get them 3-4 ft away from the back wall, to hear all that their capable of.

But even in the nearfield configuration, I can get a very good picture of speakers’ tonal characteristics, dynamics, and so on.

I think the 30.1s have a truly lovely sound. I listen to a lot of classical music and jazz, and they are ideal for that. If all I listened to was rock, dance music, etc, the 30.1s probably wouldn’t be my first choice, those they still sound damned good when I (very occasionally) crank them up.

@desktopguy 

I think the 30.1s have a truly lovely sound. I listen to a lot of classical music and jazz, and they are ideal for that. 

About 3/4 of my listening is to acoustic Jazz and other acoustic genres.  I think the 30.1's would be worth checking out. Thanks. 

All of these brands make nice sounding speakers and one would have to hear specific models to make the right choice. There are also other similar lines of speakers that deserve consideration.  For example, for the extremely small monitors, the Falcon LS3/5A model and ProAc Tablette 10s should also be on the audition list.  There are other models in the ProAc lineup that should also be liked by the crowd looking at this type of speaker. 

A local dealer carries Graham, ProAc and use to carry Harbeth.  By far, the line most people shopping for speakers were interested in was Harbeth.  But, those interested in hearing more than just the Harbeth that they were primarily interested in often ended up switching to Audio Note speakers.  There were very few who came in to look at Audio Note that switched to Harbeth, but quite a few that switched from Harbeth to Audio Note.  Those that owned Audio Note or who were interested in Audio Note that went with something else most often ended up with custom built horn speakers that the dealership also makes/sells.