Spendor, Harbeth...why so hot ?

Prof,

I agree with your analysis of the Harbeth 100%.

I also have the SLH5 plus and love them.  But have never been able to get that real disappearing act as with other speakers.  While I also had a pair of Thiel 2.7 and they did throw a wonderful soundstage the listener fatigue was something I could not live with.  Also had a pair of Dynaudio C1 that really did disappear, but couldn't live with them long term.

The disappearing act would make the Harbeth absolutely perfect, so for now I just live for everything else they do so well.  For great soundstage I just rotate my Quad esl57's, now and then.

Life really is a series of compromises!

yashu,

I'm curious if you ever tried tube amplification with your Thiels.  That's my preference.  I could see Thiels being a bit more relentless with SS amps, especially if one's room isn't very damped.  But for me in a well controlled room, with CJ tube amps, the Thiels have proven about the least fatiguing speaker I've owned in decades (and I have very sensitive ears, including Tinnitus that gets aggravated by the slightest brightness/shoutiness/distortion in the upper registers).   My reviewer friend always had the "Thiels are bright and fatiguing" bias until he heard my set up, after which he did a 180 degree about face, feeling they were super smooth to listen to.

Back to the Harbeths, I really admired the great sense of balance and control through the whole frequency range.  They were powered by my CJ premier 12 monoblocks and sounded great. 

Prof,

Never did try the Thiels with tubes.  But I did try everything else including cables, tube CD players, etc......That's way in the past and I won't revisit again.

My Harbeth's and esl57's should get me through till the "end"!

id agree with Prof, the SHL5+ do not portray depth as well as other speakers ive had and they do not totally disappear.

they are amazing though :)