Why do Harbeth speakers have such a cult following

Everything has a cult following, why would Harbeth be any different?

What I don't get is why it bothers other people so much.

Why does Naim have a cult around it? Why does BMW? Why do the Dallas Cowboys? I just don't know why people get so worked up about it.

I recently got a pair of P3-ESRs and I think they are definitely among the most well judged little speakers I've listened to. I'm not about to don robes of Harbeth grill cloth or tattoo Alan Shaw on my arm or anything, but I can easily understand why Harbeth has its adherents. They communicate music well.

Anyone else find them to be colored in an unpleasant plastic way?

I like their comfortable sound, buy they don't sound un-colored as they advertise...

Doesn't sound like a class A gear to me, imho.

I would be most interested in what others think of this, since their is a pair for sale for $1350, and my friend is about to buy them...

Exactly how does a real violin or a real piano sound? I hear similar comments often when discussing hi fi gear (hell, I've made them myself) as if there is some static reference sound emitted from live musical instruments. I have a friend who has a nice baby grand piano. This piano resided for years in a relatively small carpeted room. After she moved, the piano now resides in a much larger room with hardwood floors and a higher ceiling. It sounds like a different piano. I venture to say that a violin will sound different when played on a concert stage vs an open air arena. For that matter, the same violin will sound different when played by two different violinists. My point is that suggesting that a loudspeaker has a more natural timbre than some other loudspeaker is, in itself, flawed.

Because they don't have a bright tweeter, don't have grainy midrange, don't have "ear grating" types of distortion. Most high end speakers hurt the ears of many sensitive listeners who are bothered by rough/harsh/bright distortions. Most Harbeths have subtractive faults which don't hurt that type of listener's ears. If anything they are missing detial, missing extension, which does not typically hurt ears.

I don't own Harbeths, never did, never had any sort of business with them in any way. But I know what I have heard from most Harbeths, and have had many occasions to hear them.

Danoro said: "My point is that suggesting that a loudspeaker has a more natural timbre than some other loudspeaker is, in itself, flawed."

I will answer back, not directly pertaining to Harbeths versus most high end speakers, but simply a statement of most high end speakers: Since most speakers directed toward the high end industry have too much high frequency energy (a come-on to the listener in a showroom) and/or way too much distortion from 1k on up, it is entirely possible that the speaker that seems to have a more natural timbre very well could be a less distorted speaker. Certainly, a speaker that has a "more natural timbre" should not be dismissed simply due to that aspect of its sound!

Kiddman