Harbeth - Audio Research?

I do think the HL5 is a wonderful, easy-to-listen to speaker, but I'm very suprised to hear you had listener fatigue with the Vandersteen, not a typical reaction IMHO, but that's what you heard, so can't argue with that.

Out of curiosity, how close to the rear wall can the HL5 or 7ES3 go? I'd like to start another system in a very small room - 12x13.5ft and because of how it is all laid out the back of the speakers will need to be about 6-8inches from the rear wall. I know that is less than ideal, but I'm not after imaging at all in this room. However, I do want purity of tone, harmonics etc. Will this mess that up?

6-8 inches at the back would be super close. I have mine around 5 feet away from the rear wall.
A meter would be ok, but even at that distance, it might be boomy.

Pubul57 - I think the Vandersteen 3A sigs are very good for certain things, and can be tempered depending upon what's running them. I get listener's fatigue all too easily, and I think most equipment sounds too bright. I went to the RMAF and, frankly, liked very little of what I heard. My ears seem to have some kind of sensitivity in the high frequency range. Plus, I listen to a lot of orchestral music, which is often not really that well-recorded. Massed strings are awfully hard to record, and are often miked too closely, so that if what you want is a Carnegie Hall type sound, you're in trouble. That's a lot of my problem.

I hear you regarding massed strings. I heard a very expensive setup with vinyl and the highs were just shrill to my ears. Thank god it was vinyl.