Are Harbeths really "all that?"

To answer Rebbi's question, "yes they are".

I owned the M30s for 3 years. They were recently sold as I upgraded to my first full range, the Verity's Parsifals (used).

Their strengths lie in the midrange and voicing. All I can say is that my wife really enjoyed listening to Maria Callas or Diana Krall on the M30s (btw, she's not so convinced that the Parsifals are better at voicing). Also, the Harbeths are no slouch in presenting fast and well defined lower notes.

Are they expensive for what they appear? Perhaps. I think in part because of unfavorable exchange rates (saw this with Spendor prices over the last 5-8 years). Despite the "cheapy" appearance of their cabinets, Harbeth uses high end drivers/components and are still hand made in the UK. The drivers used are either internally developed (radial cone technology) or externally sourced (e.g. high end SEAS tweeters or Audax). I bet if Harbeth licensed out it's radial technology or mid-bass driver, you would see this driver taken up by other manufacturers. It's that good.

Anyway, that was my experience with Harbeth. ............

If you have an opportunity to audition them, your ears and mind are the best judge. btw, yes they look "retro", which does not appeal to everyone........

happy listening!

I can only comment on the original Monitor 40. In a properly sized room it is a very neutral and realistic sounding loudspeaker. It has a midrange to die for. It doesn't do anything wrong, but in any single area of performance you can readily find other speakers that will out perform it. The Harbeth has first rate soundstage/imaging, but it's not state of the art. The Harbeth has great bass, but other speakers will go deeper. The Harbeth highs are quite good, but other speakers have more air. The Harbeth plays loud, but other go louder. What makes the Harbeth special is how balanced its performance is. Price wise it's currently not a particularly good value, but in a world seemingly overflowing with $30k plus speakers... The Harbeth appeal to music lovers, pro audio types and experienced audiophiles.

I've had two unsatisfactory experiences owning Harbeths, yet they continue to appeal to me every time I hear them at shows or a dealer's. So I'm about to make a third try. (This would be the definition of insanity, right?)

I would call it trying until you get it right. ;-)

I've had two unsatisfactory experiences owning Harbeths, yet they continue to appeal to me every time I hear them at shows or a dealer's. So I'm about to make a third try. (This would be the definition of insanity, right?)

Sounds like there is some significant difference between the dealer's listening environment and yours. Or there could be a case of component matching.

Before you repeat the exercise it would be worth finding out why they seem to sound more appealing to you at the dealer's place than they do in your home.

I have a pair of Spendors, a "cousin" of the Harbeths. Neither has the modern, trendy, rather bright sound but they are extremely engaging for extended listening if your primary interest is acoustic instruments and voice. Though I think mine sound just fine with rock, r&b and the like, I can see that some people would prefer more "punch."

Finally, when auditioning equipment out, we often tend to play those "special" recordings that we think will display the attributes we want to hear. Yet when we dive into our more ordinary recordings once we get home, we can find a piece of equipment that sounded great in the store with select recordings is not a good match for what we listen to most at home.