Why are Harbeth speakers expensive while its drivers are not.

Selling high-end speakers is a difficult business. It's normal for the consumer to pay a lot more than the raw cost of the parts used. As other people have commented above, there are many good reasons for that... You pay for the end product, which is a combination of multiple components "working" together. Typically cheaper drivers with properly designed crossovers/cabinets sound a lot better than expensive drivers with bad crossovers. If you don't want to pay the premium speaker manufacturers charge, take a look at some DIY designs. DIY speakers would be the best bang for the money as you would not have to pay for R&D, marketing, and all other expensive that make a speaker with $100 driver cost $10K+. The problem is you would not be able to audition a DIY speaker before you make it... 

I bought a brand new pair of SHL 5 Plus's this year and my purchase wasn't out of desperation or anything. I don't feel as though I got ripped off any more so than I would feel with any other speaker.  One of my closest friends is the owner of a hi-fi shop and sells Raidho, Sonus Faber, Dynaudio, Revel , Maggies and the list goes on. I've been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to listen to all this great gear. For my ears and taste in music the SHL 5 speakers are perfect and at times hauntingly so. I had to keep my REL B3 and it integrates very well. I'm picking up some after market binding post jumpers this weekend (Nordost) so we'll see how that goes. I personally don't think this rig could sound any better than it does now. Take a good look at a Radial driver some time. They're rather impressive.

Happy listening!

donjr1,246 posts02-23-2017 11:33amI bought a brand new pair of SHL 5 Plus's this year and my purchase wasn't out of desperation or anything. I don't feel as though I got ripped off any more so than I would feel with any other speaker.  One of my closest friends is the owner of a hi-fi shop and sells Raidho, Sonus Faber, Dynaudio, Revel , Maggies and the list goes on. I've been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to listen to all this great gear. For my ears and taste in music the SHL 5 speakers are perfect and at times hauntingly so. I had to keep my REL B3 and it integrates very well. I'm picking up some after market binding post jumpers this weekend (Nordost) so we'll see how that goes. I personally don't think this rig could sound any better than it does now. Take a good look at a Radial driver some time. They're rather impressive.

Would appreciate if you can update on the Nordost jumpers. I tried bare Rega wires between the binding posts of the SHL5 Plus and the differences were minor to my ears. The stock metal links went back in. Nonetheless I may be trying some proper jumpers with terminated ends sometime in the near future though I'm not looking to spend huge money on this.

Harbeth is a decent enough speaker but eway overvalued for every model IMO.     

I have read that manufacturers of some of the speakers which are based on the original BBC-type monitors have to pay a license fee to the BBC. Of all the variations and permutations of the BBC-type monitors made by Graham, Harbeth, Spendor and others—like the LS3/5A—I wonder which ones if any still require a royalty to be paid to the BBC. And, how much it might be if true, which adds to the cost.

Are the bigger monitors like the Harbeth 40 new designs, or evolutions of BBC monitors?