Harbeth 30.1 or legacy calibre

I haven't heard the Harbeth, but I have heard the Calibre several times.  It seems that the 30.1 has stellar reviews, so it must be very nice to listen to.  It looks like the Calibre will have more extended bass, if that matters.

Regarding sensitivity, the 30.1 is rather low, at 85dB, with the Calibre at 90.5dB, so the Calibre may be easier to achieve higher sound levels with lower watt amps. 

Also, the tweeters are completely different(soft dome vs. Air Motion Tweeter) and that will come down to personal preference, and I would think extensive auditioning of both would be in order, prior to plopping down this kind of money. 

BTW, if you ever get a chance to hear the Calibre powered by Raven Audio tube amplification at an audio show, you are in for a treat.

Two totally different sounds. You either are a Harbeth fanboy or not.

These are yin and yang speakers with completely different qualities some of which were mentioned before.

Harbeth has a very midrange oriented sound with good presense in the midrange, good midbass performance and very little real lower bass and a smooth but recessed treble, they are inefficent and do not play super loud, most of their models are classic two way designs. sometimes augmented, they tune the cabinet to resonate in time with the music. 

Harbeth fans tend to like Jazz and light Classical, not the best rock speakers.

The Legacy Calibre's are a much more impressive speaker, these play loud and rock out as well as having a nice balance overall.

Legacy goes for a high tech driver approach with a completely dead cabinet, German built Heil AMT tweeter, a custom Italitan seven inch composite midrange and a very long throw custom built eight inch woofer with 1 inch of linear throw augmented by twin passive radiators.

The Legacy's will play loud, throw a huge image, have fantastic top and bottom range, the bass hits hard and is nearly in a true subwoofer range. 

Very clean and extended top end with a great detail in the treble.

The Legacy's are very efficient and play loud, they will excel at all music and are very dramatic, monitors which sound like a large floor stander.

Another cool atribute is that the speakers can come active as well which means you would just need a dac/preamp or a dac with variable output.

One caveat with the Legacy's is that they are really stand mounted loudspeakers and would have issues on a shelf where the Harbeths would sound great no matter how you position them. 

We are Legacy's dealers and were blown away by the Calibre's which we recently heard setup at the New York Audio Show. 

Hope that helps to see which camp you are in.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Legacy is not imported here, so I cannot comment on their products. However, I htink two things need to be added about Harbeth speakers. They have a very flat frequency response and are not just midrange speakers, even if their midrange is to die for. Second, that midrange quality originates in their own advanced Radial cone technology, with their proprietary cone material that was developed in a UK government funded scientific research project.
I have Harbeth P3ESRs in my desktop system, and all I can say is that they are the only speakers that I have heard that come close to the clarity of my Quad electrostats, and are similarly free from that feeling that you are just listening to sound from wooden boxes.