ahofer,
I became infatuated with the Harbeth speakers last year and ended up buying a pair of Super HL5plus to see if they could replace my larger Thiel 3.7s (I wanted a somewhat smaller speaker).
Ultimately I simply found my Thiels gave me most of what the Harbeths gave, but more refined: cleaner, more precise, less speaker sound, more realistic, yet still rich and organic. The Thiels also imaged/soundstage with more scale, depth and precision. So I sold the Harbeths and ended up with the slghtly smaller Thiel 2.7 speakers to replace the 3.7s.
But that's not a knock on the Harbeths; the Thiels were just that good.
I still LOVE the Harbeth speakers and every time I encounter them playing - e.g. at a show or an audio store - I find myself luxuriating in their sound - so rich, organic, clear and "right" sounding. In fact during a visit to a local hi-fi store I recently compared some highly lauded JM Reynaud floor standing speakers - a brand that has it's own fanatics - to the Harbeth SuperHL5plus. I found the JM Reynaud speakers sounded very nice, but just not tonally realistic. As soon as we switched the signal to the Harbeths it was like the tone and timbre of saxophones, drums etc just dialed in to "THAT is what they sound like in real life."
If I had the money and space I'd own some Harbeths too, probably, But then I have a speaker hoarding problem . :)
