Experienced audiophiles best speaker

As a long time Spendor user (3/1, 7/1, 1/2e) I took the opportunity to give the Harbeth's a listen before I moved on from Spendor. Yes they are warmer, especially in the bottom end, but I think I understand what Pani is alluding to. There is definitely some dryness in the mid range IMO, which is opposite to the sound and what I love about the Spendor speakers I've owned. Funny thing, at any of the audio shows I've gone to I can "blindly" pick up the sound of a Harbeth speaker very easily.

agree with Nolitan 110%.
Had lot's of Dyns over the years. Now have Spendors. Love them. Wish I had gotten into these first.

Yes, Spendors were far better, they did sound musical, what it is touted for. May be this gives a clue where I am coming from. Since I was upgrading from a Dynaudio which was a fair bit more neutral than the Spendors, I could not convince myself to buy the Spendors. But yes, the Spendor is a more musical speaker than Dyns in general.
Finally I hit the sweetest spot with the best of the neutrality and highest grade of musicality with the ATC !!
They are God level speakers, where others end, they begin.
Set them up correctly and you would not be able to upgrade, which is such a rare thing in Audio. Unfortunately they draw a lot out of you in terms of matching electronics, cables, positioning, room treatment (need not be exhaustive but some care needs to be taken for bare walls especially if concrete). All these things take time if you are doing it on your own and you learn a lot. Most importantly one can blindly trust the speakers not being at fault if there is something wrong in the overall sound, they are brutally honest in a good way. One can listen to the poorest of recordings on these speakers and enjoy every bit of it (if there is anything to enjoy in the music) without getting fatigued....but all that after the painful setting up process is close to done.

I have heard the Spendors and Dynaudios but not the Harbeths...yet I wonder if your description of analysis and dryness comes from their use of metal dome tweeters (in most models).

Metal domes (in any speaker or application) sound analytical and dry to my ears. Yet the Spendor and Dynaudio models only use soft domes and I wonder if their more forgiving sound is a buy-product of that decision.

That seems to make sense, I would think that metal dome tweeters carry a signature sound different that soft-dome, I just haven't picked up on it (at my age that might make sense:() Similar overservations made by listeners of Theil speakers (which many love)....