Experienced audiophiles best speaker

Pani, were the Harbeths you heard broken-in as far as you know?

Yes, they were 3 year old. The fact that they were SHL5 which is one of the best Harbeths left no doubt on my mind that they are what they are.

I would also like to add, Harbeths are not very revealing, they are just a bit bright which makes them sound illuminated in comparison to the likes of Spendor and Dyns. The reason I say this is because the company themselves suggest that their speaker can sound good on even an entry level amp, basically they are amp independent. I myself heard them with two different amps one costing about $1000 (Rega Brio) and the other costing about $6000 (Senders Pre-Power), frankly there was very little different difference in sound, except that the bass was a little tighter and faster with the Senders. Common sense tells me that the speaker did not reveal enough for me to judge anything about the two amps.

That rings true. Yet there does seem to a large contigent of Harbeth lovers and perhaps it is for that very reason - people enjoy them with their "flaws" and perhaps because of them; making them ideal speakers for some, not for others. I certainly liked them (M40s) when I heard them at RMAF with MAC gear.

Different strokes I guess. I’ve had Harbeth SHL5’s for the past five years and think they’re wonderfully musical. Plenty of musical detail and no dryness or thickening whatsoever. I have tried Spendor SP2/3 and SP1/2 plus various JM Reynaud’s in my system and although they were all very good performers musically I still preferred the Harbeth’s. I actually found that the Harbeth’s were the most revealing of the bunch and that extra resolution seemed to draw me into the performance to a greater degree than the others.