Why do Harbeth speakers have such a cult following

IMO Harbeth speakers, at least the ones I have heard, are easy to listen to and dont bring about the same level of fatigue as many other speakers. However this forgiveness comes at a price which is why they are not even on my "short list" of speakers to consider. 

@jsautter

Yes, I always find it hard to land on just a single pair of speakers. I have 7 pair in 7 rooms currently. I like to hear different things. Maybe I’m always afraid I’m missing something. :^) The Ohm Walsh are still my go tos. I did think the Harbeth 40.2 brought something uniquely enjoyable to the table, which is what one would expect for the price.

Speaker lines I do not own that I would consider buying at present based on recent auditions:

Fritz
Joseph
Harbeth
mbl

Nothing yet that I would replace my big OHM 5s with yet, but the Harbeth 40.2s and mbl are the closest among those so far at least in size and overall ability. Both my Ohm 5s and harbeth 40.2 use a 12" main driver. Fritz and Joseph do seem to deliver a lot of sound out of smaller packages though.

For me Harbeth speakers walk that fine line between being overly detailed and being boring.  They seem to capture every nuance of each instrument and vocals and do a great job of separating them without distortion or glare.  They are also very dynamic with, with notes coming from seemingly nowhere instantaneously.  I wish I could put it into words better.

I've been listening to Steve Miller's Welcome to the Vault the last couple of mornings on Qobuz on my little computer system with the P3ESR SEs, which I picked up for $1400.  The cymbals, the drums, horns, vocals, guitars... everything has so much detail and with a little help from a SVS SB-12 NSD subwoofer, the bass blends perfectly.  When listening to some of the live cuts, I feel like I'm sitting in the club with Steve and the band.  All of this in a small room with wood paneling, no room treatment, the speakers stuck in corners, and me sitting at my computer, about 2 feet in front of where the speakers are.  In a good room with proper set up... 

I've heard "better" speakers, but I can't think of any that I enjoyed listening to more (including my Super HL5 Plus).

All the Harbeth fans who have posted here are correct.
Harbeths are all that.

However, and this is a big one for me - they do not rock and do not have sufficient PRAT for Rock or Pop.