Thought My Harbeth M40.1's Were Forever Speakers - Guess Not

Just today, I packed up my beloved 40.1's and replaced them with 40.2 Anni's.  I concur the 40.2's have "drier" less prodigious bass and less warmth (more neutral) to my ears vs. the 40.1's.  Initially I missed the warmth of the 40.1's, but was able to bring all of the warmth back by swapping out Gold Lion KT88's with some RAM EL34's... now the warmth is back and the transparency and detailed imaging is even more impressive with the 40.2 Anni's vs. their predecessor.  Small incremental steps of improvement, but noticeable improvement nonetheless!

@pdreher Are these brand new?  I ask this because you need to break them in for a good 20-30 hours before they start doing their real magic.  Others have said 50+ hours but in my experience it wasn't that long.  
I never felt these speakers sound dry, but I guess it could be a factor of the amplification used.  Let us know how they do as they break in and open up for you.  Cheers

The woofer breaks in around 50 and the tweeter around 100.  The midrange undergoes very little change.

Alan Shaw has often said he doesn’t believe in any audible break-in other than after a few initial seconds for the tweeter.

Let’s not forget that he is in a far better position than most of us to compare new and used speakers/drivers - or also that he has nothing to gain by saying this.

Yet some manufacturers and dealers seem to claim (usually without offering any data) that they do believe in it.

If so, and let’s face it the promise of ’break-in’ would be a great tactic to try to shift unimpressive loudspeakers by promising nebulous future improvements, I would hope they are prepared to extend the return date (plus accept at least 50% of the return costs) accordingly.

Confirmation bias on the other hand is definitely real and far more likely to affect perceptions. Especially when large sums of money are involved.

In my experience if a product is not initially satisfactory it is unlikely to become so in future.

In fact there’s just as much chance that the niggles will remain and gnaw with increasing intensity with the duration of time.

The Anni's are demo's... new as of February 2020.  Not sure how many hours are on them, but I'm guessing < 500.