Proud Harbeth p3esr owner - need help tweaking/troubleshooting


Due to the pandemic I catch myself spending more time in my outdoor office space - small 14.5x7.5 feet room with glass windows on two adjacent walls - where the speaker are. It's got wood floors and a 7.5 feet ceiling. The other half has a large desk and a bookshelf. Since it's my private space I have decided to build 'my dream' audio system - different from my main listening room/home theater. I listen to all genres of music from 80's and 90's pop, Folk, Jazz, Electronic, Classic Rock and Latin. No hard Rock or headbangers music.

In my mid-40's and enjoying the audio hobby for decades now, I like my music warm, with non-fatigue listening for hours, where frequency tones are balanced, yet detailed without the grain and glare of vocal peaks or highs, yet presenting instrument separation. I want to enjoy the music. I took the leap, and purchased a pair of Harbeth p3esr. Also, purchased Croft Phone Integrated amplifier to pair with the speakers. Had a Metrum Onyx DAC at home already hooked to my Roon core. Using Morrow Audio MA1 RCA interconnects that were laying around, with Belden speaker wires also on hand. Speakers are on heavy 26 inch stands.

I have around 60 hours on the Croft integrated and Harbeth p3esr so far, but have not found the audio nirvana moment yet. I find the music at times (on certain songs) harsh. It's usually when multiple instruments are played together with sharp pitched vocals. Don't get me wrong - Emma Guzman - Woman the instrument separation and vocals are dreamy, The Game of Love by Daft Punk, the robotic vocals are life like with emotions - but 40 seconds into Wrong Girl by Lindsay Ell and you'll hear her vocals peak and want to run to lower the Croft integrated manual volume knob towards to noon mark (starting point). 

Speaking of which, the Croft Phono Integrated, being a superb hybrid amp, has a lot of gain and is immediate sounding. At 1 o'clock position (noon being the starting point), the sound is comfortable listening at 70db. Turning the volume knob to 2 o'clock it's gets loud to 80db + and 3 o'clock is where you want to turn it down. Never distortion - but enough sweetness and finesse to drive the p3. Loud for the room. 

Metrum DAC has a more or less standard line output level of 2V, and the Croft amp has a relatively sensitive input sensitivity of 250mV. An amp of this sensitivity runs the risk of clipping the voltage waveform before the power stage. Maybe alternative amps have a more relaxed gain structure at the input, sensitive to about a whole Volt. The reason why I am rushing for the volume control as the peas get harsh.

How do I make the famous Harbeth p3esr to sing and show it's true colors of warmth, composure, mature sound, astonishing vocal coming from the diaphragm and the details that it's famous for? How do I listen to hours of different genre music without the need to turn the volume low or move my head up to look at the speakers? Is it the high gain/sensitive Croft Integrated amp or is it the bright Morrow Audio RCA interconnect or maybe the speaker wires? Or maybe the whole set up is a dream and an overkill for the room.

Any feedback by the brilliant minds on this forum with years of experience would be greatly appreciated. With warm regards,

128x128ghulamr
Why would you like a bad recording to sound good? Would be a very boring speaker. If you run Roon you can just use the parametric filter to reduce the range 1500-3500 Hz with a couple of db’s when playing ’hot’ recordings. Lindsay Ell is far from worst.... Nice recom on Guzman! If you take Rosanne Cash her a little nasal voice is rather unpleasant on a lot of recordings but very nice on others. It’s all about what they do in the studio. Spending lots of money on cables trying to change that is just nonsence. Better change speakers. P3 is ok for mid and highs but has no bass. For small money you can have a used PMC OB1 and be fully satisfied.
Just at a glance the unusual thing with that amps specs is it makes virtually no more power into 4 ohm than into 8.
Looking at stereophile phase/impedance curve for the P3ESR, that is not the first amp I would choose for those speakers on paper. It may not be up to the task of driving them properly.
Have you ever tried any other amps even just as a test? Rogue Sphinx or even Pharoah comes to mind as one I might try as an alternate.
Maybe some P3ESR owners have more to offer regarding whether beefier amps tend to do better with those speakers in practice.
Good luck!
@mapman I am planning on taking the setup in my main listening room this weekend. I will hook the p3 to my Sim Audio W5 amp and also my Earthquake (home theater) amp. I have also been eyeing a Rogue Sphinx  and Rega Brio- funny you mention. 

Also, positioning the speakers off-axis is helping a little bit.