Harbeth P3ESR vs the new XD

op is correct

very slight shift towards treble emphasis in xd suffix - difference is pretty minimal even in direct a-b - the fundamental goodness and character of the speaker is unchanged

alan has adopted the bain school of profit maximization for minimal added value - but he has a cash cow by the tail so may as well milk it for what it is worth - expert speaker designer expert capitalist

Harbeth is no different from any other audio manufacturer. Vandersteen, Spendor, B&W, Audio-Research, etc., etc., always have an improved version in their product line. BTW, Harbeth does use the word ground-breaking in their new speaker line up. Here is the new Harbeth introduction from the company!!
https://harbeth.co.uk/

Mr. Shaw turned to a marketing company for his new business model. Any bets that soon they will have a new model called P3ESR Classic? Back to original design they discontinued.😊

Mr. Shaw turned to a marketing company for his new business model. Any bets that soon they will have a new model called P3ESR Classic? Back to original design they discontinued.

Seems there are quite a few who prefer some of the older Harbeth models over the new stuff, like the SHL5 vs SHL5 Plus. Same phenomenon occurs with Spendor owners. Model revisions are often a matter of trade-offs. Owners of older models need not lose sleep.