Moving up the Harbeth line


I was fortunate to move my home office to another room which is a bit bigger than the previous one. Dimensions are 12x13 with almost 20-foot ceilings. As much as I love my Harbeth P3esr's, I can't help but notice that they've been outclassed by the bigger room, especially the high ceiling. This pair of speakers has been a mainstay in my home office/study for a number of years, and I find it to be a perfect fit for my listening habits and music preferences. But in the new setting, it's not able to fill the room as well as it used to. For examples, horns and piano now sound much smaller and distant. So that got me thinking of an upgrade. I have been using a Raven Audio Blackhawk MK3 for a few months and would want to stick with it if possible. There are very few speakers that have allowed me to make an emotional connection with the music, and Harbeth is certainly one of them. So my preference is to stay with the brand.

Now, before the 'search bar is your best friend' folks come swinging at me, I have read a few threads on similar topics but they all seem to be inconclusive, or at least I'm not able to decipher a reasonable consensus. Having spent way too much money on this addiction, err, hobby, in the last 12 months, I have to resort to buying used equipment only, and that too has to wait for at least 2-3 months. So, doing an in-house demo is going to be difficult if not impossible. And, AFAIK, there are no dealers nearby (Dallas area) either.

I would love to hear from people who have moved up the Harbeth food chain. The M30.x seems to be a logical next step, but I see an equal number of negative opinions (too polite, too boxy, pipe and slippers) as positive ones. Is there anyone who thinks that the M30 retains the same magic as the P3esr's but serves it in relatively bigger portions? Because that's what I'm mainly looking for to be honest -- a bigger version of P3esr. Or do you think the cons negate the pros offered by the bigger cabinet size?

Next up is SHL5+. Again, the opinions vary widely. Some are saying that this particular model deviates the most from the classic Harbeth sound. Another concern is that my room might be too small for them (?). Also, I cannot pull them more than one and a half feet from the front wall. Is that going to result in ugly bass problems?

I'm not against trying another brand, but would prefer an opinion that is based on an actual comparison with Harbeth speakers.
128x128arafiq
I moved up from toe P3s to the 30.1, and am happy. It is the natural sonic progression, with the same signature, coupled with the advantage of more bass and a larger soundstage.

To be fair, though, I haven't auditioned the HL5+, and there are differing opinions of them. Many absolutely love them, while a small percentage find them to be a touch bright. No doubt that they would be a further step up from the 30.1/30.2 in terms of bass and soundstage, but the sound apparently isn't identical to the smaller monitors.

The additional complication is the associated equipment. With all due respect to Alan Shaw, who is famously agnostic about amps (well, largely), they do make a difference, in my experience.
In a 12x13 room and listening 7 ft away, the P3ESR should work well. I think that your Blackhawk amplifier at 20w/ch may not be providing enough dynamic headroom. However, I see that it has a built-in high pass crossover that you can engage for the main speakers while combining with a subwoofer. This would allow the P3ESR to play more dynamically, and you would benefit from a subwoofer adding bass extension. My suggestion is to start by adding a subwoofer to your system.

See Raven Audio's description of the crossover feature:
https://www.ravenaudio.com/product/blackhawk-mk3/
+1 @mspot
As a long time Harbeth user I have owned the M30.1, C7 and many P3s. I think the M30 is too big for that size room. There is something about the P3 that after trying the others just keep me coming back to them!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqFIaiPT_kY
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