Harbeth 30.1, 30.2, XD

The Graham LS5/5 is a fascinating speaker.
https://www.grahamaudio.co.uk/products/ls55/

@redwoodaudio  You are the first person I've encountered to have heard them and actually own them!

In the impossibility of me auditioning them, I ended up with Harbeth 40.2s, which I'm enjoying very much.

LS5/5s are ridiculously good. That's a future purchase for sure, job willing.

@twoleftears and @dhcod - I had to buy the LS5/5s without an audition. I was auditioning another interesting speaker as a potential upgrade to the LS5/9s (Wolf von Langa SONs) and wasn’t totally sold on the sound in my system. I ended up speaking with Erik from Gig Harbor Audio in Washington by phone who told me how good the LS5/5s are, but said that they were in such short supply that he couldn’t let me audition it without purchasing it. I went back and forth, ultimately taking a gamble on a new pair in Cherry (serial number 42) that was arriving a few days later to his store (he gave me a nice trade-in for the LS5/9s, though). The LS5/5s are virtually without flaw in my few weeks with them, sitting on top of custom stands from Gig Harbor, with footers by Isoacoustics on the stands. They’ll play any type of music, have a rich smoothness that has to be heard to be believed, and disappear completely with the right recording and amplification. They also look great (with the grills on) in my room. For $18k, they’ll be my reference for a while...  I've never heard the Harbeth 40.2s but I'm sure they're incredible too.

Piggybacking on Twoleftears’ remark, Harbeth recently hired Terry Miles who had worked at Spendor for decades and was responsible for all their designs over that period of time. I have owned over a dozen Spendor loudspeakers over the years, including the pair of  Classic 2/3’s I currently own, and if you have kept up with the progression of those designs, especially the newest A, D and Classic series, you know Terry has incrementally moved Spendor from a somewhat classic British sound to one that is more immediate, being highly transparent and detailed, yet at the same time retaining a high level of musicality. Even though Alan Shaw would probably say it’s the other way around, I think Harbeth brought him on board to do the same thing, albeit with perhaps a bit more oversight and collaboration. Just a guess.

@vdotman very interesting, indeed. Derek Hughes (now mostly with Graham) and Terry Miles have very different approaches to updating the BBC sound (as does Alan Shaw). Top end Spendor classic speakers are probably excellent too (I haven't heard them either). Always down to personal tastes of course. Erik at Gig harbor audio was of the opinion that Hughes is more of a purist, and he seemed to prefer his designs overall.