Just to add on to the above excellent post by Arafiq. I understand the OP is disappointed with the hype surrounding the Harbeth and is not willing to try other amps. To reiterate, the Harbeth really come to their own with select amps as they sound horrible with the wrong amps. The SHL5 sounded like mud with the Audio Research LS-16mk2 / Plinius SA100 mk3 amp which I owned. Better results with Rega Elicit, Nait XS and couple more amps but still underwhelming and far from great. The LFD Zero LEIII transformed the speakers as the Harbeth sprung to life when driven by this little marvel. I eventually got something else as the LFD didn’t come with a remote and the build quality did not meet my expectations.
I owned the Mcintosh MC275 mk4 before and it sounded a little like mud to me with the overly warm syrupy sound. Although it may not be the model that the OP currently owns, I suspect it may be the bottleneck and culprit to the poor or dismal result. It is unfortunate that a different amp (or other Harbeth models) is not in consideration. For this reason it may not be appropriate to brush aside the Harbeth and regard it as an underwhelming or underperforming speaker if it’s not properly set up since it is not showing its true colors.
A point to note is the Harbeth does not provide the short term thrills in comparison to other more forward and brighter sounding speakers. The midrange and treble of the Harbeth are very natural and to me is superior to the Totem model 1 which I tried. I’m not sure how different is the Rainmaker though. When moving from the Harbeth, see if you would miss the more natural/neutral sound presentation of the Harbeth.
I owned the Mcintosh MC275 mk4 before and it sounded a little like mud to me with the overly warm syrupy sound. Although it may not be the model that the OP currently owns, I suspect it may be the bottleneck and culprit to the poor or dismal result. It is unfortunate that a different amp (or other Harbeth models) is not in consideration. For this reason it may not be appropriate to brush aside the Harbeth and regard it as an underwhelming or underperforming speaker if it’s not properly set up since it is not showing its true colors.
A point to note is the Harbeth does not provide the short term thrills in comparison to other more forward and brighter sounding speakers. The midrange and treble of the Harbeth are very natural and to me is superior to the Totem model 1 which I tried. I’m not sure how different is the Rainmaker though. When moving from the Harbeth, see if you would miss the more natural/neutral sound presentation of the Harbeth.