What Is So Special About Harbeth?

Recently acquired a used set of mint SHL5 Plus 40th Anniversary with TonTrager stands at a decent price which I consider a much better value compared to buying both speakers and stands brand new.  Purchased the set without ever auditioning any Harbeth speakers prior. I based my decision primarily on the collective experiences of everyone online and understood the strengths and weakness of the brand. Most importantly, one needs to know their priorities and preferences for sound. My music preferences mirrors the OPs and listening habits not needing SPLs beyond 85dB, Even when demoing to F&F, there's no need to crank it up to show how great a system sounds unless you and your friends are into same loud concert SPLs. 

Harbeth brand is not for everyone. Luckily, it is for me. 

No regrets here.  I can see myself enjoying this kit for years to come. 

I bought p3esr xds and based on what I’ve read was prepared to be wowed but ended up selling them after a few weeks. I thought they sounded like a good small speaker, for a narrow range of simple acoustic or vocal music. I thought rock sounded flat, compressed, and a bit muddled. I also felt there was a bit of a treble edge which was unexpected. Maybe what bothered me the most is that the box vibrates like a cello and bass sounds like the product of a vibrating box rather than the driver. At first i tried them on some hollow stands and the stands literally rang like a bell. I gave them a go replacing genelecs in my desktop setup and the sound was noticeably stuck in the boxes in comparison, and they vibrated the desk. I might have kept them at maybe half price.

As I've mentioned, Harbeth are one of my favorite speaker brands.  I've heard the whole line up a few times and owned the SuperHL5plus.   I could certainly live with Harbeths as my speakers.

If I could fault them on anything, the Harbeths do lack some of the punch and solidity I find in some speakers (especially my Thiel 2.7s).

The Harbeths do have a clear, open sound.   And one of the attributes I love is the density - voices etc have a corporeal, filled out sound with body.   So they are rich and have a sense of density in that sense.

But the overall sound, compared to my Thiels for instance, is a little bit "puffy," sort of like I can sense the box a bit, and drums, bass guitars etc don't have quite the "right there" solid slam and presence.  The Thiels (and some other speakers) also sound a bit more tidy and clean, more precise. 

I still think Harbeth have a particularly great sense of balance to the sound, and I enjoy all genres on the Harbeths.  But if I had to pick nits, those would be mine.

Something I've noticed today as I've tried my AR 5SE preamp and AR 150SE amp class A tube amps with my Harbeth 30.1's is that they seem to drive the 30.1's better on the 16 ohm speaker taps, than on the 8ohm speaker taps.  They seem to have a bit faster sound with greater clarity on the 16ohm taps, and a bit slower, thicker, muddy sound on the 8ohm taps.  

Don't know why that would be?  

That was the primary reason I got the Hegel H590 to drive the Harbeths - because it had so much greater clarity with them, than with the AR tube amps, when I first tried them.  But, using the 16ohm taps seems to clear them up - more like the H590, but with a bit of tube air.  

That was my one issue with the Harbeth 30.1's and 40.2's I have - until I got the H590... and... now having discovered their sound using the 16ohm taps of the AR tubes amps.