Why do Harbeth speakers have such a cult following

Simple,because they sound so good! I had many speakers over the years and these p3esr's are special. But it's all a matter of taste.

Drubin..you are way off target.." unfair misrepresentation of Harbeth and its fans?" How silly. What I described is absolutely correct and I highly praise Harbeth for the way they cut their cabinets to interact with the drivers and the sonic character they produce. I wish to hell that speaker companies would return to the more traditional design methods from the 60's that Harbeth adhere's to.
The best sounding speakers I ever heard were from that era. There is an organic rightness when the cabinets integrate with the drivers. Seductive. Castle speakers also use the same method with their cabinets and drivers. Certain KLH model's from the mid sixtie's with their electrostatic tweeter's and the driver integration with the cabinet were the best sounding speakers Henry Kloss ever designed. They were superior to his large Advents.

But it's all a matter of taste

yes,but there is one but---matter of taste has one particular feature,it likes fluctuate.I can listen harbeth for 3 weeks everyday with diffrent stereo sets,but sometimes I can listen other speakers(dynaudio) for 2 weeks or 1 month,that means that harbeth will rest for some time. The same thing applies to amps,cd players or dacs,even wires

To No_regrets,

Sorry for not replying sooner. I've been busy listening to music. :-) Sesiously, of course I can give you some answers. You are asking if the instruments are reproduced like "toy instruments" with the small Harbeth P3ESR speakers. When you look at the speakers, and even hold them in your hands, you might cerntainly think that's exactly what will happen. Of course they can't play as physically as a 15 inch bass guitar amplifer next to you, that just won't happen. But I've never ever been thinking that any instrument sounds like a toy instrument, or thin, or whatever term used. I have tried big floor standers in my room that "rocks" a lot more, but in the end, I prefer a more modest presentation of the music, that doesn't make the walls shake, but that's me. But as I wrote, it's still a very big sounding speaker, and that's not only for its tiny size. When I shut my eyes, I can imagine a lot bigger speakers in front of me!

My room is quite small, 16 sqm. I have previously used Dynaudio Focus 160 and they are too boomy in my room. In a bigger room, they are an amazing speaker, and share many things with the Harbeth's. The most important is that you can listen to music all day long without any kind of listening fatigue. I like that a lot! The Harbeth's can be placed much closer to the walls than any other speaker I have tried. Just a few cm will do actually. But more space than that is of course prefered. They aren't rear ported like many other speakers, incl the Dynadio's that require 50 cm or more.

Yes, I am using a tube amp, it's a 30 watt Jadis, class a. I have also been using a 2x165 watt solid state amp (Bladelius Thor mk2) with these speakers and the sound is actually pretty similar! With other speakers that are harder to drive, the difference would have been a lot bigger. I have read many times that some people use much less than 30 watts for the small Harbeth P3's with good result, and I don't doubt it at all.

These P3ESR's are just on loan actually, but I would have wanted to own them a lot. Instead, I will purchase the new bigger model 30.1. They are much harder to drive in my opinion and my amp will struggle a bit, and on some music they will be a bit too much in my room, but I liked them so much I couldn't resist. They reproduce vocals and guitars even better than the small P3's. But hopefully, I might own a pair of these small lovely speakers aswell, because I know I will miss them when I return them. They are that good!

Egoben,Ditto on your desription on the P3ESR'S. I think you should think twice about going for the larger Harbeth. The simple two way sealed design is what makes them special. Bigger is not always better.