Why do Harbeth speakers have such a cult following

Exactly how does a real violin or a real piano sound? I hear similar comments often when discussing hi fi gear (hell, I've made them myself) as if there is some static reference sound emitted from live musical instruments. I have a friend who has a nice baby grand piano. This piano resided for years in a relatively small carpeted room. After she moved, the piano now resides in a much larger room with hardwood floors and a higher ceiling. It sounds like a different piano. I venture to say that a violin will sound different when played on a concert stage vs an open air arena. For that matter, the same violin will sound different when played by two different violinists. My point is that suggesting that a loudspeaker has a more natural timbre than some other loudspeaker is, in itself, flawed.

Because they don't have a bright tweeter, don't have grainy midrange, don't have "ear grating" types of distortion. Most high end speakers hurt the ears of many sensitive listeners who are bothered by rough/harsh/bright distortions. Most Harbeths have subtractive faults which don't hurt that type of listener's ears. If anything they are missing detial, missing extension, which does not typically hurt ears.

I don't own Harbeths, never did, never had any sort of business with them in any way. But I know what I have heard from most Harbeths, and have had many occasions to hear them.

Danoro said: "My point is that suggesting that a loudspeaker has a more natural timbre than some other loudspeaker is, in itself, flawed."

I will answer back, not directly pertaining to Harbeths versus most high end speakers, but simply a statement of most high end speakers: Since most speakers directed toward the high end industry have too much high frequency energy (a come-on to the listener in a showroom) and/or way too much distortion from 1k on up, it is entirely possible that the speaker that seems to have a more natural timbre very well could be a less distorted speaker. Certainly, a speaker that has a "more natural timbre" should not be dismissed simply due to that aspect of its sound!

Kiddman

I just bought the 30 model for $1400 including stands for my friend. I hope he likes them.

They are comfortable to listen to for hours on, without listening fatigue.

They seem to do classical music well.

I am excited about them.

all speaker has it's own characters. I owned HL5S and it has it's own sound being un-amplified and natural but also lacks dynamic punch and doesn't go very low. They are easy to listen to and very musical with all kinds of musics, I toe tapped with everything I played but I missed a bit of excitement. Great musical speakers and not audiophile speakers.