Joseph Audio Perspective2 vs Harbeth SHL5+

I own a pair of Joseph Audio Perspective II’s and I think they are excellent, full range speakers. Prof nailed the description of their sound and character and I’m not sure I can add more to his insightful and accurate analysis. 
 

My alternative speaker of choice has been the ProAc Response line, which in my opinion, excel in tone, texture and pure midrange. Very similar to the Perspectives, except in the low end, where I would give a slight nod to the Perspectives for weight, and the ProAc’s for bass articulation. The Perspectives have a gravitas that is beguiling. The sound of a drum set has the drive and authority that just sounds ‘right’. I’m a former drummer, with modest to diminishing talent, but that is my reference, having heard so many drum sets over the years.  The Perspectives also get voices right. Piano trios sound awesome, come to think of it, I haven’t played any genre of music where they failed to excel. 

My pair of Perspectives are being driven by a Luxman M700u stereo amplifier, with 120 watts of power.  While the sensitivity is lower than the ProAc’s, I think the Perspectives must be an easy load to drive because I can get them to mid-80 decibels with only 1/4 to a 1/3 volume. Not a hard speaker to drive, IMHO.  

Good stuff ewert.

As much as many of us might imagine how great it might be to own some flagship speakers way out of our price range, one thing to note is that Joseph speakers have very often over the years been deemed "best sound of the show" by tons of attendees and reviewers, almost no matter what model Joseph displayed. Sure show conditions aren’t decisive, but it does indicate that one is getting top tier sound with Joseph speakers.

As to power requirements, good to see your Luxman is working well with the Perspectives. It’s an interesting situation with the impedance of the Perspectives, since...from my meager understanding of these issues...the Perspectives don’t go down to 4 ohms so with solid state I presume you don’t get the benefit of power doubling in to those lower ohm ratings. Which is why the higher ohm ratings are good for tube amps (helpful because tube amps don’t double their power if the ohm rating goes low).

140w of tube power drives my perspectives certainly much louder than I can handle.

And we agree about the Perspectives with drums. As I wrote in my other long speaker comparison thread, one of the things that attracted me to the Devore O/96 speakers was how they sounded with drums - the way kick drum power seemed to come out and roll over you like the real thing, vs lots of audiophile speakers where the bass sort of sits back in the soundfield, holographically.

The Perspectives have some of that Devore-like bass quality with bass.   Yes bass imaging is quite precise, but there is a roundness and warmth that reaches out and rolls along the floor, so you get the feel of what the drummer is doing on the bass drum. And snares have surprising heft as well on the Perspectives.

I’m looking forward to @arafiq dropping back here to give us his detailed report!

Comparing Persperctive2's to Harbeth SHL5's is is probably not a fair fight (like taking a knife to a gun fight).

 I'd be interested to hear how the Perspective2 compares to Harbeth 40.2 / 40.3's.  Having owned 40.1's for about 8 years and now owning 40.2 Anni's, I can say the 40.2's are better than their predecessors with drums and transparency, but the 40.1's are a touch better with female vocals and are more full bodied and rich sounding. 

pdreher

Yes, that's true "pound for pound."

On the other hand, of one prefers the overall Harbeth sound to Joseph Audio, I can see liking the SuperHL5plus better than the Perspectives.

For me, though, the Harbeth couldn't offer me the thrill-factor of the Perspectives.

The Harbeths were wonderful and cozy to listen to, I really liked them.  But the transparency and purity, and wall-melting imaging show...and punchiness...of the Perspectives just took things to another level.  Almost hallucinatory on some stuff.

Sorry folks I’ve been traveling for work. Hopefully, I’ll share my impressions in a day or two.