Joseph Audio Perspective2 vs Harbeth SHL5+

@ryder Agree with you about the bass response (or lack thereof) on SHL5+. Personally, I think the use of a subwoofer (or two) is a must to get maximum performance out of SHL5+. Nonetheless, it is a great speaker by any measure.

I have only heard its big brother, 40.x, a couple of times -- once at a dealer, and another time at an audiophile’s home. I feel that it addresses any shortcomings in SHL5+ and builds on its strengths. Although for some reason, it didn’t have the family resemblance with SHL5+. It sounded like a speaker from a different company. I would love to be able to own the 40.x at some point in this journey, but for now it is a little too rich for my blood, even at used prices. I wonder if anyone has compared it against JA Perspective2 or Pearl for that matter.

arafiq

How happy where you with the soundstage DEPTH on the Harbeth?

As I've said before, that was probably the biggest deficit when I had them.  For some reason their soundstage was shallower than pretty much any speaker I've owned, things "pulled in to the room" rather than "back wall melting away depth" I get with other speakers.

I've mentioned that the Harbeth have a bit more natural "texture" vs the Joseph speakers (which are super smooth).  I've found that my CJ tube amplification, especially my CJ preamp, gives a bit more body and cut-through-the-air texture to the sound, so it gets closer to the best of both worlds.  (Vinyl helps with that as well).

@prof I was quite satisfied with the soundstage depth of SHL5+, but it all depends on your reference point. It is quite possible that you were getting better depth from other speakers and the SHL5+ fell short in comparison.

Also, note that I’m still fussing around with finding the best position for the Perspectives. Initially, I had them towed in at almost the same angle as my Harbeths. On Saturday, I reduce the angle by quite a bit, so now the toe-in is minimal (maybe 15 degrees), and I noticed that the soundstage got even wider. The funny thing is that the center image is more ’filled out’ and the vocals are dead center. I usually got this effect with other speakers when the toe in angle was greater. These JAs seem to be different in this aspect. I will continue to experiment with positioning next weekend.

The JAs allow quite a wide spread, yet you still get good imaging.

One time I put them almost entirely to the sides of my room and the soundstage was ridiculously massive, and still good imaging.  Putting both speakers too close to the side walls did introduce a bit of thickness in the bass so I found a nice position with a wide stage and evenly balanced sound.