Differences between Harbeth, Spendor, Graham, etc. ?

@larsman What did you land on for rock speakers?

I agree with you and would not even recommend the 40.3 XDs that I own now if rock / hard rock is your primary genre, even with big SS horsepower. I don’t think that was Alan Shaw’s intent. As a matter of fact, they were designed to be satisfying at relatively low SPL’s, starting around 70dB to mitigate hearing loss / tinnitus, and I think he did very well achieving those design goals. But who wants to listen to ACDC, Boston (especially Foreplay/Longtime) or the Who at 70dB???

On the other hand, if your music tastes are varied, and you want to fill a room (even a big room) with some nice off-axis sounds as well as enjoy sitting in the sweet spot, Harbeth’s are pretty good all-rounders and definitely not fatiguing...but there are many other fine choices out there.

@macg19 - Indeed, it was my bad getting those to begin with for my taste in music; that is not what they were designed for; amazing I lasted with them as long as I did. But I replaced those with Fritz Carrera BE's, which are amazing rockin' speakers with great bass for the size of them, which is much smaller than the Harbeths. Then I got KLH Model 5's, which were the largest of them all, and finally ended up with Marten Parker Duos almost a year ago now; I'm keepin' those for awhile! I live in an apartment so I don't blast my music anyway, and I've already got hearing loss and tinnitus! 🤣 

@larsman thanks for sharing your speaker journey. Ditto on the hearing loss and tinnitus. For me it’s been over 30 years. I got too close to a massive bank of JBLs at an outdoor rave in London. Midrange loss which is why I chose Harbeth.

Tinnitus is all too common as many of us age. I'm in my 70s and the problem started over 20 years ago. I've got a constant 9 KHz squeal both left and right. Ran that down by using a signal generator and a set of headphones and adjusted the frequency until it matched the tone in my head.  The ENT doctor I went to years ago said each hair in the cochlea is connected to its own brain cell. When the hair is damaged, the brain cell ends up bored so makes its own sound.  I attribute my tinnitus to the fact I worked my way through college as a concert soundman.  It was great pay and tons of fun, but everything has its price!

Thanks for all the additional comments. When the time is right, it would probably make sense to take my Hegel down to Gene Rubin and compare the three brands, despite my general distrust of showroom demos.