JA Pulsars vs Harbeth 30.2

Definitely go for the 30.2 if you’re planning to audition. Harbeth has tuned the 30.2 to be a bit more open and airy (better treble) compared to the 30.1. If you feed it with good amplification it will not be ‘soft’ at all. What it won’t do is to throw the detail in your face. You will notice that all the detail in your music is still there, it just doesn’t ‘prioritize’ higher frequencies compared to the rest. This makes for an excellent speaker for long, fatigue free sessions. 

I don’t have the Pulsars but I do own a pair of Tyler Taylo Reference speakers that use the same Seas drivers (albeit a larger woofer) as the Pulsars. 
 

For me the choice would be easy, I’d go with the Pulsars. They have a tweeter that retails for nearly twice the price of the Seas unit in the Harbeths. The improvement of the costlier tweeter is definitely audible to my ears.

The 30.2s paired with Hegel will give you a very warm and easygoing listening experience, but you’ll also be leaving a lot of detail and resolution on the table vs speakers like the Pulsars, especially if the latter are paired with more neutral electronics. 

@tjraubacher 

I would expect your H390 to sound very similar to the Harbeths driven by the H590 - there is not that much difference between the 2 amps.  I believe several of the Hegel amps in the Harbeth videos on YouTube are the lower powered amps. And... Hegel often uses lower powered amps to drive them in shows.  

Also, you may note that the McIntosh MA252 is driving them in some of the most impressive of those videos, which is only 100 watts into 8 ohms and 160 watts into 4 ohms (Harbeth's impedence).

And... if you prefer a different sound after you've tried them for a while, they're very easy to sell.  They will require a few hours of burn-in to sound their best (if new).  But... for acoustic sounds... you'll have difficulty finding anything to match their rich, warm, airy, life-like sound and imaging... or... have to replace them with a pair of Quad ESL-57's!  

@tjraubacher

If... as you said... you listen primarily to acoustic music - you will have a very difficult time to find anything that matches the Harbeth’s rich, warm, life-like sound and imaging - except for the ESL 57’s and maybe the Maggie LRS+, which I also have, and like as well as the Harbeths.

Especially with strings, horns and all things acoustic!

Though, if you want a bit more of a "bite" in the instruments - the SHL5 XD will provide that, as well as the 30.2 XD - perhaps at the expense of a bit of some of the smoothness.