Current or Previous Harbeth Owners…

@arafiq thanks, I will try a good solid state amp with the 40.3 sooner or later. Maybe a Hegel. At the moment I run a full tube system with a Mcintosh c2600 tube preamp into various tube power amps.

The Harbeth matches nicely with the MC275 and the Music Reference RM-200 which is a hybrid solid-state/tube 100 wpc.

About the lossy cabinets, I thought that this is backed by scientific data from the BBC research. This type of construction allows the cabinet to dissipate energy in a way that produces a natural and uncolored sound, especially for voice reproduction.
Voice reproduction is one of the greatest strengths of Harbeths imo.

@freediver copy that. Good excerpt. I really do love Harbeths and always wanted to try the babies in a small near field setup; I’ve discovered, however that for the overall genres of music I love, ATC SCM40 v2 have that juicy vibe and incredibly transparent midrange of the Beth’s I’ve tried, but to my ears do the music even more justice. Classical and big band scale super well and vocalists have that lit from within quality my ears 👂 adore. 🥰 cheers mates and enjoy the Holiday!

@yogiboy

“ …l @akg_ca Why would you call the thin wall design a major detriment? Many other speakers use this design including Spendor, Graham, Falcon, Stirling, etc., etc,. It’s been around for over 60 years and many enjoy BBC type speakers…”

@yogiboy

Why are you presuming that I’m knocking HARBETHs. I never said nor implied any such thing , I am assuredly not knocking “thin wall” HARBETHs or any other BBC monitor design .,,, I love my HARBETH M30.2 XD’s on TonTraeger speaker stands as defo keepers long-term, full stop. .

All I posted herein was a simple personal experiences opinion that

(a);I prefer to keep my current speakers over the many contenders and pretenders at the 30.2 price-point strata , and up to double theirpricepoint strata.Adding ahigh-end ATC subwoofer to flesh out the bottom end for these standmounts provided me me with a peer speaker system to the higher model 40,2’s.

(b) and yes ..Ive also auditioned other speaker brands (mostly at audio expos) that could sway me to change, BUT ONLY AT significant multiples ( ….plural ….) in 30.2 speaker pricepoint AND a matched significant multiple in price of upstream electronics to drive them. Intuitively unless I win a mega lottery, nuthin’ is gonna change for me,

I can't speak to the 40.2's but I owned 30.2 XDs and now have 40.3 XDs. I drive them with a T+A PA 3100HV integrated and they sound great.

I've had the T+A for about 7 months now and it never gets boring or fatiguing. (I had a BAT VK 3500 before the T+A it it was just OK with the 40's.) 

While I enjoyed several tube amps with the small Harbeth's, the 40's absolutely need big powerful SS amplification.

I'm guessing your amps would drive them really nicely. 

My experience with other brands is limited but if your music preferences matches what Harbeth's are renowned for, I think you will be happy with them. 

I would add one more thing..I moved from M30.1 to the 30.2Xd...The 30.1 did indeed have a touch more "warmth"that could come off as slightly veiled or too dark with the wrong amplification..The 30.2Xd does not have that additional warmth,adding a bit more nuetrality through the upper bass,lower mid range..An email to Harbeth returned the info that the inside of the cabinets & crossover received a little tuning to bring this about...