Harbeth Owners - What do you think?

Correct, they are "petite". the First Sound is one of the truly great tube linestages.

Have you listened at all to ATC speakers? They make a smallish floorstander.

Drubin. I listened to the SCM 35 as part of my search. Nice speaker. Nothing extraordinary there, IMHO. The Harbeth's are better by a significant margin. I'm trying to find something that will exceed the Harbeth's by a good margin--otherwise, why bother? The ATC has that nice midrange dome but I think it sounds better coupled to their monitor designs, like the SC50 or 100 which I heard while I was in England and like a lot. Again, however, these are big box monitors that don't move me toward the more wife friendly appearance I'm looking for. Thanks so much for your interest and please, keep making suggestions!

Drubin - Your accessment of the ProAcs is like mine. I absolutely loved their musicality and ability to draw me in for hours but ultimately wanted more inner resolution, but this took over 7 years to happen! I think it may be the large cabinet like you said and am very curious about the Harbeths in this regard. I'm trying to find some way to audition the 30s and would be willing to pay shipping both ways (no dealer in area) if need be.

Tomryan. Try John Rutan at Audio Connection in Verona, NJ. He may be willing to help.

Dodgealum,

If you hang out at HUG, you should know that there are no speakers that are significantly better than Harbeth :-). Seriously, there are different listener priorities and different product strengths and weaknesses - there isn't anything that will "exceed [Harbeth] by a large margin", especially if you like the Super HL5s. As you know, the Harbeths are very natural with great tonal balance, but they aren't the last word in PRAT, don't have spectacular imaging, and the monitor 30 and 40 speakers use the better Seas tweeter. It's all about priorities and having fun trying new things.