Just got a pairs of HL5s. I am a Thiels owner for 20 years. I brought the Harbeths because I had got a good bargain and was thinking of reselling for a profit. My first impression was that something missing up top and the mids was slightly coloured. Definitely, I felt there was not enough definition from individual instruments and vocals. After half an hour, I thought I was hearing more into the music itself! As a whole, it is giving me lot more musical information then the Thiels can do! Wow, I have never listened to so many old disks without flipping though the remotes before. These Harbeths do know how to recreate music as it should be. Will I miss my Thiels? Not really, only when I listen to the handful of super audiophile disks. Will I sell the Harbeths? Not until I can find one speaker which can do both! I think they are as good as they claim as an instrument in recreating musical truth but they are not precise instruments for creating the ultimate HIFI experience.
