Are Harbeth S HL5's As Good As Reviewers Claim?

I have a friend who has owned many monitor speakers in his life that finally settled for a pair of Harbeth Monitor 40. When I spoke to him, he said the Harbeth would be his "final" pair of speakers, a line which we seldom hear from audiophiles or rarely materialize even if mentioned. He has nothing but good words to describe the Harbeth and has urged me to consider the HL5 which is a model lower than the Monitor 40(now replaced by the 40.1). Maybe someday when I have the opportunity to listen to them I will consider getting a pair myself, someday.

Prior to listening to Harbeth speakers, I have also read that they are warm and laidback. After listening to the the SHL-5, I have to say these are extremely musical speakers that sound very neutral and coherent. There is something really special about the proprietary Radial driver built in-house in the Harbeth factory that largely contributes to the fresh and natural sound of the Harbeth apart from the low-coloration "lossy" cabinet with removable front and back panels. I have owned warmer speakers which include lower range of Sonus Faber speakers, B&W Nautilus 805 and PMC LB1 Sigs(which I still own). I have also listened to the Harbeth Compact 7ES-3 and M30. The C7ES-3 sounded quite similar with the SHL-5 but with less scale and weight, and the M30 was slightly shut-in and warmer but with better refinement.

I heard from the dealer that a few folks who owned speakers that cost 2 to 3 times more than the SHL-5 had dumped them for the Harbeth after listening to the speakers. There are a lot of nice beautiful speakers out there that have razor-sharp detail, better refinement and imaging but few would match the sheer musicality and coherence the SHL-5 possesses in its price range. I believe the SHL-5 would be my final pair of speakers after searching for more than a decade.