Differences between Harbeth, Spendor, Graham, etc. ?

@larryi 

 I don’t know of any speaker that is perfect in every way, so I mentioned what I heard as a mild weak point.  It may be a matter of a tradeoff—if that slight peak is tamed, something might be lost in terms of sense of speed and dynamics, for example;

Yes. There are (at least with gear I can afford) always trade-offs. Personally, I'm wiling to sacrifice some detail for the sake of taming  potentially fatiguing frequencies.  

Thanks for the detailed info on the A. Note speakers. I'm not a good candidate, given what you've explained. 

@yogiboy 

FWIW, I've received many different suggestions regarding my sibilance issue, including speakers. 

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Perhaps, "sibilance" was not the right term to use.  At certain upper midrange frequencies there is a slight edge or hardness that will be most pronounced in recordings that have a tendency to be sibilant.  That slight edge also can make recordings sound more detailed and lively, so it is not necessarily a fault.  I hear this with many speakers I like because they are lively sounding speakers, such as Fyne speakers, for example.  As I said before, I like Harbeth speakers, and in particular, I like the 30.2 model.  

@larryi +1

We two hear the same.

@larryi

What I’ve noticed is that most often when reviewers use terms such as "lively" or "exciting" they then go on to say that whatever they’re reviewing presents highs in a tipped up, forward, accentuated fashion that prioritizes detail. I regard this as a red flag because I’m extremely sensitive to highs. I understand that verbal descriptions are no substitute for listening (and I’d never buy speakers without a home demo) but at this point I’m confused. Most descriptions I’ve encountered of Harbeths praise their "warm" midrange. Are you are saying they are both warm and lively? 

All of the speakers we are talking about are "warm" (they are tipped up a bit from about 60 to 200 hz), but, warm speakers can also have a peak much further up or some other characteristic not necessarily associated with frequency response to can be associated with hardness or an edge to the sound.  I hesitate to ascribe this to frequency response because measured frequency response often does not correlate with what I hear--I cannot reliably say what a speaker or any component will sound like from most measurements.  

Harbeth speakers are both warm and reasonably lively.  They are not in the same class of lively as horn-based systems, but they are good as far as box speakers go.  Most horn systems are much more peaky than other types of speakers and those that pull off being smooth, lively and reasonably free of harsh peaks are often very expensive and large (I heard a good custom made example this weekend that was about 30" wide by 30" deep by more than 60" tall that I am guessing will sell for around $70k).