Differences between Harbeth, Spendor, Graham, etc. ?

Hmmm….the only time I’ve heard Harbeth do vocals “exceedingly well” was when I hadn’t yet experienced lower distortion, higher resolution speakers. In more recent years I simply fail to hear what all the fuss is about with regard to their purported midrange and vocal ability. Not only are they readily matched, and in some cases exceeded, by competing BBC derivatives, they are significantly lacking in resolution, realism and tactility relative to brands employing true high end drivers. To my ears, speakers like Joseph Audio, Rockport and Borresen do pretty much everything better, while sounding more realistic and less fatiguing in the process But one must consider some of those are like 4X the price of SHL5s.

The M40.2s are unquestionably the best Harbeths in my opinion, but for their price, I simply don’t understand the appeal. Some other options around the $25k mark are in entirely different leagues to my ears.

@stuartk 

Emotional and physical engagement are topmost priorities for me.  Have you owned any of the smaller Harbeths?   

Sorry just saw your post. I don't know why I'm not getting notification emails from audiogon anymore. To date, I have owned Harbeth P3esr (in home office), M30.1, SHL5+, and M40.2 (still own). For me, the engagement factor with these speakers is very high. There's a level of realism -- especially vocals, that is quite addictive. I understand these speakers are not for everyone, but they are world class when it comes to tone, timbre, and emotional engagement. They're also a very forgiving speaker in that it makes bad recordings tolerable.

On the negative side, they're not the most dynamic sounding, and they don't disappear as well as some other speakers. 

@helomech

The M40.2s are unquestionably the best Harbeths in my opinion, but for their price, I simply don’t understand the appeal. 

The 40.2s retailed for a smidge under $20k, but I don't think anyone paid that amount for them. Mostly they were selling for around $16-18K. I see that the 40.3s are now touching $25K retail, and I would tend to agree with you that they're definitely not worth that much. Same for P3esr's -- too expensive given the competition nowadays.

However, I would add that Harbeth is one brand that has to be experienced in your own system to understand what it's trying to do. Simply listening to it at an audio show never reveals the special sauce. As I mentioned, I owned the Joseph Audio Perspective2 Graphenes and loved them. But the Harbeth still gives me better timber, tone, and midrange. The Jospeh Audio are certainly a more modern, crisp sounding speaker, and I can completely understand why some people might prefer it.

@arifiq

Thanks for your response.

Emotional and physical engagement are topmost priorities for me.  Have you owned any of the smaller Harbeths?

I'm not Arafiq, but I have the P3ESR SE in a second system and currently have the 30th Anniversary Compact 7's in my main system.  I've had a lot of different small monitors in the small room where I have my second system and the P3ESR's are forever speakers.  I got a great deal on them (I think I paid $1K) and it would be close to impossible to do better for what I spent.  At the reasonable volumes I play them at, they have great tone and timbre and detail, but never have a hint of brightness or edginess.  For a small room, or if you like near field listening and don't ever play music loud, they are amazing.

The Compact 7s are surprisingly good.  I currently have them in my main system.  I say "surprisingly" because my other speakers are KEF Reference 1s. 

In the past I've had Harbeth Super HL5 Plus 40th Anniversary and Stirling LS 3/6 in that system.  I like the Compact 7s better than the Super HL5 Plus and the Stirlings.  They are just slightly less detailed, but are "richer" in the midrange and sound more "real" than either of those speakers as well as the KEF Reference 1s.  The Reference 1s are "better" in a number of ways, more detail, more dynamics, more bass, slightly better imaging and a slightly larger soundstage, but the Compact 7s are more involving and easy to listen to.  I'm really torn about which ones to keep at the moment.