JBL 43xx va Harbeth 40.x

I think I got a bit crazy.  I already have a pair of Harbeth 40.1 and Spatial Audio X5; but now I want the JBL!  But beside money, I also don’t have space to put three pairs of speakers, LoL.

i need to bring some female vocal to try out the JBL more to compare the mid range.

@joey54 wow, that is a looong post in the link.  
No, I am not thinking to get rid of the Harbeth 40.1, at least not for now.  But I think the Spatial X5 sounds more similar to JBL.  Both are efficient speakers, but the X5 is open baffle, while the JBL has 15” driver.  If I am going to get the JBL, I think I will sell the Spatial.  But the open baffle offers excellent live music feeling, and it is very good also.

I think what makes them so different are:
1) size of the driver
the 15” driver really can produce that slam.  I also listen to a vintage Tannoy with 15” driver and can produce the same slam.  Then I compared to my Spatial Audio X5 with a 12” mid range and 12” bass drivers, it can produce a similar slam but not as much.  But Harbeth only has a 8” mid range and a 12” woofer, it simply can’t move as much air to produce that slam.

2) speaker efficiency
in the audition, we tried driving the JBL with a 4 watt 2A3 amp and a 8 watt 300b amp, both can drive the big JBL no problem.  For Harbeth, I am driving it with a 75W McIntosh MC275.  I believe 75W is still not enough to drive the Harbeth for that type of music.

Definitely they are very different, and I didn’t spent a lot of time on the JBL.  Since they are both studio monitors, I find it interesting that they are so different.  But since they are so different, logically, one of them would sound closer to the “real” live music, or more accurate.  Which one is more accurately producing the music?

I did some more listening, and this time compared the JBL L300.  The L300 is home hi-fi version of 4333.  At the beginning, I thought it will sound similar to the 4344.  At the beginning, I feel, ok, same JBL kind of sound.  Than we switch to 4344.  We played the “She Never Knew Me” by Don Williams.  After a couple notes of the vocal, me and my friend both turn our head and look at each other with a shock.  It is huge different between the L300 and 4344.  The 4344 is much smoother and softer.  

Then I went home and test my Harbeth again with the same songs.  I can say my Harbeth sounds thinking, or having more density.  But that 4344 is no where bright or fatiguing.