my shortlist for integrated Harbethsuper hl5 plus xd - please advise

of your choices i would go exposure

but better yet i would buy a hegel integrated within your budget which i believe will sound better than all of your slate 

i have said this in other posts about harbeths but i will repeat here for the benefit of the op’s

there is no right or wrong answer, we all hear differently and have different preferences

that said, i have owned many harbeths (mon 40, c7, shl5) and i believe that to give them the best possible full range, top to bottom response, they benefit from a pure solid state amp with strong damping factor/woofer grip

the nature of the harbeths is they do their magical voice thing (as a function of their driver material and resonant thin wall cabinet) but they lose resolution up top and slam and tunefulness down low without the best that strong solid state amplification can provide

you CAN make harbeths sound great down low with rel (or other good subs) but to my ear the harbeths sound a little too smoothed over up top with most tube amps

i do concur with @yogiboy that lfd's can work well with harbeths sonically, as those amps sound fast, pure, with good control down low, if you can live with their barebones nature functionally