Which Harbeths?

I owned Harbeth P3ESR about a year ago, and currently own 30.1 (home office) and SHL5+ (media room). I auditioned C7ES3 last year, and 30.2 a few weeks ago. Based on my preferences (and mine only) ...

SHL5+ > 30.2 > 30.1 > P3ESR > C7ES3

If you are comparing 30.2 with C7ES3, I can tell you that they are very different from each other. Both have their fans and detractors. I know you don’t want to hear this, but there’s no way to know which one you’d like without auditioning. But if you have to roll the dice, I would say 30.2 is a safer bet ... it is more balanced and refined, but at the cost of deeper bass, and is not as romantic and lush sounding as the C7s.

For a small’ish room, say around 10x12 or smaller, very few speakers can beat the beautiful sound of P3esr’s. IMO, when it comes to vocals, P3esr’s are still the king of the hill in the Harbeth lineup.

Just my 2 cents.

The C7s were the first Harbeth speakers I listened to about 4-5 years ago. I didn't care much for them at the time, and a recent audition validated my earlier assessment. I'm not saying they're not good, but definitely not my cup of tea. I found them a bit sluggish, closed off, and too warm for my taste. After this experience, I had written off Harbeth altogether. 

Luckily, I had an opportunity to buy a used pair of P3esr's (but only with 50 hours or less) about 3 years ago. At the time I had KEF LS50s in my home office system. At first, I didn't really understand what the fuss was about. I missed the treble energy and the 'detailed' presentation (relatively speaking of course) of the KEFs. But I persisted, and spent 2-3 weeks listening to the P3ESRs. And then a funny thing happened when I put the KEFs back in rotation. I was missing the balanced, tonally correct sound of the P3s. The detailed and high energy presentation of KEFs was suddenly not my preference. The vocals did not have the emotion and realism provided in spades by the P3s. The Harbeths crept up on me in a very sneaky way. The KEFs were sold the following week.

I since moved up to M30.1s which was another step up in every way. When it comes to Harbeth, my opinion is that it is definitely an acquired taste. It's like that old album that you didn't like at all when you first listened to it. But it gradually grew on you upon repeated listenings, until it became your favorite album of all time. If I were the OP, I wouldn't let C7's be the sole data point in evaluating the Harbeth line up. It's very different than the P3s or 30.1s, at least based on my experience. I would at least give 30.x a try before I give up.

Just my 2 cents.