Are Harbeth S HL5's As Good As Reviewers Claim?

personally they are one of the best speakers i own and will ever own. No desires to upgrade !

I am a pro studio guy and have spent half a lifetime listening to nearfield studio monitors. I have a preference for ATC (like a good bone dry white wine) but if I had to choose my second favorite, for at home/consumer speakers, it would be these (like a rich red wine). They do everything right!!!

I really like these with low powered tube amps. You can effortless match these to the best Italian (Unico, Nightingale) and Japanese (Leben, Shindo)tubes. Very musical.

Worth all the hype and more!!!

Jimcrane--thanks for the kind words.

Now that I have lived with the SHL5s for a while, they
definitely have a distinctively relaxing personality, one that makes
me feel very drawn to the Harbeth sound. You can almost hear them trying not to be offensive at any frequency or on any recording. So far, nothing has made me cringe or wince.
There is a kind of softness that is addictive, but it is still not what I would call muffled.

The only other speaker which has made me feel affectionate towards it's unique sound were my Apogee Stages, but this was an entirely different sound, very open and present, with some lumpy bass boom on a few unnaturally equalized bass-heavy recordings. But, like the Harbeth, there was no
ruthlessly revealing character, meaning no grain, screech, edginess or metallic aspects. The Harbeths have a deeper,
fuller, warmer bass than the Stages. I would call both of them bargains.

I have a friend who has owned many monitor speakers in his life that finally settled for a pair of Harbeth Monitor 40. When I spoke to him, he said the Harbeth would be his "final" pair of speakers, a line which we seldom hear from audiophiles or rarely materialize even if mentioned. He has nothing but good words to describe the Harbeth and has urged me to consider the HL5 which is a model lower than the Monitor 40(now replaced by the 40.1). Maybe someday when I have the opportunity to listen to them I will consider getting a pair myself, someday.

I owned the 40's for a few years. Good, but there is a pervasive warmth with these speakers that borders on "muffled" sounding. Most of the British speakers share this characteristic, including some Spendor's I owned years ago. Vandersteens also sound this way to me. For me, the Harbeth's were not satisfying for the long term. Everything gets warmed up a little which robs the music of immediacy, accuracy and ultimate tonal clarity. Some people love this warmish flavor, especially acoustic instrument lovers. Not for me.