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

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.

Hi Joc301,

Have you heard of the M40.1?
What's your views on the M40.1?

Thx

Jeffmohd: Other than brief exposure at the last RMAF show, I have not heard the 40.1's.
I'm not trying to badmouth Harbeth. I think they are well engineered speakers and it looks like they're pretty successful. Many will find sonic nirvana with their approach. When I had the 40's, they were in the 7k price range. I think the price has almost doubled for the new ones. To my ears and for my taste there are better alternatives.

I recently purchased a pair of HL-5's. They substituted a pair of ESL-57 (Piquet modified). I am not sure I have found the best position in the room yet, but I am quite happy so far. The only area where they do not excel, in my room at least, is imaging. Compared to the Quad's they seem to process less well spatial information. In contrast to what some people said, I do not find them too warm. I think they are extremely neutral. And yes, I completely agree that they are not fatiguing at all.

I've owned a pr of the HL-5s now for about four months. They have replaced Thiel CS7.2s. At first the difference was hard to get used to. But i dont think i could go back to the Thiels, or most other speakers. I dont find them to warm either. very neutral, sound very musical, big soundstage, I use a REL R505 subwoofer with them and theyhave me considering moving to the 40.1s. I listen to alot of techno, trance, rock, jazz, and dont find them boring at all. They dont have the leading edge or imaging the Thiels had, but as a hole offer a nicer presntation. They have me digging out alot of LPs i had given up on and enjoying them again.