Calling Harbeths 40.1 owners

There is one pair selling only for $6700 at the gon!! But after this thread, I must think twice before making the move! Shipping and tax is very expensive to Sydney!! I still think these speakers are the one to stop my HiFi merry go round.

SHL5 is a great speaker for it's price. IMHO the M40 or M40.1 is worth more than 5 times the cost of SHL5. Matching a sub to SHL5 should close the gap towards M40.1, but dialing the sub is a tedious job. I've tried to dial 2 AR subs and also a James sub, and in the end, took them out and preferred without the subwoofer.

In the beginning of getting the M40 in, I thought I preferred the sound of SHL5 compared to M40. But after listening to both for a month or 2, I found that the M40 is giving more details in the treble, midrange and also the bass. I've also compared the P3, C7, SHL5 and M40 in my room. On vocals, P3 is the king. All other speakers lost to it when playing vocal tracks, but that's all it excelled at. P3 sounded sweet and crisp might be due to a lack of bass. M40 might not sound fuller and sweeter might be because it had more bass. That is IMO.

The M40 or M40.1 requires big, powerful and great amps to drive them "BEAUTIFULLY". These speakers will show all kinds of flaws with lesser amps.

Thanks for the insight Tom. Great to hear from you after a while, and I hope the 40.1s will continue to grow on you with time to come.

That pr. in Eucalyptus look great. If your going to get a pr. I'd jump on those quick.

I have SHL5s. Coming from Aerial 10Ts, Wilson WP6s and Kharma 3.2s, I do sense that the Harbeths are just masking some detail in pursuit of a non-stressful sound. On the other hand, I love the kind of fleshed-out vocals and nice saturation of sound that is presented. I have not heard the 40.1s, but I was hoping they would have more detail while keeping the SHL5's density.