SF Guarneri Homage vs Harbeth 7ES3

Ggavetti, you say that your friends/reviewers suggested a listen to the G's, did you not have an opportunity to do that?
Frankly, IMHO the GH is if anything underrated in its musicality and acoustic perfomance. I teach guitar as a side line and when most students hear my Taylor( That's a
respected US guitar maker) and then hear the GH's play back
of an acoustic guitar recording they are astounded at how close the playback sounds to the real thing!
Enjoy your HL-5's.

...play back of an acoustic guitar recording they are astounded at how close the playback sounds to the real thing!

It is my opinion that a speaker has to be pretty bad to not sound good when playing back an acoustic guitar. Maybe my experience has just always been with good speakers.

Daveyf, I tried both GH's and HL-5's at dealers but I tend to discount these tests because the room configuration and the electronics and the cables used are always different than mine. For me it's hard to judge how good a speaker is without trying it out in my system or in a system that is similar to mine. That is why I think that our opinions can be so different about speakers or components in general. In addition to having different ears and tastes, little changes in one's system can have big changes in how appealing a component it...at least in my experience. So, when I ask for advice I tend to trust people whom I know well, and who tried components for long periods of time in systems that are similar to mine. The reason I got interested in Guarneri's is that I've always been in tune with Ken Kessler advice. On the other hand, the fact that two reliable people who have similar tastes and similar systems to yours basically tell you to lean toward the HL-5's...well, that tells me something. The problem might be that they (and therefor me) might not have the right equipment to make the GH's sing as they should.

Brianmgrarcom, Have you had a real instrument, in this instance, a guitar, in the same room as the speakers and therefore were able to do an 'AB' comparison. Or, are you listening to the reproduction via speakers and then relying on your audible memory? Frankly, while the GH's are amazing in their ability to portray this instrument,and are as close to the real thing as I have heard, when you actually listen as a 'AB' comparison the audio system is clearly a facismile of the real thing and not
quite as "real" as the real thing... then again this has applied to all systems that I have ever heard in comparison to the real thing...For those who don't think so, I suggest having a quality instrument played next to your system and then telling me what you think...:0)

I play acoustic guitar as well - not at the professional level that Daveyf looks to perform - but always as a reference to me when evaluating speakers.

I have had at keast ten different speakers, from stats to ribbon to horn and dynamic designs, all reproduce acoustic guitar differtly, some at a larger scale, some with a heavy reverb, some thin - some just right.

and yes.. I own a pair of Souns Faber Guarneri.