Harbeth Super HL 's Loudspeakers


......would like some input on these speakers if possible. My room is 14 feet across - and my current speakers - Avalon Eclipse are against this wall...and the length of the room is 31 feet and my chair is about 12 feet in the middle - the room has been treated with all ASC as per their instructions. Esoteric P-05 and D-05 front end with Classe Delta amp and pre-amp. The Avalon's I love, but have had them almost 10 years and have heard nice things about the musicality of the Harbeth's ....the 40.1's are too much money so I was wondering about the HL5's. Seraching again at this point in my life ...your thoughts
garebear
The dynamics and the soundstage of the speakers are pretty good, i usually listen guitar music and they are perfect for that. The vocals are always clean and natural.
I have super hl5,yes they are musical speakers,but not perfect.They don't have punch.For this reason they can sound boring .These speakers are not of that kind which impressed me at first.From the box they sounded very lean with too much highs extension.For me it took more than 3 months to get positioned them to sound good,to get full range sound: 6.7feet between speakers ,6-7 away listening distance, 3.5feet away from walls.Only now they sound warm,have good bass extension,sometimes with hidden power,image very good,nice 3d soundstage.Vocals sounds organic.Sweet highs.What i like abaut them in particular is how they reproduce whole music with ambience especialy with guitars and piano vocals.I have tried 3 different amps.All they sounded different.With one sounded very bassy,killing midrange and highs,with the other sounded very lean,too pure.With the third sounded too forwad.So in your case audition is welcome.You may like you may not like the sound with your amp.In the end i left Harbeths connected to Technics power amp SE-A3000 and preamp SU-C3000 and added equalizer in order to boost bass.Later i discovered,that Harbeths match pretty good with mosfet amplification.
It sounds like a sideways ( or worse ) move to me..I tried a similar home Demo of the Harbeths Super HL5's myself and was very happy with my current speakers( Kharmas' )..I heard all the good things peole were saying about the HL5's and had a chance to try a pair for 1 week in my Home...I know many people love Harbeths but they just didn't click for me..Maybe I was so used to the Kharma sound,but found the HL5's quite boring..( no disrepect ) ..Sometimes I think we have problems changing when the new piece is 180 degrees from the product we are used to.......As mentioned,the only way is to try them side by side under the same conditions..I am very happy I did,rather than buying without trying..
Just a thought, have you tried pulling the Eclipses out into the room since you have 31 feet there, and see what happens?

I can relate to your thought though, I sold my B&W Silver Signatures after nine years, not because I didn't like them, but I just wanted to change.

I have heard both the Eclipses and the HL5s and really liked both. So although I might not be of a certain kind of help, I will say that the HL5s should be auditioned next to your Eclipses to see which you prefer.

In the size of room that you have, I would like to see you also audition the Thiel 2.4s and Maggie 3.6Rs. I personally liked both of those better than the HL5s.

Chuck