Any monitors clearly better than Pulsars?

At low frequency, our hearing may not be that sensitive to distortion since the wavelength is so long.  At low frequency, what's more important is how well the bass is properly damped - otherwise the bass will be lose or flabby.  Two most important variables that determine the quality of the bass is first the driver QTS, and the internal volume of the cabinet.  As for how low the driver can go determined by first the size of the driver surface area, secondly the material (such as paper, aluminum, ceramic ...), and thirdly the Xmax (or how much excursion can the driver move back and forth).  In general, everything else being equal, the harder the cone material, the more bass extension.  Hence materials such as aluminum, kevlar or magnesium will have more bass than paper cone.

I think the Harbeth 30 woofer is made of paper or paper that has been coated with some sort of material.  The Pulsar woofer is magnesium, so most likely it will have more bass extension vs. the Harbeth.  I personally have used the Seas 5.5in magnesium, and I would crank up the volume and that thing would just play on.  I did the same thing on a lesser paper cone driver it broke on me.

The challenge in designing small monitor such as the Pulsar is that you need some sizable internal volume to able to control or dampen the bass.  But most people want small monitors so that they look pretty in their living rooms.  If the internal volume is too small, you have a midbass hump.  For the magnesium woofer on the Pulsar, you probably need about 13 - 15 liter of volume to properly damp the bass output.  I've read the Stereophile review and it seems like the Pulsars do have a bit of a midbass hump.  The midbass hump sometimes can be mistaken for having deeper bass.  And to be fair, most monitors in the same size category as the Pulsars probably don't have much deep bass to speak of so it's more like a game of millimeter.  

I heard the midbass hump on the Pulsars (Stereophile noted a bit of added warmth to the Pulsars too), which is why I gravitated to the Perspectives, which evened that out and sounded more linear t me through the lower midrange/upper bass.

Prof, btw, I really liked the pulsar when i heard them. its just that I prefer a speaker with more bass and even more importantly is how loud it can play cleanly along a life size image. The 30.2 for me have more of a life size image, but one of the trade off is a soundstage that cannot be compared to the Pulsar. The pulsar use totl Seas driver and its quite impressive in many ways, but I still find the presentation lacking in many ways.

I see you also really like the Devore 093/096. to me its a perfect example, that sort of presentation is to my ears in another league to the Pulsar as well. For the same price, lets just say I know which speaker id get.

ok, back to OP

I am using an asymmetrical crossover with the 7” driver.  The tweeter is second order and the driver is third order to help minimize cone break-up.  

Bass response at normal listening level appears to be crisp and precise down to the 40hz range.  It is impressive for a relatively small speaker.  

What is is definitely lacking compared to the very best monitors is the massive soundstage and ultra-detailed imaging that you get from my Blackthorns, The Kaiser Chiaras, Raidho’s, etc...  They all sound much bigger than they are.  

I have not tried these drivers in a more rigid cabinet (I.e., Carbon Fiber) so I am unsure if I am simply experiencing a limitation in terms of the drivers or that the drivers are limited by being in a less than perfect cabinet.  Bamboo has proven better than MDF in my testing but not at the same level as Fiberglass and a big step down from Carbon Fiber but other than aluminum and a few other materials, what isn’t.  

the Seas Magnesium drivers are great and what is unique is how much bass they deliver compared to other drivers at the same size.  Best in the world for off the shelf?  If bass is your motivator, almost certain they are.  Either these or the Graphene’s.  

If balanced sound (bass vs detail and soundstage) is your concern, Eton’s Arcosia is probably the best driver in the world off the shelf.  Massive soundstage with imaging that is off the charts.  

For just detail (who cares about bass) Acutons might be the best.  These might be the perfect midrange in a three way way speaker.  

Regarding tweeters, the Seas Excel is very nice.  The high mass makes it a good fit for these less rigid (non-composite) cabinets.  In a wood/plywood/MDF cabinet it is superb.  Not sure it would do much better in a more rigid cabinet.  

The Seas drivers are about as good as you can get for inexpensive (MDF, plywood, solid wood) cabinet materials.