Harbeth 40.3's. Should I buy them?

@desalvo55

unless your room is truly huge and/or you listen crazy loud, 60 push pull triode tube watts should be plenty (certainly 100+ pentode watts will be)...

mon 40’s work in the nearfield (take tom mallin’s experience with many grains of salt) but are really meant for decent sized rooms where their utter ease and big sound become magical, and the speakers can be placed away from room boundaries

that said, in my experience, the mon 40’s bring a good dose of richness and warmth to the music in and of themselves, and are best used with top flight solid state amps, as the big woofers and medium efficiency of the speakers like strong current drive and damping factor/grip for the best bass and uber clean transient attack

pass labs, hegel, classe (among other excellent solid state) are well known lovely pairings with mon 40’s

I own Harbeth and they are not, in my humble opinion, rocking-out speakers - Just as @rsf507 mentioned. For Classical, Jazz, musicians such as Dire Straits, Taylor Swift, Pink Floyd, any Blues, Female voice is wonderful, and any acoustic they are amazing.

@jjss49 is correct.

AC-DC/Ghost/Black Sabbath not so much. A sub does help, but they are not JBL's or other speakers known for in your face sound. I listen to everything (including Ghost, Hot Tuna, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC) and I don't mind they are bit "polite" for very hard rock. I never get tired of listening, which some "in your face" speakers can cause you to turn them off. No offence to JBL, I had them in college. I hear the new ones are better balanced, but have not heard them.

I think the 40.2 with a sub, will be a good balance......Hope this helps.

I don't know if this will help, but I used to have the smaller C7es  along with two subs.My amp is an AricAudio Transcend that was 60+watts with KT150s and half that single ended. I measured it at 90db in my 16 x 17 room.It was great with rock music but not as dynamic as a more sensitive speaker would be,which made it forgiving of harsher recordings. I really enjoyed them for a couple of years then sold them for a pair of easier to drive speakers. 

Nothing wrong with those big Harbeths especially if you listen to all kinds of music. Vocals are a particular strength and that means a lot!

Is placement/WAF part of the problem? The big Harbeths I have heard were enchanting placed well out from the rear wall. I could learn to live with that. Whereas Audionote is designed for corners. That’s a big difference. The solution is to get speakers that work well for you in your room. YMMV.

that's a new car price territory, I would definitely try before buying