I've owned a lot of small speakers over the last 25 years. They all had strengths and weaknesses (besides not being able to deliver low bass). The little Sound Dynamics were the best of the bunch by they had a rear port. Which is fine if you have about 3 feet of open space behind them. That brings up a common misconception about what constitutes a "bookshelf speaker". There are smaill (satellite if you will) speakers and there are bookshelf speakers. They are not necessarily the same thing. If you really want to put a speaker in a bookshelf and have it sound like anything other than a fart cannon, it must NOT have a rear port. I have a specific application for a small speaker, my desk top. And that desk top is against a wall. I wanted wee small tiny speakers that did not take up much space but had great sound and no rear port. OK that narrowed the field down considerably. I tried Wharfedale, Boston, Axiom, Monitor, GR Research, Infinity, Mission, B&W, etc, etc, etc. I had about given up until I scored these off Audiogon for $750.

Everything positive you have read and heard about these amazing little shoebox sized speakers is true. They recreate human voice and piano with uncanny accuracy. The realism of the sound is just striking. As soon as you hear these speakers you will wonder why you wasted your time on any others. So what if you have to eat Ramen noodles and peanut butter for 3 months. These are great jazz speakers. I listen to KKJZ from Long Beach, CA on the internet via USB to a Cambridge Audio Dac Magic to an old Marantz CR2020 cd receiver. Forget Grace table internet radios or M Audio sound cards. This is the way to listen to internet radio. I am just blown away by the sound this combo makes.

The HPL3 has been superceded twice since it's introduction and the 3rd iteration comes out this year. Now is a great time to by a 3, es2 or es3. If you have a small room, desk top or bookshelf and want the best sounding shoebox size speaker ever made, this is it.

I've owned a lot of small speakers over the last 25 years. They all had strengths and weaknesses (besides not being able to deliver low bass). The little Sound Dynamics were the best of the bunch by they had a rear port. Which is fine if you have about 3 feet of open space behind them. That brings up a common misconception about what constitutes a "bookshelf speaker". There are smaill (satellite if you will) speakers and there are bookshelf speakers. They are not necessarily the same thing. If you really want to put a speaker in a bookshelf and have it sound like anything other than a fart cannon, it must NOT have a rear port. I have a specific application for a small speaker, my desk top. And that desk top is against a wall. I wanted wee small tiny speakers that did not take up much space but had great sound and no rear port. OK that narrowed the field down considerably. I tried Wharfedale, Boston, Axiom, Monitor, GR Research, Infinity, Mission, B&W, etc, etc, etc. I had about given up until I scored these off Audiogon for $750.

Everything positive you have read and heard about these amazing little shoebox sized speakers is true. They recreate human voice and piano with uncanny accuracy. The realism of the sound is just striking. As soon as you hear these speakers you will wonder why you wasted your time on any others. So what if you have to eat Ramen noodles and peanut butter for 3 months. These are great jazz speakers. I listen to KKJZ from Long Beach, CA on the internet via USB to a Cambridge Audio Dac Magic to an old Marantz CR2020 cd receiver. Forget Grace table internet radios or M Audio sound cards. This is the way to listen to internet radio. I am just blown away by the sound this combo makes.

The HLP3 as been superceded twice since it's introduction and a 3rd iteration was annonced at CES2009. Great time to buy used. If you have a small room, bookshelf or desktop application for a GREAT sounding speaker, this is the one. One star off for value because they are just too damned expensive new or used but they hold their value. One star off overall becuase they are not perfect. Nothing Is!

- Amazing midrange - Neutral, clarity and resolution tops - Does't require a lot of space to sing

- Bass is ok, not great - Soundstage is rather small (meant to be) - Good for vocals and jazz, not pop, rck or hip hop.

I have a relatively small room and hence was looking for just the right bookshelf speaker that is not boomy or over-extended. Tried a couple in my place - including well reviewed Monitor Audio B2 and B&W CDM 1NT. Also auditioned many small speakers in the stores, including Spendor, Vienna, Sonus Faber, AE, Whaferdale, KEF, Quad and others but didn't seem to get the type of vocals which I like. Until I heard the Harbeth HL-P3ES2. After I bought it, hooked it up with a integrated tube amp pushing 48W (about 100W in SS terms) and the vocals were simply amazing - so detailed, neutral and most important of all, can touch your heart. Playing some of my familiar songs, I was so touched by the "emotion" of the music. Not many speakers can do that. And the clarity, I guess because it's combined with the tube amp, is so amazing - I can hear so many details and in some good recordings you can actually hear the singer parts the lips to sing! For the size, this speakers are great and recommended for near-field listening.

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Tone and pitch has a very natural feel.Neutral.Accurate.Very clean,clear and humble human voice.Not noisy and tiring when played loud for long period's of time.simple and good looking.built for sound quality first,looks second.first class sound on acoustic music.

Lateral soudstage and depth sounded smallish.difficult to drive.Too dry for complex and noisy music.

hi audiophile's and music lover's.............i have been usingthe harberh HLP3 bookshevles.....for 2 month's.....i hooked it up with my pre and power Naim Nac42 and Nap110 ,Audio alchemy transport with own DDE version 1.1 DA convertor.all cables are Naim. the first thing that i notice was this is a very stubborn and difficult speaker to drive compared with my previes sonus faber bookshelve'c.need to increase the volume level much higher for the amount of sound pressure level with my ex speaker's.i listen to all tpye's of music except opera.my listening room is small.i can tell its the most neutral sounding small speakers (similiarly price) i've listened.just love the natural accurate pitching and tonality of any instrument espeacilly acoustic one's.guiter's sounded atriculate,natural and quite sparkling.i can now listen to all the 6 string's being strum with a good strong rythym sense.Nylon string's sounding like nylon and metal string's sounded metalic.the only thing is electric lead guiter's lacking some agrresiveness and bite when playing rock song's.when listening to a jazz track,the acoustic piano tingkling sounded so natural in tone and pitch.the keys on the piano are real ebony keys not plastic.no complain about piano's.voice are also good..giving a slim,clean cutting and open but not warm enough for me.also i think human recorded human voice must have some colouration during the recording chain in the studio.for me live singing is the most accurate and neutral of all. Bass guter is a bit fat with less extension but tight enough and acceptable for me in my small room.one thing i love about this speaker's are when thers are two voice's ,one main singer and the othe backup vocalist or chorus,u can distinquish each individual voice's very very clearly.either sharing one mike or multiple mike's. i play the acoustic drum's in my room and i'm very familiar with the drum sound colour.the drum sound is very neutral in tone and pitch coming out of the harbert's HLP3.Woodsnare's sounded like wood with a nice tight warm and clear tone while metal snare's sound metalic with some ringging.that's how a drum should sound properly.every tom-toms also sounded accurately in pitch and tone either hi,medeum or floor tom's.tight natural.only lacking in dynamic and slam.crashe's ,hi-hat and ride's have good extension,pitch and also tone.the decay (tail) time of the crash'es are already being clipped or chopped of a bit during the recording process due to the limitation of the recording format.so u will never or ever get the real full crash sound especially the decay and instantaneaus raw piercing hi pitch sound of the crash sound.Overall i love the harbeth HLP3 sound.the Sonus faber concertino has more dynamic's,depth and lateral soundstage the the former but i prefer the Harbeth because its much more neutral,natural,and accurate.thank u for your time.

Similar Products Used:

sonus faber concertino,system 931,roger's ,linn,Naim,and chario speakers.

Tonal balance Dynamics Easy to listen Vocals Detail resolution Bass and low frequencies (for a minimonitor)

They cannot go loud and the sensibility is very low (but in a small room they’re just fine)

These small speakers, hand made in England, are able to deliever a very balanced, rich, smooth, fluid, sophisticated d airy sound. They’re not easy to partner, however. I found the best match to be the Sugden A21a pure class A integrated amplifier, also recommended by Harbeth Ltd. and by many discerning listeners. As for the stands I use the Music Tools Tool One 67 cm height which seem to work very well as they were originally designed for the LS3/5a. The P3ES are the ultimate choice for smaller rooms, in which they provide a full range performance, especially if you listen to classical and acoustic material. They should be placed at least 40-50 cm away from the rear wall, even if they’re an acoustic suspension. I strongly recommend them to everyone who is looking for an updated version of the immortal BBC LS3/5a.

Similar Products Used:

BBC LS3/5a, Spendor S3

Amazing vocals; no fatigue factor

Not easy to drive, but worth persisting in system matching.

I bought these miracle "shoe boxes" after auditioning 10 bookshelf speakers. Could not believe the imaging and detail. As previous reviewers have indicated , they are ideal for small rooms ( my music cave is 2.5m x 2.5m) but lose a bit in large spaces. Took some time to find best listening position. Then realised my old NAD tuner/amp wasn't up to it. Spent time finding an affordable amp (currently Marantz PM19)which could drive the Harbeth's and which suited my taste in music. Next project is finding something better (valves?) to drive these babies. I have since listened to much more expensive speakers including Quads in an A/B type situation and have been more than impressed with the P3's as have others who hadn't heard of Harbeth. (There is no distributor/dealer in Australia)

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B&W, Dali, Monitor Audio

A well balanced speaker. ES model got FIVE starMuch better imaging & bass that LS3/5a model

Imaging, vocals, very accurate monitors, excellent build capable of superb soundstaging when partnered with good equipment.

Very little but don't expect ear-splitting levels.

I nearly sold these without opening the box (I won them in a competition!). I only had to try them once and the rest of my system has matured around them , currently :
Meridian 506.20 CD player
Densen B200 pre-amp
Densen DM30 power amp
bi-wired with Kimber 4TC/8TC cabling
Kimber 1020 Select i/c (CD-preamp)
Nordost Red Dawn i/c (pre-power amp)
Kimber powerkords and powerblock.
These speakers are very accurate. They are true monitors and their forte is vocals. Treble is detailed and sharp (with some amps they can get screechy at highish levels)
but with most they are tonally spot on.
Bass is very good given the dimensions and augmentation with a subwoofer is recommended - I went for a REL Strata III.
Best bi-wired, grilles left on and at least 70 cm away from room boundaries. Expect detail and a holographic mid-band if you can partner with amps of similar price at least.Ideal in smaller rooms and come into their own with jazz, solo instruments and smaller scale classical.
However, my Black Sabbath and Deep Purple collections sounded gutsy and powerful!

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Mission 760i's

detailed image and sound.excellent 3Dsound

no deep bass

in my small room the harbeth hl p3 es really sings. it is ideal mini monitor for acoustical music in very limited spaces.

Similar Products Used:

marantz cd 63 KIs, NVA AP70, NAD 412

Sounstage, image, finnesse, delicacy, neutrality etc etc

Deep bass - that's it

This is a review of the HLP3ES-2 - the latest incarnation.
The search for the perfect pair of speakers will probably be a never ending one. When you consider the constraints that are placed upon ones purchase – budget, room size, equipment, WAF etc – as with all hi-fi choosing the “right” speaker can be very much a game of pot luck and compromises.
I have been undertaking this game of pot luck for about five years now and have gone through 5 pairs of speakers and auditioned dozens more.
Unfortunately I have been unable to get a local dealer to lend me a pair of speakers to trial at home and so all my purchases have been based on a 20 minute demo in the listening rooms of one or two establishments.
It doesn’t take you long to realise that these circumstances are by far the worst possible in attempting to properly audition a new system component. I have never seemed to be able to enjoy the speakers at home as much as I did in the shop. The element of the speakers which attracted me in the shop either becomes tiring or whilst that element is still impressive you slowly realise that it is at the expense of other parts of the performance.
Anyway, in nor particular order these are the speakers that I have owned: Monitor Audio Silver 5, JPW Mini Monitors, Mordaunt Short MS20i Pearls, Tannoy Revolution R2 and Kef Q35.2. Speakers I have audtioned include AVI NuNeutron, Various Missions, Accoustic Energy AE1, Rega, Opera, Dynaudio etc.
Most of the above ramble is irrelevant to the review but i just wanted you to know the struggle I have had trying to find the best speakers i can afford.
Which brings me onto the Harbeths. Now these speakers are not the cheapest or the most expensive speakers that I have auditioned but IMHO none of the above speakers come anywhere near the quality available form these amazing monitors. The only elements lacking which is not surprising with speakers of this size is the bass and you can’t make your ears bleed with full volume thrash metal. Everything else to my ears is perfect.
The tonality, soundstaging and naturalness of the speakers has to be heard to be believed.
The soundstage height width and depth is awesome. It is as though the recording venue is there for you to touch. You feel that you are part of the recording process. Unless you experience it it is very difficult to describe.
On the first weekend of owning the speakers i went through hundreds of CD's rediscovering each one as if hearing them for the first time.
The greatest thing for me is the amazing quality of vocals through the Harbeth's. I have listened to a song by Beth Nielsen Chapman called Sand and Water though my old speakers (Tannoy R2) and have been touched by the sentiment of the lyrics. It wasn't until I heard the song through the Harbeths that the real emotion of Beth's voice came flooding into the room. I have to say that it brought a lump to my throat (and a tear to my wife's eye).
I could write page after page about these speakers but I won't - I don't want to waste the time that I could be listening to them for a start.
I only wish they were sold at more dealers. The only selling problem I can see is that for £800 you don’t seem to get much of a box for your money. For the same price (or a lot less) you can pick up a big pair of three way floorstanders which will shake your foundations. What you went get is the poise, subtlety and finesse of the Harbeths.
In conclusion I can unreservedly recommend these speakers. Just go listen.
Finally, equipment is:

MF X-RAY CD
MF X-A2 Int Amp
MF E500 Tuner
Rega P2 T/Table
Chord Odyssey Speaker Cable
MF Nu-Vista Interconnects
Kimber Power Kords
Lynwood Advanced Mains Cleaner
Room = 15ft x 10ft

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See below