Hear How Explicit Can Be Beautiful: Handmade Harbeth SHL5plus XD Bookshelf Loudspeaker Operates Like a Floor-Stander, Plays with Unerring Truthfulness and Accuracy

The Harbeth SHL5plus XD bookshelf loudspeaker harbors time-honored values that some may consider old-soul, old-world, even old-fashioned. Namely, each and every part of the 34.8-pound model is hand-assembled by master craftspeople in the company’s dedicated British factory.

It’s what Harbeth has been doing since 1977, a process that includes keeping track of the individuals who built the speaker as well as those who tested it for any imperfections, inside and out, before placing it in a box for shipment. These records provide you even further peace of mind if, decades down the road, you need a driver replacement. With the SHL5plus XD, you’re not just buying a tremendous-sounding loudspeaker that Harbeth likes to call "explicit" due to its clarity and detail. You’re investing in a heritage that refuses to cut any corners.  

Declared by veteran Stereophile critic Ken Micallef “easily the finest standmount speaker I’ve heard,” SHL5plus XD operates much like a larger floor-standing unit in the manners in which it delivers big, powerful, encompassing, front-to-back performance marked by realistic soundstages, broad dynamics, and uncanny insight. Defined, natural, lyrical, refined, and lively, the 25 x 12.7 x 11.8-inch (HWD) SHL5plus XD reproduces music with uncommon transparency and accuracy, rendering details with a soulful involvement that brings you closer to your favorite artists. In particular, it thrives with jazz, vocal, classical, and lighter rock fare.

Bolstered by Harbeth’s globally renowned 7.88-inch RADIAL2 bass/midrange driver, SHL5plus XD includes a one-inch ferrofluid-cooled tweeter as well as a supplemental 0.8-inch dome SuperTweeter to handle high frequencies with uncommon delicacy, grace, and transparency. Easy to drive (six ohms impedance, 86dB sensitivity), SHL5plus XD elevates the revered English monitor sound to levels unimaginable in high-end’s original golden age. Its gorgeous cabinetry, featuring luxurious veneers, serves as the exclamation point on a speaker that is as visually beautiful as it is aurally bountiful. 

To learn more about SHL5plus XD or any of Harbeth’s models, reach out to a Music Direct audio consultant at 312-433-0200. 

“[The] Harbeth Super HL5plus XD is easily the finest standmount speaker I've heard, and it challenges most floorstanders for pure musicality and enjoyment. It manages to combine high definition, warmth, soundstage dimensionality, intimacy, lyricism, gracefulness, refinement, insight, and clarity, and to weave those elements into a beautiful, sensuous, fulfilling whole."
—Ken Micallef, Stereophile

“Alan Shaw’s dedication to making the 200mm RADIAL an edge of the art driver has brought to the lover of music a transducer that makes a variety of instruments come to life. It does so with the delicacy and power that one might expect in a far larger, more expensive loudspeaker. While the investment in these speakers is not inexpensive, its performance in every aspect makes the price of entry quite reasonable.”
—Home Theater Hi-Fi