I might be one that you are referring to saying the HT3s are bright. I just received them last Friday so they I guess they have some break in left. I did remove some GIK panels in the front corners last night which helped. I originally had panels stacked from floor to ceiling, but I think that deadened the sound too much. I took the upper panels off and now have more upper bass lower mid fullness.
With jazz, acoustic guitar, and vocals they sound really good. Sometimes when the horns or vocals get loud, they can sound bright and hurt my ears a little. I measured the SPLs at my listening position at the loudest I care to listen, and the max was 96db.
The very big concern I have now is that anything hard that I like to listen to like System of the Down, Metallica, Queens of the Stone Age, Fugazi, etc., the sound is kind of thin and bright. My wife likes rap and hip hop. The Salks sound OK with that kind of music. I know rap is a no no to most audiophiles, but that's what my wife likes. I want her to be happy with the speakers too.
I had the Lorelei's for a month a while ago. If I didn't have issues between them and my old room layout, I would have kept them. The things that I wanted them to be better at were transparency, clarity, and detail. That's why I thought the HT3s would be a great choice.
The things I loved about the Lorelei's were the rich, full bass, etherial holgraphic, non fatiguing, room/house filling sound, and the fact that they sounded good with every CD I threw at them. The warmth sounded a little unrealistic to me, but maybe that is a compromise that I need to re-evaluate.
I also just got my Squeezebox back from Vinnie with the new analog mods including a new opamp and blackgates. The Squeezebox with the older mods was more laid back than my Cary 303/200. Now it is brighter sounding. I have a lot of things going on with my system, but I'm not sure if burn in will fix all of my concerns.
One thing I don't want to do is spend more money to make things sound better. I went way over budget to buy the Salks hoping that they would be my last last purchase, and would be completely satisfied.
I am a little down, and I guess I need to chill out, let everything settle in, and re-evaluate in a couple weeks.
BTW- I have more room treatments including GIKs in the back corners and first reflection points. I also have Eighth Nerve Response treaments in some places. My amps are Odyssey Extreme Mono SE's and Tempest pre. Cables are Groneberg.