Spendor BC1's

[Jac Hawk]

Ok i'm looking at a pair of BC1's on ebay, they look a bit ropey, need the cabs and grill's restoring etc, the guy selling them says that all the drivers work fine and he's had them hooked up, i'm looking for a project to keep me busy over the cold winter nights, so i don't mind the work but i know nothing about Spendor BC1's and would like some opinions as to there merits and drawbacks, as well as what tweeks or mods to consider, as well as what I should expect to pay for them .

[nat8808]

Main draw-back is that even ropey ones can cost on Ebay.. much better to look elsewhere. Even a ropey pair will cost about £200+ these days unless you're lucky.

[nat8808]

Ok, Just looked at the pair on ebay you seem to be refering to and they are in great shape in my opinion. They look fine to me and so will look fine to many people too - the plant pot mark could be sorted with a few hours work and the grill look like normal for their age, a bit saggy and need a clean.

I would expect these to go for around £325 - £360 odd, although they are pick-up only from Cleveland which may put people off.

Not much of a project (not much to do to them) and you could find nicer pair off of ebay for some £150 cheaper - just have to go back to the old days of trawling local ads etc.

[Jac Hawk]

Yes they are the ones in cleveland, and to me the cab with the bad stain on the top looks like it's taken water dammage so probable would need re-vaneering, which would meen that both would need re-vaneering to get them looking the same, plus on speakers of that age the crossovers can't be guaranteed to be 100% so I would rebuild them with new components, plus the add mentioned that the bass drives differ from each other, so that would suggest that 1 of them has been changed. that to me has the potential to be a nice little project.

and as far as the price goes i'll keep my fingers crossed and hope they go unnoticed by the rampaging ebay hoards.

My main reason for starting the thread though was to find out if there are any mods that can be done to them, to improove on what I guess is a great sounding piece of kit

[Labarum]

I think some input is needed from Dave Rance.

Where are you, Dave?

[DSJR]

I'm glancing in where I should be doing some study activities (ooh, matron..).

Good BC1's are fantastic in one area only, and that's the midrange, where a good pair can equal or better some well esptablished references still. However, the bass has always been a big problem with BC1's, all too easily sounding over-ripe and thumpy unless the boxes are kept well away from walls and floors. I found at he time that their trolley stands, although convenient, were far too low, although lifting them further (my BC2's are on 14" stands) risks taking the tweeters too high. An ideal at the time was to lift the speakers really high - 20 - 24" stands and then turn the whole thing upside down, so the tweets were on axis and the woofer above you.... The Beeb hung them from the ceiling really high and angled them down into the studio as I recall.

The thing is, old rubber-compound surrounds can go off and harden somewhat. Mine seem ok, but old white surround BC1's will almost certainly have reformed their flat nature instead of being half-roll as manufactured. I've recently read stories about early SP1's with stiffening surrounds but it could be a climatic condition possibly.

At the end of the day, and as suggested above, BC1's are now items for collectors and good ones are fetching high prices. Bass units can no longer be serviced, especially as Terry Miles (the Spendor man who refurbs in his own time) is taking a sabatical from this work. My advice would be to look out for some good SP1's or later, as the bass is far better and the top end slightly sweeter too, despite similar drivers being used. I only keep my BC2's through emotional attachment and would have gone for SP1's myself as they're still just affordable. Even so, SP1 mk1's cannot be serviced on their bass units, although SP1/2's onwards can be done if necessary.

The Yahoo Spendor User Group has some excellent threads and if you join, some fascinating files as well.