What Speakers Would you Suggest for me?

[Alex_UK]

Going back to the speakers Alex wanted to buy...........does anyone have any experience of these?
I very nearly got myself a pair back when they were new 'n' shiny. I spent a long time listening to them in several dealers and in my own home. I wonder whether Alex' amp would make a good match here. I seem to remember these as requiring a good dose of whumptie and not really waking up until they got it.
I don't know your amp at all Alex, so forgive me if I'm casting nasturtiums at it.

Dunno... Dave DSJR didn't mention it, as I consulted him on these, my Creek puts out 85w RMS into 8 Ohms, not sure if that would be enough juice, or not?

The silver lining I am looking for in this particular cloud is that having resigned myself to having to find £800 for car repairs, if I can get that covered under the warranty, then I can happily spend the £800 on the Spendors I really want... Two big "ifs" there - Chrysler & Mrs Alex - not sure either of them will see it my way!

[The Grand Wazoo]

I fully accept that I'm working off my decidedly ropey memory, but I think the Studio 1's were a bit easier to drive & the 1M's were rather different, having more reactive characteristics.

[Alex_UK]

Drum roll please... a deal has been struck, and although I won't be able to collect them until Friday 11th, a pair of Spendor SP1s will be squeezing their way in to Alex Towers. They are early serial numbers, one owner from new and in very good condition apparently... Sourced from a local(ish) hifi shop who are selling them on behalf of a customer.

My plan is that the AE's will stay in situ in the living room, and be used for background and general listening when the little 'un is about, and the Spendors will live in the under-stairs cupboard (they'll fit - I checked!) being brought out for when I have the chance for some proper listening. This way, I've got a fighting chance that they won't get knocked off their stands, or little fingers finding their way into those lovely drivers...

I will of course put some pictures up and my thoughts once they're here - can't wait!

[Marco]

Nice choice, Alex!

They'll be VERY different to your AEs... Expect to lose some bottom end welly (or perhaps flab? ) and gain oodles of midrange and high frequency information, making voices and acoustic instruments in particular sound so lifelike and emotionally communicative, it's spooky!

Hope you have lots of fun with them

Marco.

[spendorman]

Drum roll please... a deal has been struck, and although I won't be able to collect them until Friday 11th, a pair of Spendor SP1s will be squeezing their way in to Alex Towers. They are early serial numbers, one owner from new and in very good condition apparently... Sourced from a local(ish) hifi shop who are selling them on behalf of a customer.

My plan is that the AE's will stay in situ in the living room, and be used for background and general listening when the little 'un is about, and the Spendors will live in the under-stairs cupboard (they'll fit - I checked!) being brought out for when I have the chance for some proper listening. This way, I've got a fighting chance that they won't get knocked off their stands, or little fingers finding their way into those lovely drivers...

I will of course put some pictures up and my thoughts once they're here - can't wait!

I have BC1's, BC1a's BC2's and Preludes, but no SP1's, love the combination of Celestion HF1300 and Coles 4001G.

[Marco]

So do I - awesome combo! I think the 1300 unit every bit as good as the HF2000s in my Ditton 66s, Paul?

Marco.

[Reid Malenfant]

Nice one Alex They should easily out perform those AEs you have in every area Just had a look on the web to see what they entail, very nice to i might add

I'd say the HF1300 is possibly slightly better in certain areas than the HF2000 Marco, it just runs out of steam at about 13KHz, hense the Coles 4001 supertweeter to get the bandwidth back.

I don't think they are quite as efficient though, if you take a look at the Ditton 25 which is very similar but smaller than the 66 you'll see they use two of them. That might be due to how low a frequency they might be asked to do in the 25 though thinking about it.

I have a feeling Alex is going to be very happy with his purchase

[spendorman]

So do I - awesome combo! I think the 1300 unit every bit as good as the HF2000s in my Ditton 66s, Paul?

Marco.

It all depends on how the tweeters are used, crossover point, rate of attenuation etc.

The HF2000 is a small hard dome, not good if one crossovers at a lowish frequency, but fine if crossover freq is high and rate of attenuation is steep.

The KEF T27 is an example, does not sound that good in many early KEF designs (e.g. Cadenza, Choralle etc, but is OK in LS3/5a, KEF Corelli and as a supertweeter above the HF1300 in the Rogers Export Monitors.

It is possible (and likely) that given the correct crossover, the HF1300/Coles combination would be better than HF2000 in the Ditton 66. In fact I have been thinking of that very conversion for my Ditton 44's.

The HF2000 is used as a supertweeter in my Rogers LS3/6 BBC Monitors. In this situation it is more robust than the Coles 4001G.

[Marco]

Nice one, guys - much as I suspected

When Alex fires them up, I'm sure he'll be over the moon!

Marco.

[Alex_UK]

Thanks guys! I can't go wrong really - if I don't like them I should be able to pass them on without losing much, as there will always be a strong demand for these I think. Should be an interesting journey - and of course big thanks to DSJR who has been my personal guru - not so much in pushing me towards these, but making sure I didn't make a silly mistake with one or two of my other suggestions! Cheers Dave.