What Speakers Would you Suggest for me?

[Rare Bird]

Marco
You really need to rebuild the crossovers weither they sound great or not

[Marco]

I hear ya, dude, and do plan to check them out

Marco.

[Alex_UK]

Hi folks, thanks for the continued interest. Work has been absolutely mental, and we had family over for the weekend, hence why I've been a bit quiet on AoS over the last few days.

As Dave has said, I am absolutely in love with these speakers so far, but am still needing some proper "quality time" with them at home alone which I should hopefully get a bit of tomorrow, to properly evaluate them. I'm planning on writing a review of them, with the emphasis on comparing these classics with modern speaker voicing, but that will doubtless take me a little while.

In the meantime, as I think I said to Dave in one of my emails, I feel a bit of a fraud having been saying I have a hifi - quite clearly I didn't until these speakers arrived! I suspect I am going to have to trot out all the hifi superlatives and hyperbole that I am always thinking to myself "yeah, whatever! " when I read them on here!

I was also rather gratified to see a pair go on eBay last night that weren't as good as mine, and without the Spendor stands, and over TWICE what I paid for them! So if I don't take to them (unlikely) I suspect I can make a tidy profit too - but to be honest, I doubt these babies will be leaving my possession any time soon, if ever...

[Tim]

I would love to hear these one day?

[Alex_UK]

I would love to hear these one day?

Well if you ever get up to the cul-de-sac of England that is East Anglia, you'd be made more than welcome, Tim.

Given the proposed "Cheap As Chips" Challenge (or as Chris TGW has christened it, the "CAC" Challenge! ) then I doubt I will be exhibiting separately at Scalford next year (though I would like to one day, maybe when I go valves...) but I could always chuck 'em in the car anyway.

[The Grand Wazoo]

............"Cheap As Chips" Challenge (or as Chris TGW has christened it, the "CAC" Challenge! )

What with that & the other one I've done for you, you should think yourself lucky to have my services free of charge - lesser Branding Consultants charge a bleedin' fortune for genius like that mate!

[DSJR]

I don't know if there any "BBC Inspired" dealers down in Dorset, but Sevenoaks (spit) sell Spendor and the current A series has been very carefully voiced by one who cares (Terry Miles I think). Apart from the necessary pricing (I'm not going there with that one ), the sonics are extremely good I understand and very much "in keeping."


I've been threatened with a pair of ex-broadcast (not BBC) LS5/9's in tatty black finish. The Harbeth Monitor 30 is the current "drop-in" replacement, so that means they'll be a tad brighter than normal for these thin-wall boxes. I look forward to trying them out in due course

[Alex_UK]

What with that & the other one I've done for you, you should think yourself lucky to have my services free of charge - lesser Branding Consultants charge a bleedin' fortune for genius like that mate!

[Alex_UK]

I thought people might be interested in reading my thoughts on my latest acquisition now that I’ve been listening to them for about a week.

First off, a little bit of background on the SP1s. Essentially, the SP1 was a home version of the BC-1, and like the BC-1, is a three-driver speaker, but is more like a two-way design with a “super-tweeter” - in this case a Coles 4001G supplementing the Celestion HF 1300 in the high frequency duties. An 8” Polypropylene coned in-house driver takes care of the low end, with a front facing port. The cross-over from the bass-midrange is at 3 kHz and from tweeter to super-tweeter at 13 kHz. The box is a 25” high, 12” wide and 12” deep - a conventional stand-mount design. Plenty of space behind and to the side of the speakers is essential to get the best from them. My particular pair is matched, with early serial numbers, most likely from the first year of production – 1983.

The speakers that got ousted by these venerable classics were a pair of Acoustic Energy Aegis Evo 3 floorstanders – around 5 years old and typical of modern floorstanding speakers in that they house smaller drivers and have a narrower front baffle than vintage speakers, and of course are “voiced” in a modern way. So, how far have we come in 25 years?

When I first started listening to the SP1s, I was immediately pleased (relieved?) to hear that the midrange clarity I was craving was immediately there. My research (and personal Hi-Fi Guru - Dave (DSJR)) had lead me to believe that the midrange with Spendors is generally their “tour de force” being exceptionally accurate and clear – and with the SP1s they don’t disappoint. I am going to try and desperately avoid the hi-fi clichés I have often been disparaging of – but that may prove a difficult task!

Listening to one of my all time favourite female vocalists – Tina Dico – it was just so much more realistic. Having seen Tina live only a week or so before, I know how clean and crisp her voice sounds, and I just wasn’t getting that with the AE’s. With the SP1s, her voice came to prominence in the mix, with super sweet tones and I could hear the delicate intricacies of her breathing that I just wasn’t hearing before. With the AE’s, the treble is far more “in your face” – with the SP1s it just seems to accentuate the midrange, with no harshness at all, and a delicate tone to cymbals without splashiness. So far, so good, then.

Aside from female vocalists, one of my other main areas of music interest is Electronica & Dance, particularly downtempo “chill out” types. So next up then, one of my favourite dance albums of all time – Vertigo by Groove Armada on SACD.

The album opens with “Chicago” – the opening sequence of which features a “whooshy” sound that goes from left channel to the right channel – or rather, that’s what I thought it did, on hundreds of previous listens. The SP1s made me realise that actually, the sound also repeats itself in the centre of the image, as well as the extremities – and I had never noticed before. Not only was I able to pinpoint a moving sound, but the SP1s lock a particular noise, instrument or voice perfectly in the stereo image.

Depth of image, a “3D” or “Holographic” image for me is the stuff of legend – a bit like the tooth fairy - I believed in it once, but had never seen the evidence so I assumed it to be a hi-fi myth. Well, I can’t say I believe in the tooth fairy now, but I certainly now know how parts of a recording can appear at different depths in the front to rear plain, as well as left to right. Quite how a sound can move up and down in the image though, is beyond me – I’ve taken the grills off, and there is no way the drivers can be swivelling, so how DO they do that?

On more than one occasion I have looked to my extreme left or right, wondering what the noise I heard was - only to realise it was actually coming out of the speakers! So, imaging too gets the thumbs up (and round, and up and down and front to back.)

You’re probably thinking this is all too good to be true – there must be something wrong with these speakers? Well, maybe, and at one point, I was definitely a little worried! Playing some faster, harder Dance I was left thinking “where’s the bass gone? How can speakers that big produce so little bass? Then suddenly – “thump” and there it was. The problem is, I’ve been “spoiled” by the AE’s – quite literally, it seems. I’ve heard the term “one note bass” and now I realise it’s what I’ve been putting up with for the last 5 years! Superficially, the SP1s don’t appear to go so low, but what I’ve realised as the hours of listening have accumulated is that what they actually do is accurately reproduce the bass that is on the recording, rather than artificially emphasise the lower regions. At first listen, this made the Spendors seem less impressive, but as my ears and brain are now adjusting to a more accurate presentation, I can now clearly hear the differences between bass notes and bass drums and follow them rather than just be subjected to a low end mush.

I could go on about the black canvass from which notes and sounds now emanate, the separation between instruments that I just didn’t get with the AE’s and the knife sharp detail in melodies that I am now able to follow with ease – but as you’ve probably already guessed, that I am rather taken with the Spendor SP1s, and suspect I will be investigating more modern offerings from the same brand or the similar voiced Harbeth range at some point in the future – but not for the moment – at present I just want to take any opportunity I can to get lost in the new version of music that I am being immersed in.

I’ve heard people say that these speakers are “boring” – I must admit, that’s a term I struggle with – surely all you want from a speaker is for it to accurately reproduce the recording up the chain? All I can say is – I’m happy with boring. Very happy – I have a grin on my face that looks like the frequency response of a modern speaker!

[John]

Great to hear you are enjoying your new speakers Alex, just enjoy the music