I have a pair of A7s which I chose after an extended home demo of 9 speakers including the D9.2s. So much is clearly down to the synergy between the speakers and room. The A7s are just great all round, with a touch of warmth to the mids, which is just so lush and natural.
I’m less keen on a totally neutral speaker. I’ve been demoing a few potential upgrades including the B&W 803 D4, Wilson Sabrina X and others and the A7s are still here which I think says a great deal about what it will take to upgrade.
I have a pair of A7’s with my Naim Uniti 2 & Planar 1 - I love them. I replaced the cartride on an elderly RP8, and of course how to sound check of course. The A7’s sounded even better. I point to note is that speaker grills (to keep young fingers out) are an additional cost.
I have black ash D7.2 speakers with my SN3/ND5 XS2. I love the sound, depth and breadth. Comments about the need to run them in are accurate - but it’s just the same with all the Naim equipment. I auditioned several second-hand speakers from my local dealer, including A7: no contest, I had to find the cash for the (new) D7.2s. I usually need to move the speakers between the domestic ‘stowed’ position and the ‘serious listening’ position, so I have put felt pads beneath the standard Spendor feet so as to slide on the wooden floor. These appear to work well enough to avoid paying a small fortune for the various alternatives made from unicorn horn.
I have Herbie’s gliders under my D7.2s. I don’t need to move my speakers back and forth for listening, but on my wood floor they made initial positioning and subsequent fine tuning painless. Price is very reasonable ($135 for 8). I believe Herbies ships worldwide.
I have a pair of SP100s, which I purchased around 2005. Here’s a link to pictures that I posted of the entire system about 18 months ago. I was fortunate to buy them as a dealer demo and paid a reasonable price. I agree that the most recent versions of the big Spendors (and Harbeths) are reaching eye-watering levels, as seems to be the case with many flagship designs.
Other contenders at time were Dynaudio Contour 3.0 and Audio Physic Tempo. All three were wonderful, but the Spendors won me (and my wife) over with their special ability to reproduce instrumental timbre.
An extravagance that I’ve indulged since this photo taken was to add a stereo pair of REL S/510 subs. While the SP100s, with their 12-inch woofers, are by no means bass shy, it’s still difficult for passive speakers to really plumb the depths of low bass. No regrets about this decision.
We ran the S5e for about 10 years on various systems. They first came to join CDX2/XPS2/Graaff GM50, and via a few intermediate steps, ended up on the end of NDS/555PS/552/500. They never sounded anything less than superb and when the 500 finally went into the system they sang clearer than ever, digging out hitherto unheard detail, extension and nuance.
A large part of this is speaker to room matching. We were spell bound by the S8e at the dealer, but they didn’t work well in our lounge. We tried many makes and models and went down through the Se range until we landed on the one that slotted into our room and worked best in it. They sounded weedy at the dealer, but sound convincing and natural at home. Not for nothing have I owned 4 pairs of speakers since 1980, despite having been a devoted music and HiFi enthusiast every day since, upgrading the system as I went along, when resources allowed. Once I land on the right speaker for our ears in our room, it tends to have a long residence. While any upstream component has a potential to change the sound balance, if a speaker plays the room well, the system can be upgraded around it more easily for longer. Any well designed speaker, well built and in good condition, should be able to get out of the way in a good system, in a room that it suits.
We investigated moving on from the S5e because we had the means and we wondered if it was possible to get a bigger, more life sized sound with more detail. For over a year it looked like we could not. I lost count of the candidates that were hauled in and out of the lounge and all the dealer visits. The S5e was a tough act to follow. Out of maybe 25 potential replacements we found 2 that could beat them. In another room it would likely have been a different story and a different result.
I don’t subscribe to the “house sound” philosophy. The S5e gave a good sound balance in our room with good musical flow. They didn’t have a “Spendor sound”, they just happened to be the speaker which worked best for us. If there was such a thing as a “Spendor sound”, we would have binned the brand and moved on after we tried out the S8e at home, as it sounded overblown, way too much bass, not so much lacked timing as had no timing, and were not capable of holding a tune - exactly how they didn’t sound in the dealer demo room.
Spendor D9 here. One of the most impressive speaker I’ve heard. The sound coming out of these still makes me surprised sometimes, in a good way. Sometimes everything is sounding off but I’m guessing that is how it is with all hifi.
It was good to read your thoughts on the S5e, which I have been using for about 15 years, first on a Cyrus set up, then a Qute + Nap 100 and currently with a Nova.
Whilst I have not listened to many alternatives in the interim, I do find them a very balanced speaker and do not dominate the room in terms of size. I have been tempted to change them, particularly when I read users enthusing over alternatives and newer speakers, but I do think they would be hard to beat, at least on a modest budget.
I have been using Quad 2805s for almost 15 years now, but what preceded them for 15 years were Spendor s100s. I bought them along with buying my Naim 72/hicap/250 … which are still my amplifier stack to this day. The Spendor s100 is a terrific sounding speaker that at the time was the closest to electrostatic in sound as a dynamic speaker. When I got the Quads I moved the Spendors to the movie room where they still serve to this day. They are terrific.
I still own a pair of BC-1s. Superb speaker if you want one that is uncoloured and has a ‘natural’ sound. Unfortunately, few are likely meet original factory specs today.
A few years ago I heard the D9 floor standers and thought the were very nice, albeit a couple of dB too hot in the highs. That could, of course, be easily addressed with a bit of eq.
Someone mentioned the high price of these speakers and I believe they have a valid point. In the US, where I am based, prices of ‘BBC Heritage’ speakers have risen at many multiples of the rate of inflation over the past decade or so to the point where they are not really competitive, price wise, in the marketplace. This is true of not just Spendor, but also of Harbeth, Stirling and Graham. As an example the Harbeth M40XD lists here for $ 22k+. At this price one can get, listed in no particular order, Magicos, Wilsons, Perlistens, Revels, big KEFs, Focals, Dynaudio, not to mention studio monitors from Neumann, Genelec or Geithain, to name but a few. At a fraction of this price one can opt for the Kii3 or D & D 8C.
So a very competitive market where press exposure and audiophile credibility can heavily influence purchase decisions.
P.S:- Not sure if links to review sites are permitted, but Stereophile, Sound und Recording, Erinsaudiocorner, Audiosciencerview, Soundstage have plenty of measured data on speakers.
I bought Spendor BC2 speakers in 1974 also buying an early LP12 at the same time and had over 40 years of great listening including some replaced drivers after over enthusiastic parties. Then I tried the S9 which was a significant improvement especially in the bass while still having that sweet Spendor midrange. 2 years ago I splashed out on Focal Aria 948 speakers and have to say the improvement was phenomenal. I have only listened to the D series in shows (not a fair test), but compared to older Spendors, Focal has all the attributes plus massive soundstage and so much more bass. So impressed that I have replaced Spendor SP2/2’s in a second listening room with Focal Aria 906’s. Again massive improvement for £500 second hand.
