I had a pair of BC1s at one time. They were lovely. In the end I sold them to a friend who had the original Nait. They sounded fantastic with solo piano.
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I started out with A4’s and then upgraded to the A7, in retrospect I think maybe the A4 is the sweet spot in the A range, anyway after almost 3 years the accentuated upper mids and overall precision of the A7’s got to me, perhaps they would have been better with separates rather than the SN3 but either way I chopped them in for the smaller Classic 3/1. They’re so much easier to listen to but uphold the positive virtues of the A7 without the searing mids and obviously they don’t go quite as low but not that far off as I’ve discovered. I found the A7’s lacked some detail and texture in the upper and mid bass regions and the 3/1 sorts this nicely, there’s information there that I was missing out on. One thing with these thin wall classics is that you need good stands, preferably open frame or really heavy normal type. I’m really enjoying the presentation of these and may well move up the classic line down the road. There’s a review online of the 3/1’s and it concurs with my experience to date.
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I have a2s on the end of my atom bought them for similar reasons compact and love the spendor sound sound lovely mid range a sharp and focused remembering many of their speakers have lineage back to the classic bbc l3/5a I has some s5e’s on an all Cyrus dual mono bloc system and thdt were awesome better than the a2’s in the lower end But I have an additional driver and better porting I believe the a2’s will go loud and remind me a little of totem arros in their ability to sound bigger than they are certainly a nice fit in the atom until I get itchy feet I’d happily recommend them will post a photo later
I bought a pair of Spendor 2/3s. I enjoyed their warmth but the bass was always slow and a bit muddy. Eventually I had to get rid. A dealer bought them and told me that the foam surrounds on Spendor bass/mid drivers deteriorate over time, drying out and stiffening. I checked this online, and sure enoough it’s true. The cones no longer extend properly, so although you get bass frequencies, there’s no weight or depth to them. I agree the price for this brand is eye-watering, especially if they’re using unaaceptable materials. I replaced them with a pair of ATC SCM20s, which are vastly superior.
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.
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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.
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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.
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Thank you. I will have a look at their site.
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.
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A7’s here with SN3/NDXS2. Awesome setup. My room isn’t the best for listening, but it’s still very enjoyable.
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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.
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My ex wife has my Spendors!! I should never have let them go - still the best speakers that I’ve heard up to now.
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Sorry to hear this 
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.
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Niiiiice!
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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.
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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.
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Hey, big Spendors!
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