One thing i don’t understand well and perhaps someone can elaborate on this:
Some of the most revealing speakers are active studio monitors, and they all make use of quite neutral, relatively affordable, class D amplification modules.
Studios that don’t use active speakers generally use pretty basic power amps like the Yamaha P-series, which i’ve also owned and used together with a pair of Dynaudio Acoustics studio monitors:
A 2x300W Yamaha power amp in this studio series only costs about £500.
So what would be the rationale behind the idea that to drive a pair of revealing speakers like the Spendor D7, which are relatively sensitive so not hard to drive, a very high end Naim amplifier would be necessary?
What is it that would objectively make expensive Naim amplifiers more suitable to drive revealing speakers, when in other parts of the industry cheaper amps are used together with revealing speakers?
It’s not just the amplifier, it’s the source too. An entry level CD and amp will simply sound worse (musically) with revealing speakers, it may well make a noise and be able to go loud but it won’t make an enjoyable listening experience.
There have been umpteen dissatisfied threads with 30k speakers and a budget source/amp that is not delivering.
Your reaction contains 2 or 3 logical fallacies and doesn’t address the question i posed, but let’s skip further discussion for now to not hijack the thread from @Mahesh too much.
You are quite welcome. Good luck with whatever you choose. Getting the speaker right is such an important part of the enjoyment of this hobby, and gets you off the merry-go-round.
As lots of people have said expensive speakers and cheaper amplification is not a good match , if starting from fresh I would certainly look at the A4 (in fact I might look at that for my Nova) or these guys . Hope you find the info you need.
It’s not as simple though, the A4 are already around £2500,- so about 2-3 times the price of the Nait 5si. They are also harder to drive than the D7 at 86dB versus 90dB, so the D7 could potentially sound better with a smaller amp than the A4.
There are expensive speakers that are easy to drive, and affordable speakers that are difficult to drive. Price matching can be used as a rule of thumb but it is ultimately not a reliable indicator.
Apart from that the sound character of the 3 Spendor ranges is quite different:
Classic: laid back and easy on the ears, good for warm instruments and vocals
A series: joyful and dynamic, good for pop / rock and allround listening
D series: accurate and revealing, good for music with lots of details or layers, fastest / most responsive of the three
Ofcourse there is some overlap between the series as well. But instead of focusing on price first, it might be better to determine the type of sound desired first, and then see if the price range is suitable for the budget and if the available amplification suffices to get good results.
Spendor, schmendor. Get yourself some ProAcs. No need to worry about the ‘type of sound’ you want, whatever that means. But you’ll get thoroughly engaging, natural sounding music.
It’s not about sensitivity or price, it’s about how revealing they are of the source good or bad however more revealing speakers tend to be more expensive
I think you have become a brand ambassador for ProAc* - I am about 85% happy with my current set-up , just have a feeling that there is a smidgeon missing -as I said I have P3ESR fantastic with voices - sometimes less so with other material .
And a good one at that , your Show Us Yer Tablette is one of my favourite threads .
While that sounds ‘logical’ it’s not objectively true. Many very revealing studio monitors are not that expensive, cheaper than many less revealing hifi speakers.
How revealing or how analytical rather a speaker is, is simply a design choice that is independent of the cost of the speaker.
KEF LS50 and ProAc Tabs are both quite revealing speaker designs and both are very affordable.
Similarly there are some very expensive 20K+ hifi speakers from Spendor and Harbeth that are not very revealing but designed to be smooth and easy going.
ProAc WAS my favorite speaker brand prior to these D7s (never liked the Spendor sound prior to the D series). What you say is, IMO, not far off the mark in a broad sense. ProAcs never fail to engage and delight. Bass, depending on the model, could be boomy and tough to tame, but overall they do a lot right for the music listening experience.
It was that cheeky Graeme who started that thread! I only mentioned them in response to the rather weird notion that you can choose your Spendors to match the sort of music you listen to. To me, a speaker should be able to handle everything, from chamber music to punk. Of course, a small speaker is never going to deliver that full on gig experience, but no domestic hifi can in reality.
Before we all get carried away it would be good to know if any of this is remotely useful to our OP, @Mahesh
I thought it was pretty well known that the classic Spendor and Harbeth designs are not particularly revealing but rather focus on harmony, tonal color and atmosphere?
As per Whathifi regarding the Spendor 200:
For:
Smooth, effortless presentation
Subtlety and refinement
Lovely midrange, excellent bass
Unfussy nature
Against:
Sound is a little on the gentle side
Lack true transparency
Per Stereophile:
No need to listen. No need to even measure. Just read the reviews: Classic British speakers all sound warm —meaning they all have a soft, rolled-off treble range, and a mild to moderate rise in response through their upper-bass/lower-midrange regions.
