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I know all those speakers quite well

Posted by A.J. (A) on April 8, 2007 at 03:01:32

In Reply to: Harbeth Monitor 30 vs Spendor SP2/3E vs Spendor S8E vs Spendor SP1/2E posted by Mr Blue Sky on April 7, 2007 at 15:27:01:

And I would split them in three categories.

- Harbeths. Though they're quite relaxed, they need more power than it seems and to sound really balanced, you must place them quite far from their back and lateral walls. Depending on your room's size it could be a problem. I've never dug them because they have a slight nasal quality on their human voice and string instruments rendition that I dislike.

- Spendor S8. This speaker was an effort from Spendor to get a kind of more "trendy" sound. Its midrange doesn't match the Classic series body and nice texture. Its bass is a bit flabby because IMHO they sacrifice a right midbass for more lower extension. The highs are more into the "detailed" side of things than into the natural and coherent side. If your room is not quite big and depending on the amps you're planning to use, you might have some problems with bass integration and room modes.

- Classic Spendors: The 2/3 and 1/2 are to my taste great speakers. They don't pretend to do what they can't and IMHO are a paradigm of honesty, though their price is getting a bit crazy lately. They're midrange champions, but some people may dislike their tendency to create center images (specially human voices) kind of bigger than reality. They have the advantage that can be driven with quite low powered tube amps (20 to 40 wpc is more than enough even in biggish rooms). Their bass response is fine, not deep but with good midbass, which is where most ported speakers spoil things. The highs are relaxed and quite open, but not as much as some "fashionable" modern speakers I'd take any of these two better than the Harbeths or the S8s.

These observations are just regarding "sonics". FWIW I find the SP1/2 enjoyable speakers, of the kind to relax in front of and just to listen to music, specially if you like jazz, classical and singers. If you like R&R and electronica things might be different.
Don't expect lifelike SPLs nor a big soundstage of the kind electrostatics and big boxes do.
I think that the best you could do is trying to listen to them before spending blindly your money.

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