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Spendor 4/5 or 3/1 - I’m soooo confused!

J

Jazzyguy

pfm Member
Currently in a dedicated 10X10 room that has a 6 foot wide opening directly behind my listening chair into another room. So not technically a 10x10 room but nevertheless, my A7’s are too large for this room.

I went in to store to audition the 4/3 against the 3/1 to replace the A7’s. I started with the 3/1 and they sounded fantastic! Then I switched to the 4/3 and I just melted into the listening chair. The speakers completely disappeared, the imaging was just… I don’t know… I’ve never experienced this before in my 30 year hifi journey. BUT, I liked the bass and bigger scale of the 3/1, especially for rock and bass heavier music. The 3/1 just don’t have the same magic of the 4/3 though. Oh what to do. I almost wish I never heard the 4/3 to make this easier on me. My music tastes are so wide too, so that won’t fine tune my decision. My last attempt to make the decision will be to try to audition both in my own 10x10 (open behind me to another room) listening space.

Does anyone else have experience with these two gems against each other?
 
Jazzyguy said:
Currently in a dedicated 10X10 room that has a 6 foot wide opening directly behind my listening chair into another room. So not technically a 10x10 room but nevertheless, my A7’s are too large for this room.

I went in to store to audition the 4/3 against the 3/1 to replace the A7’s. I started with the 3/1 and they sounded fantastic! Then I switched to the 4/3 and I just melted into the listening chair. The speakers completely disappeared, the imaging was just… I don’t know… I’ve never experienced this before in my 30 year hifi journey. BUT, I liked the bass and bigger scale of the 3/1, especially for rock and bass heavier music. The 3/1 just don’t have the same magic of the 4/3 though. Oh what to do. I almost wish I never heard the 4/3 to make this easier on me. My music tastes are so wide too, so that won’t fine tune my decision. My last attempt to make the decision will be to try to audition both in my own 10x10 (open behind me to another room) listening space.

Does anyone else have experience with these two gems against each other?
Click to expand...

My recommendation is that you listen at home. Some rooms are good at making speakers 'disappear'.
 
Your situation is really not unique........
Many small monitors/bookshelf speakers are so sweet, pinpoint in terms of imaging and kind of magic with human voices and wooden acoustic instruments..........but they have no bass impact and depth.
I'm a rock and jazz listener so I would go with the big ones but if I would listen to oboe and cantatas, I would go with the small ones.
 
Thanks for the replies. You think the 3/1 will overpower my room with bass like my current A7’s are? Or would the smaller cab of the 3/1 help some?
 
Jazzyguy said:
Thanks for the replies. You think the 3/1 will overpower my room with bass like my current A7’s are? Or would the smaller cab of the 3/1 help some?
Click to expand...

It depends on the offending frequencies and also on the amplifier.
Measuring your room response with pink noise and a free app would help, as would knowing what amplifier you use.

In fact, if the amplifier is to blame you my do better in replacing it instead of the A7s.

A third alternative would be to add room EQ / correction (there's a miniDSP in the classifieds at the moment).
 
Jazzyguy said:
Currently in a dedicated 10X10 room that has a 6 foot wide opening directly behind my listening chair into another room. So not technically a 10x10 room but nevertheless, my A7’s are too large for this room.

I went in to store to audition the 4/3 against the 3/1 to replace the A7’s. I started with the 3/1 and they sounded fantastic! Then I switched to the 4/3 and I just melted into the listening chair. The speakers completely disappeared, the imaging was just… I don’t know… I’ve never experienced this before in my 30 year hifi journey. BUT, I liked the bass and bigger scale of the 3/1, especially for rock and bass heavier music. The 3/1 just don’t have the same magic of the 4/3 though. Oh what to do. I almost wish I never heard the 4/3 to make this easier on me. My music tastes are so wide too, so that won’t fine tune my decision. My last attempt to make the decision will be to try to audition both in my own 10x10 (open behind me to another room) listening space.

Does anyone else have experience with these two gems against each other?
Click to expand...


I had a similar ish experience, had A7’s for a good while but found the upper mids too grating. I chopped them in for the 3/1’s and am really enjoying them, much more natural and textured but still lots of detail, bass is respectable too. I’ve never heard the 4/5 I’m afraid but would really like to as I’m a fan of mini monitors, my room is large though. If you like the A7 apart from the bass issue you could try some isolation such as Gaias and / or experiment with positioning if you haven’t done so already. The A7 go down to 32hz with a slotted port whereas the 3/1 reach 40hz with a conventional port, for what it’s worth I think the 3/1 are hugely underrated and a bit of a well kept secret, the soundstaging was also a huge improvement over the A7, all of this is Room dependent though so as mentioned above a home demo is a must, oh and stands are important too, ideally open frame.
 
Went back today. I decided against both. The 4/5 although magical would have missing some scale. The 1/3, I don’t know, just didn’t do it for me. Now I’m considering PMC. I used to have the TB2 and then the FB1+ and LOVED them. Maybe it’s time to go back. I’m considering either the 21i or 22i.
 
Jazzyguy said:
Thanks for the replies. You think the 3/1 will overpower my room with bass like my current A7’s are? Or would the smaller cab of the 3/1 help some?
Click to expand...

for now, I have both the 3/1s and 4/5s in an 11’ x16’ room, listening distance about 7’6”. The extra bass weight of the 3/1s is deployed very judiciously - doesn’t excite the wood sprung floor. The 3/1s seem to enrich the lower mids as much as adding a measure of depth to the bass. A very well balanced speaker of that size. But the 4/5s are little gems of clarity, so…
 
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