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Spendor S3/5R sound compared with S3/5R2 and HLP-3ESR

Right, sounds like the girth of the larger ‘xls 400 will come in handy in the kitchen jobby. Let’s report back when we’re set up with them, thanks.
 
TheDecameron said:
To check out my theory that the tiny Spendors might work well with a sub, I’ve bought a BK XXLS400 to try them with. It’s a closed box design, so should integrate nicely with them. Will report back when I’ve set it up.
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Great sub, works supremely well with my Focal 1008be II. If you ring BK they will alter the roll off frequency if that assists, and the added an auto-off for me, switches the sub off after 30 min of inactivity - all for the cost of a phone call. Excellent service.

M
 
Just got the thing into the house. Nearly bloody killed me- it’s a lump of lead. Im warming it up now. Phase 0, gain about a fifth of a turn, cut off half way between 40-120Hz
 
Youve got me interested in getting one for my s3/5r, maybe one of the smaller ones like the 200 or Gemini.
Think the 200 was 13 or 14 kg, yours is heavier......

keen to hear your results.
 
TheDecameron said:
My S3/5R2s arrived and for a bit of fun I compared them with my HLP3ESRs since my S3/5Rs are at a different location. Turned out to be a very interesting and in some ways surprising experience. Here’s the room I tried them in-

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I placed them about 14ft from my listening position and tried them with a Devialet D200. Both did what I expected for such small monitors with limited loudness, power handling and dynamic headroom. They threw a big soundstage with good imaging but both sounded congested at higher levels. Having said that, these are very different speakers!
The Harbeths are bigger, heavier and better built and that showed in the sound-I could have pulled that old trick and asked someone which speaker they thought the sound was coming from and someone with no interest in hifi would have pointed at the Discoveries. The Harbeths definitely demonstrate the LS3/5a hump to my ears and they have an appealing HF on top of that, so an immediately attractive voicing. Switching to the Spendors, my immediate thought was that the Harbeths would slaughter them in an AB dem at a dealers and most people would take the Harbeths home with them. They are a more complete speaker and fool you into thinking theyre bigger than they are.
Pulled to a more near field position, about 7ft away ( as in the photo) and both performed better. The Spendors sounded anaemic straight after the Harbeths- they wouldn’t fool any one about their size- grand piano wasn’t grand in size, since most of the lower register was missing apart from the upper harmonics. They did throw a good sized sound stage, disappearing themselves and providing pin point imaging.

When I’d got acclimatised to their voicing, what struck me about them was their sheer insight and it didn’t come from jacked up HF/ leading edge emphasis- they are very revealing about layers in a mix, positioning and inflections in voice, instruments. They sound incredibly natural. As someone said up thread, your attention is drawn to voices and individual instruments- in the same way they would for me at a live performance.
Van Morrison sounded great- I heard inflections in his voice I hadn’t noticed before, same with a guitar solo on Santa Fe- strings bent over frets, picking style etc. Moondance was very natural and enjoyable. If anything the Spendors delivered this with greater purity and naturalness than the Harbeths, there was no artifice- timbre and harmonics were preserved, so I think this is a low distortion, clean speaker but still sweet sounding.

In a big room they’d be dynamite with a good sub. Next stop is the smaller room they’re intended for, even more near field and wall reinforced where I can try them against the 3/5Rs. They had the same effect on me as Hl-K6SEs when I heard them- that they are a beautiful example of real world speaker engineering.

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I have never owned a pair of small Spendors. The closest I came was listening to a pair of Quad 10Ls, which were
made by Spendor.
Very good they were, too !
I have always admired Spendor, being a long-term BC1 owner.
I’d like to try a pair of the models being discussed against my Harbeth P3-ESRs to form my own opinion.
 
Martyn Miles said:
I have never owned a pair of small Spendors. The closest I came was listening to a pair of Quad 10Ls, which were
made by Spendor.
Very good they were, too !
I have always admired Spendor, being a long-term BC1 owner.
I’d like to try a pair of the models being discussed against my Harbeth P3-ESRs to form my own opinion.
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Martin, I think you’ll find them quite different from the P3s- they don’t have the upper bass hump.
 
PhilofCas said:
Right, sounds like the girth of the larger ‘xls 400 will come in handy in the kitchen jobby. Let’s report back when we’re set up with them, thanks.
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Had a first go with the BK 400 in the kitchen telly room. The gain needs to be kept very low, crossover frequency more toward 120 than 40Hz and phase ‘off’ and the image fills out quite nicely. It’s interesting how much LF is simply absent from dialogue on the telly- when I put Sly and Robbie on, I was almost bounced off the sofa. I’m slowly getting an ear for the adjustments. The build quality for the money is most impressive- a very dead, nicely finished box. I need to try it in my smaller room below, with the s3/5Rs-

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The camera is behind my listening position, so I’m in the speakers near field, about 6ft from them. I’m guessing the level on the sub will behave to be very low in this room.
 
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Agree about the room.

What are the two paintings? The one on the left looks like it could be Gerhard Richter but I don't recognise it.
 
Now this is going to get interesting, discussing pictures.
My ( our ) walls are covered with my Wife’s paintings.

These are of course: (a) fantastic and (b) priceless.
You can keep your Picassos, etc.
 
TheDecameron said:
Don’t laugh but....

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No laughing here, looks really good, oh and garden’s v nice too!!

My sub is coming Sunday BTW, only ordered Monday night and BK tried to deliver yesterday, we weren’t in, so rescheduled for Sunday, will give some feedback thereafter.
 
My first small monitor was the 15 ohm Spendor LS3/5a. I traded away a pair of Quad 57s for some cash and those Spendors in 1982. (Didn't want a curious, crawling child near ESLs.) Lived with those LS3/5as for well over 20 years ... longer than any other speakers that I have owned. For several years they were our primary speaker ... and thereafter they were corner-stoned in the (WAF) living room where various vintage tube integrated amps and receivers would shuffle in and out. (The consistency of the Spendor LS3/5as in that room over many years allowed a broad education wrt various 'house' sounds from Marantz, Fisher, HH Scott, McIntosh, Dynaco, Eico, Bogen, Sherwood, etc.)

I tried to blend various sub-woofers with the Spendor LS3/5as in the early 80's but could never find a satisfactory match ... attributable to the BBC hump mostly; along with less sophistication in sub-woofer electronics ... back in the day.

The 'end' of the Spendor LS3/5a era came in 2004 (or so) upon auditioning a pair of Spendor 3/5s. It didn't take five minutes to conclude that progress had been made in small speaker technology. I enjoyed that speaker, but never came to love it.

Six or seven years later I had just about the same experience upon auditioning the Spendor 3/5r. This speaker I fell for almost immediately ... and have adored ever since. Tonality, neutrality, musicality. Listening, I often muse, 'It's a miracle.'

Marriage ended in 2010 and I took the Spendors. I learned something. Using small monitors was a pleasure when I had another 'full range' system in the house. Within six months of moving into a small cottage, I was in an audio funk (see comment about Avondale amp, below). Ended up purchasing a used pair of Spendor SP1/2s. Whew!

Some final notes on my experience with small monitors. IM is the enemy of all small loudspeakers that have pretension to project energy below 100 hz. Play them loud, they report IM. The Spendor 3/5rs are no exception. In small sized spaces they pressurize and lock into a room. That, IMO, enhances the impression of low frequency. Because Spendor 3/5rs are so discerning, source and amp selection is critical. I believe almost every competent amp will make them sound good. Certain amps that I have used caused them to sound just amazing. A couple of home brews (a zero feedback, class A SE 45 with 1.5 wpc; a zero feedback, class A, triode strapped PP 6V6 with 5 wpc) were absolute magic but too low powered for long term use. Quad IIs were good, not great ... still underpowered. Avondale 260z was illuminated, smooth, very powerful and very fast, but those qualities without low frequencies did not make for a balanced diet. (Used that amp delightedly for years with Tannoy System DMT15 MkIIs.)

My favorite overall amp for the Spendor 3/5rs thus far: a 25 year old untouched Nait 2. Made for each other ... superb synergy ... but this magic combination requires a small room.

Finally, I have found a small sub-woofer that works well ... Magellan VIP Powered ... where the passive hi-pass filter is -3 db at 70Hz and -9 db @ 35 hz.
http://tbisound.com/index.asp
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/tbi2/diamond.html
Using speaker level connections, there is no flexibility with with the VIP filter ... it just so happens that it works well in my system & room ... but it may provide a good starting point for others that want to use a sub woofer with the Spendor 3/5rs.

I know nothing about the Spendor 3/5r2s ... except participants in this conversation clearly enjoy them. No doubt.

WTS
 
^ enjoyed reading that Willie and interested in your crossover point of 70Hz for the sub. Did you arrive at that empirically by listening or with an analyser or spec sheet for the 3/5R?

Heres the Stereophile measurement of the S3/5R2-
https://www.stereophile.com/content/spendor-s35rsup2sup-loudspeaker-measurements

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And their measurement of three LS3/5a variants-
https://www.stereophile.com/content/bbc-ls35a-loudspeaker-stirling-measurements

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Atkinson’s HL-P3ESR measurements-
https://www.stereophile.com/content/harbeth-p3esr-loudspeaker-measurements

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I’m wondering about doing SPL measurements with a HFN test CD tone generator to get the point and gain on the sub right?
 
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Looks like your -6db point is around 60 to 65hz, so that's where I'd be crossing.
 
I think what I really mustn’t do, is go out and buy LS3/5a’s for a third time, though I’d be curious to hear them next to the Spendors and the Harbeths.
 
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