Spendor SP1 question(s)

[mandryka]

Excellent. Now to find someone to do it for me.

What about the other things - crossover and other drivers? In for a penny in for a pound.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

Well, I’ve been running my SP1s with supertweeters for the past year. Then a couple of days ago someone wanted to buy them, I took them off to take photos and that made me see how big a positive difference they make.

Am I right to think that that’s probably because the tweeters on my SP1s are old and tired? Like they’re getting a shot in the arm for the Townshends. If so, I’d prefer to restore the Spendors, just because I want my own personal collection of museum quality equipment. But I don’t know how possible it is to get the parts for these speakers.

Your thoughts appreciated.

It's extremely unlikely that there is anything wrong with the HF drivers, so long as you haven't blown any.... they are not ferrofluid cooled and don't tend to go off. My BC2's are about 45 years old and HF seems fine (same tweeter and super tweeter as yours).
There is nothing to service in the crossover and they don't wear out... no electrolytic caps!

 

[Yank]

Excellent. Now to find someone to do it for me.

What about the other things - crossover and other drivers? In for a penny in for a pound.

I don't think there's much in a Spendor crossover that needs maintenance, they didn't use many electrolytic capacitors. The Spendor woofers and Celestion HF1300 tweeters are no longer in production.

 

[mandryka]

So maybe I just like the Townshend supertweeter boost.

 

[ToTo Man]

Measuring your SP1 should reveal if there are any issues.

Three of the four Coles 4001G supertweeters were blown in the two pairs of B&W DM4's I bought. Maybe I was just unlucky. I didn't notice until I measured them as I had no previous experience with DM4 and therefore did not know how they were supposed to sound!

The DM4's crossover cabling is terminated with push-on lugs so fitting new 4001G units was dead easy, no soldering required, and certainly restored 'air' in the top-end.

It did however make positioning the speakers a bit more tricky as there is phase cancellation between the 4001G and HF1300 that varies in the vertical listening axis. That's my experience with the DM4, I can't speak for other designs using the HF1300/4001G compliment.

 

[mandryka]

I think you could send your BC1s to Spendor to be modified into SP1s. Can anyone confirm? I wonder what the modification was, and whether it was an improvement. I’ve never heard BC1s - but the SP1s have really grown on me since, strangely, putting them with a Deltec DAC - that seemed to make the sound much much more lively.

It’s a really warm and friendly sound, not sweet but just easy and friendly. It’s hard to describe sound! It comes as quite a shock if I go to the SP1s immediately after listening to my ESL 63s.

 

[Martyn Miles]

I recall a firm in London, admittedly a while ago, who would convert BC1s to SP1s.
They had Spendor’s approval for the work.
I was tempted, but stayed with my BC1s as they were.
Still with me...