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Splendor BC1

M

__mark__

Is SET
Just got my hands on some fairly good nick, BC1's to see what all the fuss is about

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I have gone for the 2001 monolithic composition in an attempt to emphasize the nature of these speakers. ;)

First up was some Aphex twin 45's to test out that allegedly sloppy bottom end! Not bad, some good spikes or stands and I think I have a winner.

Just thought I would share the image.

Any advice on positioning and cables to tighten up the bass (maximise their potential!) would be greatly appreciated.
 
DSJR will be up soon with some sensible advice including cushions in the box etc but first I would point out that you need stands at least 14 inches high and preferably open frame type. Keep them away from walls and corners and use a simple, clean cable like Chord Rumour or Odyssey.
 
Congrats. I've just sold mine ( of 33 years ownership...) as they were too big for my 'new' house. I would have loved a big house so they could have 'breathed'. The Owner's Manual showed them in a large Town London house. How I would have loved one of those. Mine has the original reflex 'hole' rather than the port tube fitted later ( as per your image ) . I fitted foam rings, supplied by Spendor, about a year or so after I purchased the Spendors. The bass was OK in my 'old' house as the BC1s 'fired' from the long wall & were well out from the rear wall. The trouble with the 'new' house was they had to bee in the narrow end & not far enough from the walls. If you get them placed approx. 1 metre from boundries they should be fine. I had Spendor castor stands. I believe modern, spiked, stands are much better. Martyn Miles .
 
Luverly real speakers. Keep well away from boundaries - including the floor - and you will be happy. I've found good quality 2.00 mm mains cable to work well between amp and speakers ( I think the UK equivalent would be 2.5mm twin & earth).
 
The BC1's pictured (SPENDOR, my dear boy :D) are later ones with the larger, foam damped and tuned port. The bass was very much better on these. The older ones had a smaller hole in the front baffle and when I got my BC2's sorted I placed a 12" square cushion inner in the top of the box behind the tweeters and put a couple of Maplin port-tubes in the holes. The bass, which was always better than early Bc1's is now even better and I don't get the "OOOM!!" which the older BC1 could give :)

HiFi Dave's suggestions are spot on and if the Harbeth versions are abything to go by, the Something Solid XF (?) model would be ideal in 35cm height. Mark Orr can make them exactly to size and supporting the box on four carbon pads at the cabinet extremes allows the panels to breathe better (certainly the lower one).

At their best, the midrange is what the BC1 can do so well. Tactile and natural, these speakers were designed to reproduce speech to a good standard and IMO they still do. Today though and for more percussive material, I'd probably suggest the SP1's which can still be got for £300 or so in reasonable nick - mid as good, smoother and far better bass handling - top is better integrated as well..

The HF1300 has a dreadfully narrow bandwidth by today's standards, only reaching 14Khz before the Coles super tweeter clumsily takes over and it has a nasty but well disguised resonance at 3.5Khz as well, but what it does in the frequencies it CAN reproduce is much better than most of the standard fabric or metal domes spitting away on most modern boxes IMO..

Enjoy the BC1's and try to use them as intended in open space. Don't overtighten all the screws as the panels need to breathe a little and crushing them together Linn style isn't the answer. They're a very easy load, so fancy mega-stranded wires aren't needed either. By the time of yours, Spendor had uprated the internal wires to a 32 strand as I recall - quite adequate for an 11 Ohm loading in such short internal lengths.

Lastly, the modern versions of this product (Spendor SP1/2r and Harbeth HL5 ES2) both sell for around £3,000 - makes you think.....
 
I myself do not use Spendor BC1 but a close cousin the Rogers Studio 1, I ended up with this over the BC1 for similar reasons to why DSJR suggests the SP1, better power handling and in my opinion better lows.

The Spendors bass can be very good, but I find tight well controlled amplifiers sound best, I certainly enjoy the bass performance in my system, Bryston and Classe sound superb, I myself use a Classe pre and power, these are connected together with around 7m or so of Cable Talk cheap XLR with 3m of Van Den Hul D-352 speaker cable. On their original stands, which sit on Mana sound bases.

I play dub, electronic, 70's progressive, 80's pop, ambient and all other sorts, and I get a superb tight bass with plenty of punch and detail.

With Classe and Krell amps I have never suffered that mentioned bass bloom, and have enjoyed them with fairly uncritical positioning, though my prefferred position is 2m+ apart and around 50cm from the back of the cab to the wall behind, with a little toe in and around 1m + from side walls.

I have had good results from many cables, but the key seems to be decent cross section 2.5mm plus, I am trying not to think of the construction of these but to be honest Chord Odyssey, and Van Den Hul both silver plated, seemed slightly drier? tham Atlas and Van Damme copper cables? This is something I intend to re-visit though as It was some time ago with an AV amp doing Pre duties.

TonyL used to use some brand of open frame stand which I had heard was well suited to the Spendor design.

Steve
 
The open frame stand is from Something Solid and is excellent with the Spendor and Harbeth speakers, amongst others.
 
The BC1s are terrific and to my ears more natural sounding than the SP1 (but the latter does have better power handling). Sound Anchor also make a dedicated stand for the BC1/SP1 which is very good.

FYI: Robert Greene (who writes for The Absolute Sound and has written several reviews of Spendor the SP1 and other Spendor speakers) runs a forum to which Derek Hughes occasionally contributes. Good place to ask questions and get info about his speaker.

See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/regsaudioforum/

There is also a Spendor forum.
 
I love the BC1. Very sweet and non fatiguing. Slightly recessed in comparison to Tannoy DC. Not the same scale or bass but we are comparing different animals.

Mate round the corner has the BC1 and I have hauled my Tannoys to his. We used Sugden A48. It`s an interesting comparison. I will get the Spendors round to my room as I think they may suit my smaller listening space...........I ave first offers on them when/if they go.
 
That speaker turned my girlfriend into an audiophile.
I still have them in the original boxes in the spare room - they have to go back to their rightful owner (my dad!). He misses them (and he's using ATC active 100's)...
He swears the BC1 can do things the ATC's can't and lord knows the 'Woodman coffins' are damned fine. What you can't do with the BC is listen to the Telarc 1812 at concert levels but a trip to the factory in 80 something sorted that out.
Those look to be in mighty fine condition !

Best regards,

rr
 
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