Enrico69

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Very good speakers, expecially overall. The real plus is the flat response in a medium, real room: here the designer make a magic design. However, to give their best, they need a very fast and excellent quality amplifier, power don't matter: if no, please don't judge them. I suggest to try an old and well done Sansui amplifier, for example like the mine au-x111 (40w/channel on 8 ohm). By the way, Sansui made for a short period a clone of these speakers...;-)
Yes, there are many better speakers with better drivers, but do you really need to spend so much money to listen music? A great bargain for serious people who want to listen music in a real way with few compromises(They were a BBC monitor for small-medium room!!!): the footprint is of the great speaker.

Price Paid:  $750.00 from Hamburg, Germany

Summary:
Now I am using the Spendor BC 1 Mk3 for four years and I will not change them for any other speakers. IMHO, these are one of the best speakers ever built. There's only one limitation that everybody has to register who's interested: You have to use powerful and fast amplifiers. Otherwise, you will never discover the real potential of this excellent speaker. Have fun and just listen to the music: one, two, three, four, five hours. Using the Spendor BC 1 Mk3, you will exactly do it this way.

Strengths:
everything between 70 & 17.000Hz, excellent sound-stage, details and neutrality; very good quality and durability.

Weaknesses:
needs subwoofer in rooms >15m²; low efficiency, needs strong and fast amplifiers; no speaker for everyone: shows no mercy to awfull produced cd's

Similar Products Used:
Canton Sub/Sat System, Heco Speakers

Price Paid:  $350.00 from Teletape London

Summary:
I have owned a pair of Spendor BC1 speakers for 25 years. In that time I have owned lots of other speakers and this year, having stuffed the things away in an attic for 12 years, I got them out to sell. But first, I hooked them up to my new amp from Musical Fidelity..... The rest is history, as are my other speakers. Stunned, I realised just how transparent these awesome, true monitor speakers are. The amp got the bass under control and the mid range simply sings. There is no other speaker I have ever heard that matches the delicacy and honesty of voicing.

Strengths:
True monitor speakers. Vivid, life like voicing. Transparency. Secuctive delicacy. Unbelievably cheap - $350 for 26 years and still perfect?

Weaknesses:
Coffin-like late 60s styling. Biggish boxes. Had to replace the foam from facing. Takes me away from my work.

Similar Products Used:
Nothing else like it.

Price Paid:  $560.00 from Ebay

Summary:
This review may be premature, since I have only owned these speakers for a couple days, but I could not resist. The BC1's that am using are about 20 years old so they have already been burned in. I hooked them up to a NAD 116 Stereo preamp with Transparent interconnects, Cambridge Audio D500SE CDP, and Musical Fidelity A3.24 Upsampling DAC, and Sony SACD 775CE. These BC1's come with their own 50 watt amps, so unfortunately I have to forgo my Rogue Audio Tempest. When I played the first CD, a mix of burnt mp3's, I thought I had been jipped. It sounded terrible. The highs were bright and mids were grainy and the bass...ohhh the bass disappeared. I knew this could not have been due to poor quality in Spendor, so I thought maybe they were raggedy because of shipping or age. Well, I popped in a Stevie Knicks cd next and I was blown away. Her voice was flinty; the bass pounded; I immediately understood the problem. Spendor's monitor quality did not reveal its weakness, rather it clearly demonstrated the poor quality of mp3's from internet file sharing. In fact, everything in the Stevie Knicks recording became clear and present...from taps on the cymbals, to drum beats, to times when she inhales for the next notes. It was indeed amazing. They make good recordings good and poor recordings truly bad. Unfortunately, I am frequented by the upgrade bug...I really need to stop reading hi fi magazines...so I always felt that maybe the latest speakers with complex composite materials and dashing designs might improve my listening pleasure, but these 20 year old BC1's have made me realize that newer does not mean better. Just as an ex high end stereo dealer told, never buy new speakers because there isn't anything out there that is any better, sonically, than what was made 5, 10, or 20 years ago. A bigger price usually, but not always means, better aesthetics and power handling, not better sonic reproduction. The BC1's are a little bright but other than that I cannot really complain. They deliver wonderfully on music and provide a deep soundstage. If you have a chance pick them up and see why many speaker reviewers have a pair as a reference.

Strengths:
Mid and high clarity, soundstage, honest reproduction, and price.

Weaknesses:
Slightly bright and ghastly to behold (grandfather styling)

Similar Products Used:
Spendor SP 2/3, SP 1/2, S3/5, JM Lab Chorus 725, B&W Nautilus 805, Paradigm studio monitors, and Vandersteen towers.

Price Paid:  $0.00 from Audiorama

Summary:
I wouldn''t change, after 20 years. This year, I''ve added a Spendor SC3 Center, a Spendor sub and a pair of Spendor S1 for surround sound, and I have a very musical and capable Home Theater. I prefer the music with this setup, also, as the center speaker and the sub add to the enjoyment of music. Receiver is the Integra DTR-8.2.

Strengths:
Musicality. I was thinking of buying the new Spendor S9 speakers, but with my new 5.1 setup, I''m perfectly happy.

Weaknesses:
Loud solid bass is lacking a little, but with the addition of the Spendor Sub, watch out!!!

Similar Products Used:
JMlab, Sonus Faber.