Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Transparent with excellent transient response, imaging and depth. Will shortly be trying a B&W subwoofer with these gems.

I expect perfection!

mfm6

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1600.00 from Executive Stereo

Summary:
These are the SE model. I was able to audition at home these and the newer "R" model of the S3/5, and much preferred the SE. Hat's off to Lorne and Ed at Executive Stereo (Toronto) for allowing the home audition and considerable patience. I'm using them in a small room (11 ft x 12 ft) and with a 60 + 60 W/channel Bryston amp and Arcam CD72 source. The sound is just excellent. They are very easy to place, since there is no port, and present a very wide soundstage--way beyond where the speakers are placed. Their sound is extremely non-fatiguing, and yet very detailed. They create a huge ambient feeling in my room, and yet individual instruments are easily identified in their respective positions. At the same time, the speakers themselves truly disappear. Forget about the stats on their bass response--there is plenty, at least in the small room, and it is quite punchy in nature. I feel no compulsion to use a sub woofer. I tested the bass response with the Stereophile test CD, and these went way lower than expected --I could easily hear the 40 Hz signal. While the amplitude at these lower frequencies is certainly down, the drop off is very gentle. These speakers are justifiably famous for their excellent mid range--enough said.

Strengths:
Sound quality is totally satisfying. Outstanding for long duration listening of various musical genres at moderate volumes in a smaller room (I've not tried them in any other situation). Fine build quality. There are many monitors in both cheaper and more expensive categories, but the Spendors in particular seem to maintain excellent resale value. Can be placed close to wall, and easily moved about due to small size.

Weaknesses:
Not necessarily a weakness, but they are rather inefficient.

Similar Products Used:
Monitors: Paradigm Atom and Mini MKII, PSB Alpha Mini, Totem Mite, B&W 601s2. Floor standers: PMC FB1, Totem Arro. Vintage: Large and Small Advent. Closest competitor to the Spendors among this set would be the Arro. Compared to the SE, the S3/5R have (1) a bigger mid bass boost, and (2) slightly more extended top end, but the lower treble region seemed less smooth. Overall the sound of the R was not as "big", with less ambience than the SE.

Snilsen13

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
2.60 of 5, 5.00 votes

Price Paid:  $700.00 from used

Summary:
Great speakers for their size. Almost any amp can power them, but 50-70W of clean power, solid state, is best. These really sing when played loud, so you can hear all the details in the recoding and the percussion will sound nice too. They are essentially a lot like the famous BBC monitor the LS3/5a, but the drivers are on the narrow side of the cabinet, and a different type of tweeter is used. Compared to the LS3/5a, although I've not put them in the same room, they sound very similar, perhaps giving up a little of the mid range sweetness for better bass and power handling.

Strengths:
SOUND Image and tolerance for placement. No matter where I stick these speakers, they create a big clean sheet of music, where it's impossible to pin point the speaker's size or location, unless a sound is panned completely to one channel. Ambient textures. You can really hear the space of the recording, these take you into the hall or recording room very effectively. Mid range. Guitars, violins, voices, etc, all sound very "convincing". Detail. In the mid range, I can hear details in recordings that I didn't know were there, but I also can't hear certain instruments, like drums, very well.

SIZE/PLACEMENT So, here are some very compact speakers that do a lot of things right. They mate well to musical subwoofers too (I'm using a ML Dynamo, but I've read REL and Spendor's own sub, all work well here too).

COMPATIBILITY These speakers work very well with reasonably priced amplification. With an old harmon/kardon 630 (30W dual mono integrated amplifier with tuner), I get amplification that is almost as good as a big Nelson Pass designed class A solid state (Forte 1a, 50W) and in some ways better. So, going with the idea of compact, you can get great sound with a good all in one integrated amp.

ELEGANCE If you would like an invisible stereo, one that is there without taking over the room, these may be the answer.

NON-FATIGUING My ears don't get tired of these speakers.

OVERALL these are great for listening to acoustic music. Voices, strings, solo instruments, small ensemble records and still pretty good for symphonic music. I've yet to hear a better monitor in this price range.

Weaknesses:
DETAIL is somewhat lacking in the timber and mid-bass.

DYNAMICS. Drums fall apart in complex recordings, you'll hear them but you really can't listen to them very easily. While in mid range is always very sweet, cymbals, percussion, drums, mid-bass and horns are all better presented by speakers with faster dynamics.

OVERALL Look elsewhere (try Klipsch Heritage designs with a similar amplification) if you listen to rock/jazz exclusively, but if vocals are your favorite part of the music these should be considered.

Similar Products Used:
monitors from:
Odyssey Audio
Green Mountain Audio
and Castle

inmyview

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.20 of 5, 5.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1200.00 from Executive Stereo

Summary:
In the past, I have always spent money on electronics only, buying pre amps, and power amps, and kept changing them after every year or so, the speaker I had for over five years were, Energy C2s, stand mounting two way, they were pretty good, but I sometimes felt there was something missing. Then I bought Totem speakers, there bottom of the line, which was not too too bad, nice warm sounding. But me, I got tired of them too in about a year or so.

See if you can understand the following: Every time I got something new, a pair of speakers or new pre or poweramp, it will change the sound a little, I will enjoy it for a while, and then I will get tired of it, and then look for something else. I am looking for something which will give you low level detail without causing listening fatigue.
Then I bought a pair of used Thiels CS2, really liked them, they are not your typical floor standers, they simply disappear leaving you with music only, but no low level detail here at all, and found them kinda bright at times. So they were out too.


Then I decided to spend about $1500.00 Cnd, just for a decent pair of stand mounting speakers, I searched the net, including this site, and then decided to go and audition Spendor S3/5 and when I did, I knew these are the speakers I have been looking for. I bought them, brought them home and connected them with my Accuphase P300 power amp, a perfect match for these speakers since the Accuphase puts out about 150WPC into 8ohms, and they sounded even better in my home then they did in the store.

Spendor, you should be proud to have the engineers who designed these speakers.

Strengths:
First thing I noticed was that they sound REALLY BIG, I mostly listen to Rock/POP music, tremendous bass slam for a small speaker, extremely strong centre image, and the result is a 3D SOUND TO DIE FOR. AND TONS OF LOW LEVEL DETAIL HERE specially the vocals, either solo or group, sound soooo real, you have to hear these to know what I mean. Overall sound is really well balanced, I have been using these for over a year now, and I do not think that I will get tired of these. Once you audition them, you are going to keep them for a very very long time.

The 3D effect truly great, I have never heard this kind of 3D sound from anyother speaker.

Weaknesses:
You do need a power full amp to drive these, my guess is a min. power of 70WPC clean signal should do it, if you can afford more power, it will be even better, these are about 84db sensitive.

Similar Products Used:
Energy, Thiel, Totem, Mission, Paradigm, Signet and Linn Tukan.

seanbeer

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
1.50 of 5, 6.00 votes

Price Paid:  $400.00 from 2nd hand

Summary:
US$400 2ND HAND.


This review is for my pair of Spendor S3. I think it is same as the S3/5, certainly looked the same and I am certain its not the S3e.

Okay, let's get to the points, I am not gonna repeat what already been said by previous reviewers ie. the sound quality.

All I want to point out is that you have to be carefull with setting up and pairing of the S3.

My current system consisted of Acram CD72 and a pair of old British pre and power combo with 100w of power avaiable.

In pure money terms and region of the gear, they should be good match or at least ok match, but it turned out to be quite disappointed when i first hooked it up to my system , not until recently i am able to get the full benefit from this little pair of angel.

what have i done? expereinced with inter connect and speaker wire, it went from 30/100 to 90/100 now i would say (sound qualitywise with 100 being the best you could get out of the speakers)

i am not sure is this true for everyone else but my guess is the S3s are very senstive to what quality of the signal you put into it, and if you give it rubbish it gives you rubbish and therefore little change like wire changes the presentation of the signal and therefore differnent sound form the S3s.

and the interconnects and speakers wire u might ask:

ok......CD to Pre - ecosse the mastero MA2
Pre to power - Vdh the 2nd
power to speakers QED Genssis Silver Spiral single wire.


one mroe warning ,its not that more expesinve mean better, i had vdh the first from CD to pre, it sounded awaeful, but that i mean no acceptable, hey but it doens't mean the first is crap or anything, i am using it from my phono amp to pre, it sounded great ! those funny wires ..............could drive you mad.

enough said. hope my little reivew will be of help to your selection of speakers and other gears alike.

cheers mate !

Strengths:

Great all rounder

Weaknesses:

its bad when its badly driven

Similar Products Used:

Whafedale 8.1
Harbeth HL Compact