Spendor S8e Floor standing speakers
The company Spendor is one of the founders of the English school of sound. It has been revived recently and in new appearance continues to produce speaker systems, which totally answers the traditions, founded in 50-es of the past century. But now the assortment is significantly expanded - in addition to classical studio monitor speakers (the firm owes its glory exactly to them) there are speaker systems in the model range, which meet modern requirements to the design of acoustics. Spendor S8e is slim, floor speaker systems of two-band construction, being equipped with two original self-engineered speakers. High-frequency head has a dome membrane and is located a bit below head level of a seated listener. Mid-low-frequency driver with polymer diffuser on the rubber suspension, sounding the main part of the specter, is the most interesting. The speaker is loaded on the one of varieties of the bass-reflex, the slotted port of which is on the back wall near the very bottom of the speaker system. Due to this feature it is not desirable to put this model right up to the wall. A wide base of Spendor S8e is not only a pedestal but also a lower wall for the bass-reflex port. A decorative, dustproof mesh has the form of elongated trapezoid with smooth lines and is designed to add harmony to quite broad and squat speakers. Two pairs of terminals allow two-wire connection to the amplifier. The veneer of natural wood, with which the body is finished, looks great - the image of Spendor S8e seems to be "warm" and homey.
Violin concert of Mozart, performed by David Oistrakh, immediately showed brilliant abilities of Spendor S8e to play timbres of acoustic instruments. Natural and rich sound of violin in combination with correct transfer of all subtle interactions between groups of performers and the smallest changes of the tempo and tone's height, completely dips a listener into the atmosphere of live concert. The intonations in solo parts of Oistrakh were delivered just amazed! Because of the small size of the speaker system there is a feeling that you are somewhere in upper rows of the amphitheater and a bit overlook at the stage. Turn to rock music - the attack in the middle bass is a bit weaker than expected. But drum kick is clearly audible! Such penetration in the LF range is really wonderful for the two-wire loudspeakers! The vocal of Gary Moore is not roughened even at high volume. Put the disk of Michel Sardou. As I expected, the singer's voice sounds fully and deeply, the emotions just run high. Piano timbre is rarely transparent; there is a deep stage with clear positioning of all instruments.
Spendor S8e is the true kings of timbre and deep bass! It copes with acoustic instruments and human voice surprisingly well and the ability to penetrate into the depths of LF-range would do credit to speaker systems of much larger volume.
