2. speakers
  3. 1284841981

Spendor A9 : Your first impressions

Hi,

I just upgraded my 3 years old Totem Forest with the Spendor A9. It's my first experience with Spendor speakers but after 3 month of listening to find the Forest successor, I believe the A9 is the one.
My system is
Oppo 83bd SE or Imac + AE + Toslink
Dac PS Audio DlIII Cullen IV
Plinius 9200
Hovland Radia
Acoustic Zen Cables

I find the A9 very neutral and quick but the most improvement over the Forest is on timbers accuracy, they are just beautiful. It's also very transparent, so one must pay attention to the association.

They are not spectacular at first, but cd after cd, you can't just stop listening to them. I like the air between instruments, and especially with voices. The forest used to emphasize the voices over the rest, here there is more space to put everything in the right place.

The bass is clean but not very deep, which is maybe the only weakness I see. Although it doesn't bother me, as I don't like boomy speakers.
The sensitivity is over 90dB, and are easier to drive than the Totems.

I use to listen to Jazz, world and classical.

In my quest to replace the Forest (which I loved), I've tried:

802D : associated with Mac amps, and it was not great (maybe not 802 fault)

Cremona M : boomy and colored medium...not my taste at all

Some Adam speaker : aggressive highs

Peak Consult Princess Sign.: a big curtain between them and you, where is the presence and the transparency ?

Some Nola floorstanding speaker: boxy sound, which is weird with theses medium and tweeters outside the cabinet !

Devore Gibbons 8: superb small speakers, so musical, but in the same league as the Forests (slightly more expensive). I regret to not have tested the Nines.

Wilson Sophia 3: a lot of energy and obviously very good. Best bass I've heard. Not as refined mediums & highs as the Magico. 2,5 x more expensive than the A9.

Magico V2: clearly an other class, like the sophia, but I know why they are so expensive. Although for the money I believe the A9 give you 95% of these two...

So now if other people own or have listened to these A9, you are welcome to give your impressions here.

Fabien
bountchacny
audiodon657
3 posts
 
I now have Bountchacny's Spendor A9s and they are well run in.
By placing them closer to the rear wall you can reinforce the bass. I use a powered sub for 50hz and below. Spendor doesn't pretend to do the low-lows with mid-bass hump.
bountchacny OP
13 posts
 
Hello Audiodon,

It's been a while since I came here, I hope you 're still enjoying the A9.
Cheers.
microbiologycory's avatar
microbiologycory
1 posts
 
Ooh, can I get in line for 's A9's next? I too owned the A6's and felt they were too bass light to be called balanced, though my partnering amp was a little "nimble" itself,now I have the perfect amp, but no speakers! (JK, MA RX6 but I'm lusting after tge high end)
craig978
1 posts
 
I realise that this thread is quite old now but i just bought a9s for a very nice price 2 weeks ago. I also bought a chord hugo tt at the same time (so for me quite some spend£) , i hope that the comments of bountchacny and kosta123 come true because i cant help feeling a bit underwhelmed by the a9s so far. Ive run in for about 50 hours so far. What happens at 200 hours? My system beforehand was somewhat modest with audiolab cd and pmc tb2 speakers. There was less detail yes but the involvement and "zip" was more. I must have significant gaps in my system now somewhere so i think i need to do some serious more work on cables and amps??
More to discover