Spendor, Harbeth...why so hot ?

Spendor SP 1/2’s don’t do anything for you and are highly over rated???

If those of this opinion would reveal what system the Spendors were used in along with their choice of music their conclusion would probably be understandable. I suspect these are people enamored of HI-FI who haven’t heard much live acoustic music.

Let me set the record straight for the sake of music lovers who may be reading this and looking for speakers to audition.

The Spendor SP 1/2’s are absolutely thrilling speakers. Thrilling in their NATURALNESS and faithfulness to music. If you listen to classical, jazz, opera, and the great popular vocalists you will be overjoyed with these. No listener fatigue, no upgradeitis, just satisfaction.

Comparisons – if we’re talking BOX speakers ( yes, I love Quads too, but don’t want to be confined to the sweet spot ) the SP 1/2’s dominate their price range like Godzilla on steroids. I agree with Paulwp, if you want to significantly out perform them you will need to go North of $5,000.

Finally, about the Harbeth C7 es – I have heard the SP 1/2’s and the C7 es side by side and although the Harbeth is an excellent speaker it is only competitive with the SP 1/2’s in a small room. In larger rooms the added scale, bass weight, and air moving capabilities of the SP 1/2’s are superior to the C7 es. Notice the difference between their retail British prices – that gap is there for a reason.

Hello Paulwp, I enjoyed your post to the fellow who thinks Harbeths and Spendors are “small monitors – just pretty good for the money”. Well said.

The last time I checked HIFI Choice magazine the price of the Spendor SP 1/2 was about 1650 pounds – I couldn’t find the current price on the web. The current price of the Harbeth HL 7es is 1299 pounds, it competes with the Spendor SP 2/3 with a price of 1295 pounds (these are current prices off the web per pair).

My point here is that these speakers are very well known in the critical European marketplace and their prices really do correspond rather closely to their performance level.

You’ve made an excellent choice – the HL 7es is an outstanding speaker. I could certainly be very satisfied with it if I had a smaller room, but in my fairly large room I prefer my SP 1/2’s.

Costrosk, you’re not paying attention to this thread – read Paulwp’s and my post again.

You said that you auditioned small Spendor monitors – I assume S3/5’s or S1’s.

I own Spendor SP 1/2’s. The truly great speakers (and yes THRILLING) in the Harbeth and Spendor lines are the Harbeth HL 7es and Monitor 40 and the Spendor SP 1/2, SP 100, SP 9/1, and perhaps the new Spendor FL 9 and FL 10, but I’ll reserve judgement on these last two because I haven’t heard them yet.