Spendor S20 Any good?

Gene would know. Glad to read about such a legend

It is 2024, and I bought a pair of these from Reverb. The treble and midrange are exquisite. You can tell that someone spent some time working on this design. At any rate, there is no bass, whatsoever. So I put them into my closet until I bought an Audioengine s6 subwoofer. I had never owned a sub before and could not get this to sound good with various speakers. So I mated this sub with these speakers and bam!! I was smacked with the most beautiful 😍 sound arrangement that I've ever heard in my room. There are other speakers that have more detail/etc. More this and that, but these just hit a spot that I can't figure out?? Just 👌 perfect.

The Spendor S20 was the most musical, most satisfying speaker Spendor ever made. Back in 1990, I would sell 200 of them in a year. Sadly, their replacement the 3/1 lost the magic of the S20.

I've since received an email from Spendor. Spendor provided the original Spendor 20 product brochure. Also, according to Spendor: "Historically, S20 is the forerunner of the Spendor SP3/1 loudspeaker (which started life as a sealed cabinet loudspeaker)."

Here are the S20 Specs.

Size (HxWxD mm): 380x220x260
Weight: 9.5kg
HF Unit: SCANSPEAK D2010 19mm soft dome
LF Unit: SPENDOR 160mm Homopolymer Polypropylene cone
Normal Impedance: 8 ohms
Frequency Response: +/- 3dB 70Hz to 20Hz
Pair Matching: 1dB
Power Handling: 70 watts
Sensitivity: 84dB/1 watt/1 metre
Maximum SPL: 100dBA at 1 metre
Input Connections: 4mm terminals/bi-wired option
Crossover Point: 4kHz

Reviving this old tread to hopefully find a little more information on Spendor S20 2-way monitors. I have a pair on the way and looking for at least specifications. Specific information seems to be hard to find for the S20, maybe due to their limited run.

A Spendor "expert" describes the S20s as "sadly neglected and truly a best buy."

http://cheaptubeaudio.blogspot.com/2008/07/overview-spendor-loudspeakers.html

I paid $400 for the pair and not even sure if this was a fair price or good/bad deal.

Any information provided will be appreciated.

I have a Spendor S20. I have used it with a number of Amplifiers (Metaxas Ikarus, sugden A21- older version, Primaluna Prologue 2). The best results were obtained with the Primaluna. The sound is full, detailed rich and surprisingly powerful bass. I mostly listen to large scale orchestral music.

What amplifier did you end up using?

Thanks Ponnie,I'm going to be using them w/a Integra 9.1 H.T. receiver.Its 120 wpc also a Rel Strata III subwoofer.But I may use them w/a Rogue Stereo 90 power amp and a Rogue 99 magnum preamp.I'm not sure,I have two systems.

There are many speakers out there that are really good. The Spendor S20 was one of my favorite of the bookshelf series. Excellent timing,pace and rhythm. I listened to them on a Naim Nait integrated amp with a VPI TT and a
Rotel CD Player. It was some of the best sounds I had heard at the time. The speaker cable was Kimber 4tc. They don't have a lot of bass. And understand that the original S20 is from the early 90's.

I haven't heard any of the latest series but I can say you don't want the FL series from what I have been told. If they sound anything like I remember you will be happy if you are on a budget. There are other speakers you need to check out. but it depends on your price range. And if you want them to blend in with a subwoofer. The Spendors will sound good with solid state and tubes. There are many speakers out there that don't sound good with tubes. What amp are you going to use? Wht other gear will you be using?