Spendor s8e Imaging/Soundstage?

I've owned the S8e's,and many years ago, Spica TC-50's. I thought the S8e's threw a nice lateral soundstage, particularly when I paired them with a Musical Fidelity KW-500 integrated. They were average in terms of depth. I would expect your Spicas to beat them handily in terms of holographic imaging.

These are very different speakers, however. There is no comparison in terms of the S8e's ability on the bottom end. The midrange is gorgeous. They are much more refined, but ultimately a bit too polite for me. I was much happier with Reynaud Trentes, which embody the best qualities of the S8e's and TC-50's, and now, even more so, my Reynaud Offrandes (although more expensive than the Trentes or S8e's).

Hi Steve:

The Spicas are not what I would consider polite. To my ears, the S8e's are a bit rolled off on top. This was particularly the case when I had them paired with a Cary V12r amp and copper Kimber Bifocal XL cables. Switching to the MF KW-500 integrated and Kimber Select KS-3035 Silver/copper cables worked alot better, but at a price. Although I like my current system better, I could have lived quite hapily with the S8e's.

It appears tha Kw6 did have a different experience of the S8e's depth of imaging capabilities. Perhaps this is room dependent. Over the years I've owned various Spendor, Spica, Snell, Epos, Totem, Thiel and Reynaud speakers. My floorstanders have never had the same imaging magic as the monitors. By the same token, my floorstanders have mostly added a sense of fullness that most of the monitors couldn't match (Offrandes excepted). Why not keep both, if you can? Or seriously, look for a pair of used Trente's.