I'm a 2/2 owner. I've heard the SP100 and it was very nice. More of the 2/2 sound in every area. It needs some room around it and a bigger room if you're going to play loud. I believe the R2 is re-voiced for better detail. While easy to drive, you might need something bigger than the Nait. |
I'm sure they'll be fine with solid state amplification but they will reward you with tubes. 35 watt 6L6/EL34 would be a good start and sweet as a nut. |
Successive iterations of the S100 have moved gradually away from the classic Spendor (British) sound, though even in the latest one, the Classic 100, a lot of it remains. If they're in good shape and a good price, I'd jump on them. The R1 may be a little more euphonic, but then you're getting into aging drivers, aging crossover components, etc. |
the spendor sp100 is the ONLY speaker i ever regretted selling, and i have been at this pursuit since the early 80’s - if the price of this pair of r2’s is anywhere near reasonable, you would be well served to buy them and enjoy them (these almost never appear used) - these are not headbanger speakers - but for any acoustic, vocal, orchestral, pop or jazz music they are among the very best ever - for the balance of all traits valued by music lovers - clarity, tonality/timbre, rhythm, top to bottom coherence, full range response, midrange tactility and warmth, detail presented in a natural way - there have been various reviews over time by the leading reviewers touting their excellence, just search online and you will find
you do need proper stands and a room large enough to run these speakers well away from room boundaries or the bass response may overwhelm
other great thing about the big spendor is their (relatively) high efficiency and benign load, so reasonable powered, lovely tube amps can do the job
it is true what @twoleftears says... the successive revisions of the spendor sp series (now called ’classic’) from inception to present have led to a gradual, subtle treble lift and some damping of the bass - highly analogous to what harbeth has been doing with its speakers in .2 and .3 and ’anniversary’ and now their heavily marketed xd versions... basic character of the speaker is the same (no one will ever mistake these for a focal kanta, magico a3 or wilson sabrina and their sizzly, hyper hifi nature) but the sound is being ’modernized’ at the margins for more perceived clarity and speed and absolutely volume capability |
I bought a demo pair with stands from a dealer in my area last year and love them. They do everything extremely well with no listener fatigue ever. Maybe not headbanger speakers but I do listen to a good deal of album rock on them. Outstanding on acoustical music of course, and spooky good imaging on ambient. No buyers remorse here.
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Agree completely with jjss49.
I have owned 19 different pairs of good speakers, and the SP100'S the only speakers that I regret selling. I had several others between them and my current Klipsch Epics, and I do love the Epics, but I love the SP100 just as much. The Epics are more dynamic and somewhat larger in scale, but as soon as I got them. I noticed that in comparison to the Spendor, there was a certain warmth in the mid bass that added an ineffable richness to the music that I missed.
They are soo god at everything overall that I would recommend them to anyone. They are good for all types of music, but yes, if you are an audiophile who picks everything apart to the nth degree, they may not be for you; but they are a speaker that satisfies every time that you sit with them, and you never feel like you are missing the content, or the intent of the music you are listening to.
I give them 5 stars.
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How about a comparison to their lesser siblings? I hope this will not feel like derailing the thread. I'm thinking about upgrading from the SP2/3R2, which I love, to the SP100R2, but I couldn't find a single comparison between them. Should I expect better midrange detail due to the 3 way construction? Also, any extra punch to be gained? (I mean impactfull, hard hitting upper- and mid-bass, not talking about extended, full and weighty bass which I'm sure is much superior) Any downsides (like lesser coherence, maybe)?
Oh, and would they fit in a 23 square meters room
with about 80 cm free space behind and playing at a moderate volume level? Maybe it's not wise, but I'm more tempted to move to the SP100R2's than to add a pair of subwoofers...
Thank you! |
I can't help you with the comparison, but I can tell you that the SP100s were very tolerant of a smaller 12 x 15 room. I had no problem with bass nodes. They were on Sound Anchor stands. |
@donquichotte
i have not heard the sp2/3 r2, but historically, the sp2 line was a true two way (with a single tweeter) and counterintuitively, this model was known to have most midrange and midbass warmth of all the 3 founding models (s100 the big brother, sp1 the middle brother, and sp2 the little brother), despite the bass extension to the lowest octave was most limited (almost non existent) - the cost of this warmth was a loss of transparency and tactility through the treble and mids, although the midrange still sounds quite ’beautiful’
the bc1/sp1 was the founding model, with the best midrange magic, very good treble, and decent/passable bass, tremendous overall transparency
the s100 gave you almost as good midrange magic, terrific transparency and coherence, but even more extended highs and significantly deeper weightier fuller bass -- and, very importantly, the biggest soundstage
over time i am sure the revisions to the sp2 series, leading to the r2 designation, gave it (and all their revised speakers) more treble energy and touch more bass speed, but overall, these speakers still all have a more ’rolling’ or ’enveloping’ nature of bass energy, rather than ’pounding/slammy’ bass... this applies to the big bro s100 as well, although once again, each revision improves the slam marginally
(side note - this is why spendor launched the a and d series of floor standing ’modern sound’ speakers... with greater overt transparency, speed and slam - the two lines are as differentiated in style of sound as they are in their appearance)
all this is all a long way of saying, i think the sp2 series is most compromised in terms of the legendary spendor magic top to bottom transparency and coherence, and has the smallest soundstage, so my suggestion to you would be to get a sp1/2 series speaker and couple THAT with good subs for the best sound with the more slammy bass you seek -- or -- just go for d7 or d9’s if you don’t losing a little midrange magic and timbral accuracy for modern hifi traits in the highs and lows
sorry for the meander... hope this helps nonetheless |
Thank you both, very useful to me. So, SP100R2 won't bring additional bass slam, just extension, right? I've heard the Classic 100 but I think the positioning in the room was unfortunate or maybe it was simply a bad room as the bass extension suffered considerably - full sounding down to about 40Hz and nothing below. The deep tympani on Dead Can Dance's "Yulunga" were basically non-existent, and I can hear them on my SP2/3R2's! So I cannot extrapolate much about the SP100R2's bass from that experience.
Adding subs to the Classic 1/2, for example, would require a pretty low crossover point, most likely below 60Hz, so I'm not sure how would this option yield better bass slam / impact?!
@triodelover1499: between my SP2/3R2 and my Harbeth M30.2 (now up for sale) I prefer the former. Warmer, more exuberant, joyful or friendly I would say, with better lit mids, nice highs, bigger sound and in most cases I prefer their acoustic timbres reproduction. The Harbeth's are more "serious", they wear a costume with an appropriate tie so to speak, have a bit of a bump around 100Hz and the classic BBC dip in the midrange, a very (objectively speaking, more) refined tweeter and their less extended bass is clearer, tighter and with good (better?) texture. I must admit that the M30.2 played the most astonishingly realistic string quartet I've ever heard, though, they are great with violin and cello.
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Thanks to all for the comments and pointers. I am trying to get the SP100’s, and dealing with the seller trying to get to agreement on price.
I noticed the pair of used S8e Spendors ... I would surmise that these are not nearly as good as the SP100's.
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s8e is a nice speaker, top to bottom... but it has a rather recessed midrange that is the anthesis of what i feel makes spendor’s classic line of speakers so darned special
on its own the s8e is very listenable, until you compare it to sp1 or sp1/2e with subs, for instance... |
S8 are fine. The SP100R2 is in a different league. |
