BEST STEREOSPEAKERS €4000+

Can any speaker be worth ve positioning of each of the instrument thousand Euro’ s? The answer used. It'll make the hairs on your depends on the individual and neck stand up. available funds. What we can say Switch genres to lay Z's The is that if you have that kind of Blueprint and you'll nd the A9s money to spend. the A9 should he more than capable of kicking out top of your audition shortlist. basslines with plenty of speed and a great deal of de nition. Unlike Certain things have to be in place for previous generations of Spendor a speaker like this to perform product (most of which we adored, it optimally. You'll need top-class must be said) the A9s don't deal in sources and ampli cation, not to overt richness at low frequencies: mention suitable cabling; don't they're massively taut, fast and expect much change from 10 grand punchy. Some similarly priced rivals for the whole lot. After that you'll go deeper still, but none we've heard need a relatively large room and can match these Spendors when it enough space to let these speakers comes to rendering low frequency breathe. subtleties.

Integration that amazes Spendor's speakers have always been known for their immaculate integration, and this is one area where the A9s stay true to the brand's traditions. This might be a three-way speaker, but you'd never know the frequency range was The Spendors' well controlled bass divided between so many drivers, so performance means they'll be less smooth is the transition from bass to fussy about room positioning than treble. A convincingly even tonal most similarly-sized rivals, but you'll balance con rms Spendor's skill at still need to take care to get the best merging and balancing drivers. sound. Get it right and there's little These speakers are wholly else to do but sit back and enjoy the transparent to the source and the music. recording. Listen to something Play a top-class disc such as gentle and they'll sound suitably Live at Vatnajokull om the Opus 3 polite, move to something label and the A9s can make the aggressive and they'll oblige. walls of your listening room Four grand is an awful lot of disappear and replace them with the money to spend -but then again, the inside of the grand church where the Spendor A9s are an awful lot of recording was made. The sense of talented speaker. space is palpable, as is the precise Substantial Spendor MARTIN COLLOMS PUTS SPENDOR’S LATEST A9 HEAVYWEIGHT UNDER THE HIFICRITIC MICROSCOPE

recent meeting made it clear that Philip more complex crossover fixes to correct minor dips Swift, Spendor’s current owner-director, and peaks in the response, or do you fix the drivers at is now firmly imbued with the company’s source using engineering fundamentals?” nearA legendary, BBC-based ethos. Co-founder All this has led to the new £4,000/pair A9, first of Audiolab, with many years of production and seen at the recent Bristol Show and the largest of corporate management experience behind him, the more value oriented A series. While Swift was Swift has long admired Spendor. Indeed he was undoubtedly a guiding hand, Spendor’s recently active in hi-fi retail from 1969 at the original Audio appointed chief designer is Terry Miles, who has T in Oxford Street’s Dryden Chambers, forming a been production engineering Spendors for decades, tech support team that included myself and Derek including under Spencer Hughes. Scotland, when Spendor first burst on the audio In line with my own views (and indeed those scene, setting remarkable standards for clarity and of Keith Howard who writes in Hi-Fi News and low coloration from box loudspeakers – standards Stereophile), the A9 is designed from the start as a which in part have yet to be equalled. We marvelled good amplifier load with a usefully high sensitivity. at the intricate layered sounds created by the BC1, Both these factors make amplifiers and speaker cables which made so many instruments and voices sound sound better, period. (This bonus is regularly ignored substantially more natural then we had previously – indeed contradicted – by many brands, which heard from anything save the more quietly voiced pursue a senseless scramble for the ‘loudest speaker original Quad Electrostatic. in the showroom’, no matter what the cost in overall Swift has had to reconcile the disparity between system sound quality.) the earlier and recognisably BBC derived Spendors, A true three-way system, the A9 has a pair of now called Classics (several still in production and custom built bass drivers with 180mm cast alloy deservedly popular), and the more recent modern chassis’ and Kevlar reinforced diaphragms, designed designs where style, slim form and a more ‘up to for optimal tuning in this fourth generation linear date’ sound (if there is such a thing). It’s something flow, low air velocity and hence low ‘wind’ noise of a juggling act to hold the two lines together and bass reflex, vented near the floor boundary for more make the best of both. consistently controlled room coupling. No enclosure The Classics have lightweight thin wall low volume damping is used, in order to deliver coloration enclosures with bitumen panel damping unrestricted, fast and well timed bass. and more traditional rectangular stand-mount The midrange driver has a 150mm cast frame with enclosures – even for the largest three-way S100 with an open voice-coil and phase correcting pole. Its cone its 12inch bass driver. The more recent designs tend material, codenamed ep38, resulted from an in-depth to be slimmer, usually floorstanding, with more rigid trawl of a number of recent engineering co-polymers. braced enclosures and innovative drive units. While one may begin by assessing mechanical A key factor is Spendor’s commitment to making parameters like stiffness and loss or damping with its own bass and mid drivers, a tradition begun by raw sheet stock, nothing compares with making up founder Spencer Hughes, derived from his painstaking a number of cone samples and listening to them, the labours spent building and voicing polymer cone method used to select this promising newcomer. drivers for BBC prototypes in the 1960s. The Since it has an inherent output beyond 10kHz, resources of the BBC, with its reference recordings and Miles was able to choose a higher than usual comparisons to live sound, vitalised the creation of crossover frequency of 5kHz, above the most finely tuned, highly developed, repeatable, consistent critical aural band and allowing greater tweeter speaker systems which are essential characteristics dynamic expression. The crossovers also avoid most for a studio monitor. Making its own drivers allows attenuating resistors by using Spendor’s own high Spendor to maintain these standards of consistency, tolerance auto-transformer inductors, and exploit the and develop the drivers to a high standard. degrees of freedom these provide to blend the system Talking design with Swift revealed his grip on the phase and amplitude response. The nominally 25mm more subtle aspects of speaker technology, design doped fabric dome tweeter has a wide surround and and voicing, and understanding of how Spendor’s moulded elliptical waveguide. long researched technology could be applied to A new approach to enclosure damping applies low advantage in the new designs. As he explained, while mass constrained layer polymer damping selectively everyone favours a smooth, flat frequency response, at high energy locations. The spiked feet locate into it’s how you get there that matters. “Do you employ large steel reinforcements to the enclosure floor,

20 HIFICRITIC APRIL | MAY | JUNE 2010 ◆ REVIEW

MARTIN COLLOMS rather than the usual vestigial threaded inserts. Perhaps the best surprise here is the bass, which However, the plinth footprint is no wider or deeper is not only dynamically capable and able to play than the enclosure proper, so the lateral physical really loud without compression or early truncation stability in particular of this tall enclosure must be of the frequency range, but which can also deliver considered marginal. a satisfyingly percussive punch that is far from Specifications include 90dB/W sensitivity, a true typical of most reflex designs. It also has a Spendor 8ohm impedance (minimum 6.2ohm), a 250W like inner balance which is rarely found. That low unclipped power capacity, and a nominal 50Hz to frequency punch is quick and tuneful, lending an 20kHz +/-3dB axial frequency response, extending to uncommonly upbeat and well timed quality in typically -6dB at 28Hz in-room. Real veneer finishes conjunction with the ‘fast’ midrange transients. This include black ash, cherry, light oak and wenge, while bass remains powerful down to about 33Hz, playing signal input is via one pair of high quality fine- well beyond the expectations for its box size. threaded WBT terminals. Overall it sounds satisfyingly uncompressed, and is lively and interesting even when occasionally Sound Quality caught out, for example by Jan Gabarek’s sax on Auditioned predominantly with a Naim Twelve Moons, which is rendered a little stridently SUPERNAIT/Hi-Cap amplifier, an Audio Research and up front. However, quick transients can Reference 5/Krell 402 pairing was also used, and make you jump, just as they should. Nevertheless, the A9 was not a disappointment. While clearly a coloration is also quite low, the speaker is generally very easy cruise for the Krell, the A9 revelled in its clean, un-boxy and well tailored, and the mild bass abundant power and headroom, indicating that it lift heard at the lowest frequencies is not sufficient to could well be suited to costly systems. upset the result. (This will also depend on the room Inherently well balanced from bass to treble, with characteristics, and the location therein.) Certainly a smooth if mildly lean upper midrange, some toe- larger, well furnished rooms can be driven easily by in fine tuning (almost directly to face the listener) this powerful and elegant design. was required, and also precise spacing to side walls Comparison is inevitable with the similarly (0.6m here). An initial setback in the auditioning priced and equally elegant PMC Fact.8 (Vol4 No1), revealed some sensitivity to the tonal balance of the which can match the high sensitivity, good amplifier driving system: the combination of a Marantz CD- loading, fine transparency and crisp dynamics. 7 with a mismatched ‘solid state’ Transparent cable Whereas the Fact.8 sounds lighter but better between the Audio Research valve pre-amp and the blended, more ‘audiophile’, and is kinder to systems Krell 402 power amp, and with Tellurium Q speaker and sources, the A9 counterpunches with a more cable, gave an almost metallic ‘forward’ midrange powerful and extended bass, and without significant and a ‘hardened’ sound which crushed image concession to bass quality. depth. This particular combination resulted in a degree of forwardness which reacted negatively with Lab Report this speaker. I quickly moved to Kimber KS3035 Subject to the limitations of our in-room gated speaker cable, the right ‘valve’ interconnect cable by measurements, the A9 met tight +/-3dB amplitude Transparent and a NAIM CDS3 source, and with a limits for the axial response 45Hz to 20kHz. This is little further placement tuning it all came out right. notably smooth, but the trend also suggests a mild While still a tad lean, the underlying potential upper midrange prominence (800Hz - 3kHz). Here of fine transparency, good image depth, convincing the 2dB shelf lift is visible over sufficient bandwidth stereo focus and particularly good detail resolution to be audible, and correlates with both the room especially in the upper frequency range, was now average response and the perceived sound quality. revealed, and results with the SUPERNAIT/Hi- We didn’t get the full claimed 90dB sensitivity, Cap combo were similar. Its obvious leavening but the 88dB/W we measured is still good, the of high end qualities raises the question: “How more so for its kind amplifier loading. A 6.2ohm much should one spend on the accompanying minimum plus low phase angles represents a true system when the A9 has such credentials?” Like the 8ohm load, suited to all kinds of amplification Avalon speakers I regularly use, there’s no attempt and uncritical of speaker cable gauge. In fact the to romanticise the sound input, and it truthfully impedance holds to a smooth 11.2 +/-5ohms over reveals content, warts and all. Output is clear and the whole range. crisp, with very good transient definition that’s The A9 takes power very well, and the stated particularly good at revealing bells, wood block 200W programme maximum is practical and allows and subtle percussive shadings, while the treble has good in-room maximum sound levels of 106dB for plenty of detail with only a small hint of grain in a pair, alongside bass that’s notably free from early the uppermost audible range. limiting. The practical -6dB bass extension point

HIFICRITIC APRIL | MAY | JUNE 2010 21  REVIEW

Review System Ancillaries is just under 30Hz, thanks to the usual room gain Some acoustic anti-resonances appear high up in the Audio Research Reference at lower frequencies, and in fact with about 4-6 dB treble range, and are probably inaudible. 5/Phono 2, Naim Supernait / of excess at lower frequencies. The room response While the port tuning is at 33Hz, the port’s Hi-Cap, XTC Pre-1, Quad shows good integration and uniformity, albeit with maximum power is at 29Hz. Some higher ESL63, BBC LS3/5a, Avalon that upper mid ‘shelf’ adding force to transients but breakthrough modes from the port (eg 150Hz at - Eidolon Diamond, Marantz somewhat thinning vocal and piano timbres. 10dB, 240Hz at -7.5dB and 430 Hz at -18dB) will CD-7, Naim CDS3, Rega The physical listening axis of this tall speaker is make some unwanted contributions, since they are Isis, Linn LP12/Keel/Radikal/ a little below the tweeter, but the crossover’s best low enough in frequency to be radiated into the room Naim Aro, Koetsu Urushi alignment is actually on the mid/treble axis and above space. Subjectively some mild thickening of mid-bass (yellow trace), while the green trace is nearer the actual timbre was audible, and may be associated with these. Vermillion, Naim Superline/ user axis, and by 15 degrees below the axis a deep At a moderately loud 1W input (88dB spl), the Supercap, Naim SUPERNAIT notch is visible at the upper 5kHz crossover point. A 300Hz lower mid distortion was very good at 0.5% and a Krell 402. Cables designed output favouring below axis operation might second and third harmonics. 800Hz saw 0.35% included Yter, Kimber KS be preferable. Fine lateral off-axis integration was second and 0.4% third harmonics (about average 3035, Transparent XL MM2, shown up to 30 degrees, but by 45 and particularly for the genre). 6kHz gave rather higher distortion and Van den Hul The First 60 degrees that mild midrange step prominence (0.8% second, 0.08% third harmonics), but this Ultimate . is seen, again correlating with the room-averaged is not considered very significant since at a more ‘power’ response. The latter graph met +/-4dB limits representative (for the treble) 0.5W, second dropped to 10kHz, and then rolled away as expected from the to a fine 0.15%, alongside 0.1% third harmonic. natural directivity of a dome tweeter of this size. Driven harder the mid distortion rose to about The waterfall decay response showed a good 1.3% for 98dB spl. At the system bass power peak at resonance picture with fine phase integration, 35Hz, distortion was low, even 10W delivering less confirming the observed speed and transparency. than 1.5% (fine for this low frequency). Distortion A minor decay mode is seen at 7kHz, probably the was a bit higher at 40Hz, but the would take a Contact: A9 Spendor Audio Systems upper end of the midrange driver’s range. Another is huge 30V sine wave without limiting, and excellent Tel 01323 843474 associated with the tweeter at about 18kHz, perhaps power handling at over 100W fairly rattled the www.spendoraudio.com linked with a trace of treble grain heard on test. windows! However, it would be fair to say that on the whole the A9 was not specifically designed for SPECIFICATIONS € € lower than average loudspeaker distortion. ______Make Spendor €€ ______Model A9 Conclusions ______Price € 2495,00 each Excellently engineered and finished, benefitting ______Finishes Wood veneers ______Size (WxHxD), Weight 103x20.5x35cms; 27kg from custom driver design and a long pedigree, the Type Four driver, three-way, bass reflex Spendor A9 is a fine loudspeaker with a thoroughly 2x180mm LF, 150mm cone midrange, modern appearance and sound quality, combined ______25mm soft dome tweeter ______Sensitivity for 2.83V 88dB @ 2.8V; above average with class leading bass for power, extension, attack ______Amplifier loading 8ohms nom, 6.2ohm min; very good and speed. Dynamic, crisp and well detailed, ______Frequency response, axial 40Hz to 20kHz +/-3dB; very good with deep and transparent imaging, it can sound Frequency Response, off-axis Good power response, mild midband shelf lift ______a touch lean and forward in the upper midrange, ______Bass extension 30Hz for -6dB ______Max Loudness , in room 106dBA for a stereo pair and benefits from smooth and naturally balanced ______Power rating 20 - 200W matching electronics and cables. The inherently high Placement Floorstanding, near free space location. quality indicates suitability for use with expensive system components if so desired. Representing good Spendor A9 Frequency Responses value and overall performance, the A9 deserves HIFICRITIC recommendation.

Waterfall Presentation Spendor A9 Energy Spendor A9 Impedance (6.2 min), and Phase of Decay Impedance (dash)

22 HIFICRITIC APRIL | MAY | JUNE 2010 Equipment Review Spendor A9 floorstanding loudspeaker by Alan Sircom

ome reviews almost write themselves. Tannoys are fun, Wilsons sound big and Spendor… well, Spendor comes from the ‘pipe and slippers’ end of the market. Job done, who needs to open the box? Unfortunately, loudspeakers like the SA9 make the reviewer’s life that bit more complex, because they don’t adhere to our perceived opinion about Spendor loudspeakers. No pipes. No slippers… just a really good, honest loudspeaker. The A9 is a slim three-way floorstander, with the two 180mm Kevlar composite cones with long-throw motors acting together, coupled with a 150mm midrange cone made from Spendor’s own transparent ep38 polymer, and a 29mm fabric dome tweeter. The low and midrange units are Spendor’s own designs, while the tweeter is outsourced, but built to exacting specs. It has to be; Spendor was one of the main protagonists of pair matching from its early days and these components need to be exact enough to allow a 1dB matching across the board. Irrespective of the pair matching requirement, the A9’s tweeter has a deliberately irregular-shaped surround that it calls its ‘bi-eliptical acoustic lens technology’; funky name aside, this does help improve horizontal dispersion and off-axis performance without messing up (or being messed up by) the midrange that sits below. “Spendor was one of the main protagonists of pair matching from its early days.”

The loudspeaker is somewhere between the thin-walled cabinet of old and a thicker-walled more modern design, and sports ‘dynamic damping’ at key points to reduce potential for the cabinet to sing along with the music. Cleverly, Spendor manages to kill several birds with one stone in the base-plate, as it combines the mounting bracket for the crossover, a rigid braced plate that can really grip a M8 spike or four and the base of the letterbox shaped ‘linear flow’ rear port. A single set of WBT terminals seal the deal. It’s all extremely elegantly finished and, though tall, doesn’t look out of place. We are used to oversized base-plates to help lower the centre of gravity and this speaker looks a little odd without such a plate, but it’s certainly adding to the clean lines of the design. What the A9 does so well is to combine that BBC-speaker neutrality (only this time without a little upper-mid peak to make music sound just a shade ‘better’ than it really is) with a more

43 ISSUE 77 EQUIPMENT REVIEW / Spendor A9 floorstanding loudspeaker

exciting and dynamic presentation that modern audio demands. That’s a to make a string quartet sound ‘realistic’ with tough balancing act; those who like their loudspeakers soft and 70s think the dynamic range and energy that makes modern speakers scream and squeak at them, while those more used to you understand why they played the music modern designs think those classic BBC models dull and flat-sounding. The in the first place. The same thing happens in A9 sails between these two waypoints beautifully. reverse with ZZ Top’s Tres Hombres album; This makes it a speaker for all seasons. I don’t subscribe to the ‘good you need that dynamic range to get the for classical’ or ‘rock-ready’ design schools, because a loudspeaker ought swampy groove across, but the fine detail to be genre-agnostic. However, as the philosopher David Hume pointed and articulation mean you also understand out, there is a significant difference between the descriptive (what is) and the what a track like ‘La Grange’ is all about. prescriptive (what ought to be), and in audio that means few loudspeakers are If you come away from the last two truly comfortable with everything from Palestrina to Pantera. The A9 is one of paragraphs with the word ‘balance’, well the exceptions. Its tonal balance and dynamic range benefit a huge range of done. Now add the word ‘bass’. The A9 has musical styles and I threw everything from Bach’s Mass in B Minor to Evil Nine quite a lot of it; not in a dubstep, wall-of-bass, at the speakers and they did well with every track. gut-mangling onslaught way, but controlled, The dynamic range was especially impressive, in that context. It is possible to make everything sound ‘good’ by slugging the dynamic range of “The A9 is one of the the speaker. This results in a sense of being removed from the music; sounds happen around the loudspeakers across the room and your connection to exceptions. Its tonal the music is cerebral in nature. On the A9 however, the scale of the music balance and dynamic snaps at your attention gland and you are in there with the music. Perhaps range benefit a huge not in the ‘red in tooth and claw’ nature of some loudspeakers, but the A9 certainly makes a good balance between head and heart. This came across range of musical styles.” well with the Amadeus Quartet’s rendition of Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ string quartet, combining as the does the detail and imagery needed deep and precise manner. It’s perhaps best geared for typical UK/EU rooms and might get a touch lost in a barn of a listening space, but under such circumstances the A9 will deliver a surprising amount of bottom end heft from what is a comparatively small package. OK, perhaps not enough to hit those ‘end of the pedalboard’ organ notes, but also not enough to swamp a typical UK room. So, perhaps ‘balance’ is appropriate here, too. As you might expect given the Spendor heritage, detail and imaging are first rate. In bringing the Spendor sound into the second decade of the 21st Century, there was a risk that these important aspects of Spendor sound would be underrepresented, but fortunately this is something of a win-win. The A9 doesn’t have its own hologram projector, but the image is wide of the boxes, and has good front-to-back stage depth. It doesn’t bulldoze walls down, or give an artificially large soundstage, instead portraying a sound that is appropriate for the instruments or singer on the recording. Similarly, the level of detail is fine enough to pull hidden glories out of those grooves or digits, but not at the expense of a pinched, etched or toppy sound quality. An interesting detail about the A9 is its port. This is one of the least ‘porty’ sounding speakers around and the speaker sounds

44 ISSUE 77 almost as fast as a sealed enclosure, but without the concomitant sensitivity, Technical impedance or bass-lightness issues such a box might bring. It’s also rear firing Specifications but not room fussy, which further suggests the port is doing more to ease the loudspeaker load than acting as sonic reinforcement. This seriously helps Description: 3-way floorstanding make the case for the A9 with the speed metal merchants, because there’s loudspeaker almost no bass lag blurring beats. Enclosure type: Spendor linear flow It would be a dereliction of duty not to find flaw in a product, but I admit reflex to having something of a struggle on my hands here. The loudspeaker has HF drive unit: 29mm wide-surround a relatively low ceiling; it will play loud, but perhaps not loud enough for real dome with fluid cooling headbangers, and at pain-levels it can harden up and sound shouty in the MF drive unit: Spendor 150mm ep38 mids and beyond. At the other extreme, it does fairly well at low levels, but cone at whisper quiet moments, there is a slight loss of integration between the LF drive units: Spendor 180mm Kevlar® drivers. But this feels ‘picky’ to me; the sound is simply excellent under the composite cone conditions most people will use these speakers for most of their time. Sensitivity: 90dB for 1 watt at 1 metre A few issues back, I waxed lyrical about the Magico Q5. Sadly, not Crossover point: 500 Hz and 5.0 kHz everyone has the amplifier girth, the room width or length or the wallet depth Frequency response: 50 Hz to 20 kHz ± to cope with so demanding a £65,000 loudspeaker. What happens for the 3dB anechoic rest of us? The Spendor A9 happens. It gives you a lot of that Q5 sound for Typical in-room response: -6dB at 28 Hz nigh on 1/13th the cost, and doesn’t need a powerhouse amp or a stateroom anechoic to hold court. OK, if you were comparing the two side-by-side in the sort of Impedance: 8 ohms nominal environment that gives both an equal footing, you would quickly know why the Impedance minimum: 6.2 ohms extra money was justified (especially if you like to play loud and like your bass Power handling: 250 watts unclipped full-range) and where it had been deservedly spent. The point is, however, programme is not to criticise the Spendor for not being a £65,000 loudspeaker, but to Terminals: WBT 4 way binding posts highlight just how good you the A9 really is. Up against one of the high-end’s single-wired latest big boys, the A9 really is the plucky little loudspeaker that could. Dimensions (HxWxD): 103 x 20.5 x 36cm Sometimes as a reviewer, you happen across a product that ticks all the Weight: 27kg each boxes and yet you have no qualms about giving it back at the end of the Finish: black ash, cherry, light oak, review period. The Spendor A9 is not that kind of product. It ticks all the wenge boxes, yes, but also presents music with a charm and poise that is rare in Price: £3,995 per pair audio of any price. That stays with you. I would imaging that in 20 years time, when all the shiny ‘must have’ loudspeakers of 2010 are long forgotten, there Manufactured by Spendor Audio will still be a lot of people happily playing music through their Spendor A9s. Systems Ltd That might just make it the best investment in audio around today; not just in URL: www.spendoraudio.com future resale values, but because these are the sort of loudspeakers that get Tel: +44(0) 1323 843474 handed down from father to son. That’s how good they are.+

45 ISSUE 77 Ninth

WaveThe brand new A9 is Spendor's latest high end speaker; Noel Keywood listens in... Ah, Spendor -Spencer and Dorothy! than impressive. Long ago and far away from today's What I am identifying here is the brutally commercial reality an ex-BBC intrinsic sound of Spendor's ep38 engineer set out to produce a 'proper' polymer cone that is clean and well loudspeaker, one that was pure and damped, adding not one jot to the sense accurate. Spencer Hughes and his of upper mid band hardness that so wife Dorothy put onto the market the many transistor amplifiers display. This is BC 1 and it got a great reception quite unlike metal cones, that can be around the world. Today we choose unfortunate partners for some less to use Spender S8e loudspeakers as svelte transistor amplifiers. our in-house 'benchmarks' against The A9 also uses the ep38 cone which other loudspeakers are judged material, in the critical midrange unit, -and they remain effective in this role affecting vocals and string instruments after several long, hard years. So in particular. The smaller A6 is in fact the when Spender's new A9s reached our successor to our S8es, similarly being a offices recently I was eager to hear two way loudspeaker. The A9 is designed them. for better bass handling, having two Hailing from the BBC I don't think 180mm Kevlar cone bass units Spencer or Dorothy spent too much compared to the single ep38 polymer time listening to the Rolling Stones at 150mm cone of the bass/midrange unit that time; Spenders were voiced for in the A6. That's quite a lot of cone area classical music and have had an easy and Philip Swift, MD of Spendor, demeanor ever since. Forget speedy explained to me that he had tried for a bass, or that slight crack in the upper more controlled bass than that of earlier mid band, Epos style, that gives an models (note: Philip founded Audiolab impression of speed. Searing treble? and designed the 8000A amplifier; read Not here please! more in Wikipedia). For these reasons people are Cabinet size always helps when commonly underwhelmed, even we're talking bass and the A9s are quite disappointed, by the sound of our big, just nudging past the 1 metre height S8es (we use them as 'benchmarks' norm; they stand 1030mm high without not 'references'). And over the years spikes and 1050 with them. In keeping it has become obvious that the S8es with their pedigree a range of elegant suit solid-state amplifiers with a high real wood cabinet veneers are offered damping factor; they sound distinctly and our samples came in a well tubby with valves or Naims. patterned Light Oak. Construction Conversely, they have proven to be a quality and finish are good, if magic match for our in-house Musical conventional. Fidelity AMS50 amplifier; it holds Weighing 27kgs the A9s are their otherwise fulsome bass in an movable without difficulty, although as iron like grip whilst they act as a foil usual spikes complicate the issue a bit to the amplifiers dry, concise delivery, and alternative rubber or PVC feet are the final result being nothing other not an option. This is basically a reflex loudspeaker; a treble sent forth waves of long slot port sits at the bottom of the information and this gave the A9s a cabinet's rear face, to load the bass units. deeply insighful nature, synths Connection is through sturdy WBT rasping viciously in 'Koko' as Ms terminals that accept 4mm plugs, bare Goldfrapp went about her business of wires and spades connectors, but bi- the ‘’Supernature’’ CD. wiring is not an option. Spendor talk about the A9s as sounding ‘’fast’’ -not a phrase SOUND QUALITY Spencer or Dorothy would have used listening to the A 9s quickly as delivered methinks! -and this they do! The easy and then after forty eight hours of clarity of the ep38polymer midrange running in with pink noise showed they unit gives vocals a naturalness that I had settled and smoothed nicely and love and strong treble seemingly lifts needed little more. I gave them more all speed and incision. Exactly where to the same, another three nights in our draw the balance in this sort of trade listening room, being pummeled with off is an artistic decision made by the Monitor Audio’s surreal sounding De-Tox designer and Spendor is heading into disk (gentle background noise with lots of modernity shall I say. Even within a plinks and plonks that vary over a long gentle song like Eleanor McEvoy's period -yes, I have listened to it all!) 'Just for the Tourists' from 'I'd Rather The A9s remained stable in Go Blonde' there was some obvious presentation over this second period and sibilance and in the opening of 'I'd sounded right to me, unlike for example Rather Go Blonde' the violin Eleanor "The A9 has a wonderful mid band and some of the best bass you'll hear from a loudspeaker of this type" the B&W 804ds I reviewed recently that plays so vigorously, as we saw and sounded unhappy until run in for more heard when she played live at the than one hundred and twenty hours UK's 2010 Whittlebury Audio Show, whereupon they suddenly shone -the had a shriek that was challenging. I'd degree of difference being a shock! This advise owners to use a nice, smooth, sort of experience complicates the review silky front end with the A9 for best issue badly; when is a loudspeaker in a results. At this point it is time to talk state that represents its final about that rare property in modern performance? I suspect modern synthetic loudspeakers -reproduction of materials need be worked long and hard timbre. It's here you have reason to to settle. 'think Spendor'. The midrange unit Luckily, I know what Spendors sound resolves timbre with a magnificence like, including the STs (April 2010 issue) that did justice to the instrument in and the A9s were working properly in the Nigel Kennedy's hands, giving it a end I feel. As always, the review was lovely, full bodied character. The started with our Musical Fidelity AMS50 Spendors sounded like few others, Class A transistor amplifier, one of the few falling back to their roots with transistor amplifiers that sounds as if it is satisfying honesty. All in all, I found working properly. All the same, where the myself slowly drawn into Mr AMS50 was perfect with our S8es, Kennedy's moving interpretation of offering redemption for their fulsome Massenet's 'Meditation'. It would be bass by holding it in a grip of steel, I did in churlish to say theA9s were anything the end drift away from the AMS50 to our other than excellent in the end. But Icon Audio MB845 Mklls for good reason. then, every loudspeaker is a whole Treble from the A9s could be a little host of compromises and whilst astringent at times and the AMS50 did treble might be 'obvious', Spendor's nothing to hide the fact. The MB845s that midrange unit is nothing other than with other loudspeakers I have described superb. Instruments in The Royal as "almost soft", helped lessen this effect. Philharmonic were convincingly But even with the MB845 Mklls driving differentiated by timbre in the A9s, damped ride cymbal hissed at me Tchaikovsky's 'Pathetique' for on Arison Goldfrapp's 'Fly Me Away'. This example, horns having a rich brassy, is an effect I remember from the ST and is sound and a fruity rasp, violins having Spendor's view of how treble should be a nice, rich sound from the bodies, balanced relative to all else -which for me whilst timpany had weight and a is too obvious to result in total happiness. good sense·of dynamic contrast, But Alison Goldfrapp's voice was clear as a placing a large and convincingly real bell, and even if a little sibilant at times, orchestra in front of me. intensely detailed all the same. Raised The A9s have an almost dry today. Interestingly, bass quality was identical the type. Spendor remain attuned to with the high damping factor AMS50 good engineering principles. Only the transistor amplifier and the low damping tweeter warrants remarking on, its lively factor MB845 valve amplifiers, suggesting nature meaning that buyers should make they rely more on acoustic and magnetic sure they've got a smooth front end damping within the loudspeaker itself than and/or amplifier for best results. So the electrical damping presented by the A9 is a very well developed loudspeaker amplifier. And that's good. with impressive ability, and proves well The A 9s run low but keep the lows under worth auditioning, whether you like good control so there's no waffle. This Classical music like Spencer and Dorothy, helped stabs of heavy synthesiser bass from or prefer Lady GaGa instead! 'Monster' push out firmly into our listening room, whilst Lady GaGa chimed out clearly centre stage. Always grippy, they beat out Led Zeppelin's 'Heartbreaker' with an insight I am unused to. It was breathtaking to hear those classic guitar riffs thrust out so clearly. Cymbal crashes were lively, and Bonham's drumming was perfectly captured. It was with my usual bass test, the emphasised walking bass lines in Angelique Kidjo COs, that the A9s were superb. They have no resonant lift, just an even delivery of bass notes across the scale from high right down to the lowest. with near perfect grip and power. TheA9's bass is both powerful and fast. Lone strikes against a bass drum were strong, but not overly large, and the repeated low bass notes in 'Wombo Lombo' quality, again much like the STs and unlike were handled with perfect control. the SSes, and this worked well with Spendor move up to the classical. It also worked well elsewhere; top of the league here; they delivered vocals with a convincing the A9s deliver bass that sense of body and Jackie Leven's rich defines what is possible baritone delivery was nicely captured on from a box of the size. I 'Fairy Tales of Hard Men'. Every little vocal strongly suspect their nuance was laid out in front of me on bass drivers are very well 'Desolation Blues', sudden vocal pushes proportioned for the task from his tightly modulated delivery made because the lack of obvious, bringing out the song's change in perceived bass melancholia. quality between our 'Extremely Violent Man' entered with real amplifiers is unique to bite to crashing guitar chords and whilst date and suggests better hand drums beat out a regular rhythmic drive units than is pattern in the background Jackie's voice common like the Antals was clear and hard etched in the they had expressive bass, foreground, explaining "even my mother bass that you could say had to look away". had detail, rather than The sound stage was just a little in being a mellifluous front of the loudspeakers and its outline description of boundaries just beyond them at either what was being played. side, although this is to some extent a Also, bass was tight room function, affected by side wall enough and in suitable reflections (ours are acoustically proportion to all else to damped). With a gentle arc up and across allow near-wall between the loudspeakers the sound positioning in a room. stage was seemingly open and expansive, locking Jackie's voice firmly at centre and CONCLUSION quite high in front of me, always a nice Spendor's new A9 is one effect since the singer hovers high, at impressive loudspeaker. what is a believable stage position. It offers a more modern Where Spendor have scored a big hit with take on sound quality the A9 is bass quality. From a slightly than Spencer or Dorothy smaller cabinet the A9s manage the same would recognise, yet it sort of expressiveness as Triangle's Antals still has a wonderful I reviewed last month. They have obvious midband and some of bass power and are as tight and the best bass you'll hear controlled as anything on the market from a loudspeaker of