Speakers - Wilson Benesch versus Spendor

[admin_exported]

In the July 2009 edition of What Hi-Fi there was a Group Test of floorstanders from £1,900 to £2,250. The Spendor A6 was featured but not the Wilson Benesch Square Two, which was awarded best speaker over £2,000 in the What Hi-Fi Sound and Vision Awards 2007. Why wasn't the Wilson Benesch Square Two included in the July 2009 Group Test and how does the Square Two compare the with Spendor A6?

 

[Andrew Everard]

WB wasn't able to supply a pair for the test, but the company has made some cosmetic changes to the product, and we will be reviewing them and commenting on how they compare to the Spendors in the near future.

 

[Frank Harvey]

The current WB Square 2's are a fantastic speaker - great insight into the music, you can hear everything that's going on. It's downfall is that the rather lean, forward sound doesn't do bad recordings any favours. Because of this, they're not the best all rounders at this sort of price point, which that accolade would go to the ATC SCM40's, which tend to be able to reproduce anything thrown at them, given a good enough system to drive them. The Spendors will be better all rounders, mainly suited to real instruments, but they also deal with electronic type music well too, like Hybrid and BT for example. Your choice would depend on the amplifier being used (you'll need a better amp for the WB's than the Spendors), but overall, many will probably prefer the 'nicer' presentation of the A6's.

 

[Anonymous]

David, when you talk about best all rounders at this price point, I presume you mean of the speakers you have heard? I was briefly interested in the new SF speakers, which come in around this price, plus Totems and others.

 

[Frank Harvey]

I've not heard SF's myself, although one of the guys here is familiar with the older ranges - I haven't heard totems. But I've heard a lot of other speakers!

Surely when anybody says 'best at the price point', they're only commenting on what they've heard? It's just that some have heard more than others......