First let me say that these speakers were packed beautifully. They arrived without a scratch which is impressive as they were shipped first from the UK to the USA, then to California, and then finally back across the country to Florida where I live.
The first week, I let them play any time we left the house. So they received many hours of "run-in" during the first week.
After unpacking, immediately apparent was the quality of the cabinet work. The pics on the spendor web site do not do these justice. The speakers look like finely crafted furniture. The grills are a classic style. They are chunky and appear to be comprised of MDF with the usual tightly pulled black fabric. I really like this over the more modern plastic grill frames used by many manufactures now days. The grill is very secure and surprisingly the tapered design is quite attractive. I have always preferred speakers that do not have full length grills. It is very nice to see the exposed wood finish on the bottom third of the speaker front. The plinth has the black finish which matches the grills and provides a very nice contrast to the cherry wood veneer on my speakers. These are aesthetically beautiful speakers.
Listening to these speakers is truly a treat. Playing Ingrid Michaelson “The Hat” from the “Girls and Boys” CD there is a harmonic richness to the sound that is wonderfully entertaining.
Acoustic music is mesmerizing. I have never heard a speaker where acoustic instruments sounded more lifelike. String instruments are especially impressive. Because of this low volume listening maintains much of the magic of higher volumes. Playing “Stairway to Heaven” on the Rodrigo y Gabriela CD, the guitar reproduction is stunning. The lifelike resonance of the guitar is flawlessly reproduced.
What quickly becomes obvious as I spin my favorites is the ability these speakers have to deal with any type of music. Whatever I throw at them, there is never a moment where I wince. There are no bum notes. These speakers are smooth, effortless and wonderfully neutral. There is no trace of brightness. Even tracks like Adele’s “Chasing Pavements” which I have found to be harsh and abrasive when played through other speakers are tamed by the smoothness of the spendors. This is not necessarily a wonderful thing. With all speakers there are tradeoffs. The smooth neutral presentation of these spendors means that they can be slightly less exciting then some speakers that tend to exaggerate or over emphasize high frequency content. Some music can sound too refined or even dull when compared to the bright excited presentation of other less neutral speakers.
But the beauty of these spendor’s is that the vast majority of music does indeed sound splendid. And when the spendor’s are fed a great recording, they sing like nothing I’ve heard before. And I’ve heard plenty. I’m the type of guy that when I go on vacation, I drag my wife to Hi Fi stores so I can hear brands not available in my city. The acoustic piano on the Norah Jones song “Cold Cold Heart” is breathtaking. The spendor's ability to reproduce the piano leaves you awe struck.
Although I would call these speakers mid-sized floorstanders, their presentation is more like stand mounters given their ability to disappear. Female voices are especially crisp and clear. After playing Ingrid Michaelson’s “Way I am” my wife said it was like when we switched from standard definition to high definition television. That is high praise indeed coming from my wife who could not care less about audio or music and whose usual comment after being forced to listen is “yeah, yeah, whatever…”.
But are these speakers the nirvana of home audio? Close, but not quite. As I said before, everything in Hi Fi is a trade off and where these speakers seem to struggle is with bass content. I have found evaluating the bass output of the A6’s to be tricky. With some music like for instance Robin Thicke’s “loverman” the bass is deep and tight.
Yet with some music like Peter Cincotti’s “Cinderalla Beautiful” the bass lacks the visceral impact that can be felt with other floorstanders.
I’m torn between thinking that the A6’s are bass shy and slightly unbalanced or that they are simply providing unexaggerated neutral low frequency output. I will say that I have been unable to find any music source that results in a boomy or sloppy bass using the spendors. This has not been true with other speakers I’ve owned including the B&W CM7’s which would simply render some recordings like India.arie’s “brown skin” unlistenable due to the hyper extended bass. That same track sounds brilliant on the spendors.
So, while there are a few selections that lose a small amount of low frequency excitement, the spendor’s ability to competently handle any music source with silky smooth output is preferable. One more note on this subject, some speakers with prodigious bass output can make male voices sound overly heavy, almost distorting the sound, losing the crisp detail of the voice. The spendors do not suffer from this problem in the slightest. Even deep male voices are conveyed with a clean articulate detailed sound.
So, to sum up my findings, the spendors are stunning with acoustic instruments of all types. Their ability to play any type of music flawlessly makes them a long term treasure. Although some speakers can be more exciting when the perfect material is selected the neutrality of the spendors means that over all, more music can be enjoyed. These are brilliant all-arounders. They simply sing regardless of what you send their way.
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