Spendor Sp2/3r2 v Spendor Classic 1/2 v Harbeth SLH5 + v Stirling LS3/6.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

The Bollix at the moment is coming from one source - YOU! There is a specific way of approaching music reproduction that came out of the BBC design process. The continuance of it has led to the WAF cabs with ports and thin front panels multiple small drivers and complex crossovers crap foisted on us now. They don't play proper music and never have done. Spendor have not moved on, none of them have, go look at real speaker (mostly now from USA and Japan) and you will see and hear the difference. You are still stuck in your flat earth shop experiences, you still can't break away and back to reality, even though via your experience with NVA you are getting plenty of reality shown to you. Are your seriously telling me that any of this BBC bollocks can compete musically with those Doc Mod B&W you are using, if you think so you have really lost it. Go take them down to your mate and compare with the over priced crap he is selling from Harbeth and Spendor and open his ears as well. Though he will never admit it as he wouldn't do with the Cubes.

If it has a port and a complex crossover IT CAN NEVER PLAY MUSIC!!!!!!

[57charles]

Dr Bunsen, I've noticed over the years that speakers have thinner fronts now due to WAF which means smaller drive units - I read somewhere that you can still get good bass from smsll drive units if you use enough of them - I saw a table showing 'x' number of say 4" drivers = same area as 1 10" driver and it said bass will be the same but I've yet to hear these slim fronted floor standers sound as good as what I would call a traditional speaker with an 8" driver on a stand - not many companies make these now - there is Spendor Classic, Harbeth and Stirling.
DSJR - not sure I like the idea of the latest Harbeths sound being updated nor the latest Spendor Classics. My Spendor SP2/3r2 are a later model which Spendor user forum told me is updated over older versions - they said my version ruined music compared to their older versions. I like the sound of my version but don't like the idea of it being livened up even more in the guise of the newer Classic models if that is indeed the case. If the Stirling LS3/6 turned out to be an over ripe, lush fruit box then maybe that's gor me - the only caveat being 90 watts power handling which is a little on the low side as my Yamaha Z9 is a monster and I might get carried away with the volume. Once again, thanks to all especially Dr Bunsen and DSJR for your input here - I am not a 'techie' but I'm learning quite a lot here.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Perhaps you should stop *reading somewhere* and use your ears and your music. The only way multiple smaller drivers can reproduce larger drivers is by putting them in an isobaric config. Multi front drivers just give more cone areas doing the same thing i.e. scale and power handling. It doesn't take much intelligence to realise this, if you want a big driver you have to use a big driver. I really do not have time to teach, I have posted loads of times before about it. In a cone driver the higher the frequency the nearer the voice coils is the transmission point, lower frequencies the opposite, so multiple 6 inch drivers is still only 6 inches and the length of wave that it can transmit. The ONLY speaker that can transmit the same lower frequency as a 12 inch cone is a 12 inch cone.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

All multi small drivers and a port give you is artificial unmusical (phase distorted) bass. Usually with a pronounced artificial hump.

[savvypaul]

When I listen to the Harbeths after the cubes I am aware of what is missing. And it is not bollix...

The relevance to the OP is that there are different designs that they have not yet heard. At least seek out those differences rather than automatically follow one path.

I wouldn't recognise point scoring. I'm too long in the tooth to be bothered. I just listen.

[57charles]

Dr Bunsen - thank you for the reply - I am a new member on this forum and didn't realise you have already explained this. You are the first person to have explained this to me as I have read many times that because cone area of say 2 x 6" drivers = cone area of 1 larger driver then bass must be the same because it's all about shifting air but when I've heard these tall slim line multi driver floor standers, the bass is nothing like the speakers I heard in the 70's and early 80's which were stand mounted wider speakers with 8 or 10 inch drivers in them. Spendor, Harbeth and Stirling still make them. My Spendor SP2/3r2 fall into this category - they have an 8" driver but I want more bass so I need to go for a bigger cabinet. Thank you all once again for the advice.

[karatestu]

Hello Charles. Welcome to the forum

If you are any good at DIY then why not make some of your own speakers. That way you can make them sound like what ever you like .

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Very few people have the time and facilities to do what you do Karate Kid, the advantages of being a farmer. It is not normality for most people to have a large farmhouse or farmyard and barn space and tools and machinery and just loads of old junk lying around. The saying is farmers never throw anything away. You are in a pretty unique situation - enjoy it.

[57charles]

I have a big book on the history of KEF that I got for Christmas last year and having read it, realise that I would never be able to make a pair of speakers. They have specialist technicians and experts using big computers and special anoceic chambers that they design their speakers in.Unfortunately, I am not a techie nor am I practical. Will have to leave this to the experts, I'm afraid. I just wish the likes of Spendor, Harbeth etc didn't charge so much for their speakers, though. For example, the Spendor Classic 1/2 is over $7000 here in America for a 2 cubic foot box with an 8" driver. I guess you're paying for their expertise in audio as well as the actual manufacture costs of speaker. I can't win.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

It is all bollocks, you have a pair of ears and you have music, that makes you completely qualified. That book was a complete waste of money.