Spendor S5e - Amazing Little Rascals - SOLD

Spendor's own drivers are present and accounted for in the company's S range speaker line, in the midst of which there is the S5e ( originally $1649/pair). Apart from those plastic cones, however, virtually everything else is new. The cabinets of this slender floorstanding speaker are made entirely of 18mm-thick MDF, and are balance-veneered—ie, veneer is glued to the inside surfaces as well as to the outside, to keep the wood stable. The S5e's cabinet uses internal, circumferential braces at each driver position, for greater rigidity; those braces are also sized and shaped to function as back-braces for the drivers: The wood is carved to fit against the rear surfaces of the drivers' magnet assemblies, with rigid polymer dampers between, intended to turn excess energy into heat.

Said drivers include a 1" fabric-dome tweeter—manufactured by the kindly folks at SEAS—and a pair of Spendor's plastic cones. The first of those, a 5" driver that operates from 4.5kHz down to the system's low-frequency limits, is made from a new translucent polymer called ep38 (I bet I know what the p stands for), which Spendor chose for its being stiff, light, and intrinsically well damped. Its surround is a light, flexible butyl rubber, and there's a stationary phase plug at the center.

If one were to regard that first 5" cone as a midbass driver, then the second one, which is made from an evidently thicker, heavier homopolymer, is strictly a woofer, the upper range of which begins to roll off at 700Hz. Its surround appears similar to that of the above-mentioned midbass driver, but instead of a phase plug it sports a lightweight alloy dustcap, cemented right to the cone. Both of the 5" drivers are assembled onto cast aluminum frames.

So the S5e is neither a two-way nor a three-way system, but actually a two-and-a-half-way system: Both woofers are working at the lowest frequencies, although the bottom one isn't asked to do any work above 700Hz. The bass-loading system also deserves mention. The S5e's woofers are reflex-loaded, but not with the usual cylindrical port. Rather, the drivers are "slot-loaded," with a broad, rectangular port that opens at the rear. The bottom of the cabinet proper is left open, and a nicely made MDF base fits against it, to be bolted on tightly. A sculpted area at the top of the base mates with a chamfered surface at the bottom of the enclosure, and together these form a tapered waveguide that's said to resist the buildup of standing waves and to behave more symmetrically than a standard reflex system. The result, Spendor claims, is flatter bass response, higher drive levels, and no "chuffing," as sometimes occurs with round ports. Also, because the cabinet is designed to absorb or otherwise deal with midrange energy before it gets into the waveguide—thanks to the above-mentioned polymer sheets between the braces and the drivers—nothing but bass information comes out of the port.

The S5e's crossover network uses third-order filters, and is said to be designed for especially good dispersion and off-axis response. In common with the SP100s and BC1s of yore, the S-range crossovers use Spendor's own hand-wound, hand-matched inductor coils; they go the older speakers even better by banishing series resistors for response attenuation of the drivers. That, along with the relatively simple crossover design, would seem to contribute to the Spendors' pleasantly average electrical sensitivity and nominal impedance, which are 87dB and 8 ohms, respectively.

In a nut shell, these little small towers are incredible. They just slay with live recordings and are equally fabulous with well recorded source material. They won't, like a good monitor, make poor recordings sound better, they are brutally honest speakers but, unlike most monitors, they are a bit forgiving in a uniquely British kinda way. Have a couple of small blemishes (normal wear) but no del breakers and present extremely well.

Come by the shop for a listen or purchase with confidence here on this site.

Spendor S5e: $599.00 + tax and shipping when applicable