Spendor S3/5se Heir Legit or Imposter?

Good things about this speaker in latest Stereophile. Anyone had a chance to hear these and what is your opinion? From what I read it looks very promising.

 

Hi Khorn,

I have had the opportunity to give these a listen, and they sounded very impressive indeed. Great midrange, love highs, imaging to die for, fast as get-out and an impressive amount of bass heft. They also had probably the biggest sound from the smallest box I have ever heard.

As to comparing them with the BBC outdoor monitor of almost but not quite the same name, that's just a recipe for internet anomie and I won't go there.

Jeff

I see you're in Toronto. They have a pair at Executive Stereo on Yonge.

 

Thanks Jeff, and yep, at the times that I can figure out where I am it usually ends up being Toronto. I'll have to go check 'em out.

 

Doesn't Toronto mean something like, 'that place.'
So I am not sure how you can not be there. Jeff

 

You never know. We may have already met. I doubt either of our Avatars do us justice. And if I ran into your Avatar in real life, I wouldn't hang around to find out whether or not a book should be judged by its cover. Jeff

 

Jeff, Gary's Avatar is well....let's say it's not just an Avatar....He DOES look like that!!

Sorry Gary the Nauga's sorta out of the bag now, so to speak......

BTW one nice match for the S3/5se might be the Magnum/Dynalab receiver. I believe it uses SimAudio amplification mated with the Magnum/Dynalab tuner. Combine that with a reasonably decent disc player and you have one heck of a "second" system.

 

Fair enough, and this is probably the stupid question of the day that breaks the thread, but what's a NAUGA anyway.
Jeff
Back to Spendor...

 

A Nauga is something that is almost impossible to hyde from.

 

Ahh. Now I know.
Let's drag this back to Spendor...
Jeff
Spendor trivia, the company was named after the founder and his wife: can you name them?

 

Spencer and Dorothy Hughes.

Do I get a prize?

 

Audioenz writes:

Spencer and Dorothy Hughes.

Do I get a prize?



You do.
You'll have to come to this side of the world to pick it up though.
Jeff

 

I've heard them, and they are very special. I own two sets of Spendors currently (S20s and SP-100s), and they definitely fit in with the rest of the Classic Series. They also mate very well with Spendor's subwoofer, if you want full-range. I do think that they are bettered by the Harbeth HL-P3es, though, but not by much. And they are much better than the regular S3/5, which have almost no bass to speak of.