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Spendor SA300, August 1997
Aug 1, 1997 6:01 PM, By Barry Cleveland
POWERED NEAR-FIELD SPEAKERS
Studio Monitors
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Although its products are not common in the United States, Spendor has been designing and manufacturing loudspeakers for nearly 30 years. The company was founded in 1969 by Spencer and Dorothy Hughes (Spen+Dor) after Spencer decided to manufacture and market speakers that he helped design while working in the BBC’s research department. The SA Series studio monitors are the company’s latest offering, and are now being distributed in the States.
At $3,595 a pair, the SA300s are the mid-priced models in the SA Series, which ranges from the SA200s at $2,395 to the three-way SA500s at $6,995. The SA300s are powered two-way monitors with 8-inch woofers and 3-inch soft-dome tweeters. The woofers have filled homopolymer cones, coupled with long-throw coil assemblies, and are powered by 130-watt amplifiers. The tweeters have silk diaphragms, are ferrofluid-cooled and damped, and are powered by 60W amps; components are matched to within 0.75dB tolerance. The SA300s measure 18.5x10x11.5 inches, weigh 37 pounds and sport sculptured, high-grade MDF cabinets finished in lightly textured gray. Their sides and top are chamfered to reduce diffraction at high frequencies, giving them an attractive and unique appearance.
On the back are four controls: one for gain and three for equalization. The gain control ranges from 0 to +20 dB or the full output of the speakers. The LF cut control varies the cut-off frequency of the LF filter and can be set to 50, 70 or 90 Hz. The LF tilt shelving control operates from 500 Hz downward and can be adjusted to give ±3dB boost/cut in 1dB steps. The HF tilt control gives up to 3dB boost or cut from 4 kHz upward, also in 1dB steps. There is also a large heat sink, XLR input connector and an IEC mains inlet with a voltage selector.
I found the high and low EQ controls to be quite useful for adjusting the speakers to different listening environments. The fact that they are notched in 1dB increments makes it easy to set them as a pair and to find your way back to the flat setting. I did experience a bit of trouble with one of the AC inlets, though: The cable did not fit very snugly and became loose on two occasions, causing the amplifier to shut off and then come back on suddenly. This was not as big a problem as it might have been, though, as the unit features a protection circuit that delays connecting the input to the amplifier for five seconds on power-up and mutes the input within 100 ms on power-down. Another protection circuit compensates for the different thermal time constants of the bass and treble units and mutes the input when there is a signal overload.
PERFORMANCE
For my listening tests, I used a Yamaha 03D digital mixer, with a Sony DAT deck connected to its co-axial digital input and a Panasonic CD player connected to its analog stereo inputs. Although I listened to a wide variety of recordings to hear how the SA300s handled diverse program sources, I did my most critical listening using five particularly dynamic and/or complex CDs, and five DATs of my own mixes. The CDs were Oliver Messiaen’s Couleurs de la Cite Celeste (a work for piano, clarinets, xylophones, brass orchestra and metal percussion instruments); Joe Zawinul’s My People; King Crimson’s Thrak; Gongs and Vocal Music from Sumatra (Smithsonian Folkways); and my own Voluntary Dreaming (mixes of an ensemble of multiple percussionists, bass, electric guitar and woodwinds, and another ensemble of electric guitar, bass, cello and cymbalom).
I chose the recording of Couleurs de la Cite Celeste because it has an unusual variety of timbral colors and an extremely wide dynamic range. The SA300s reproduced the xylophones and metal percussion instruments with great clarity and definition, while handling the intense surges of the brass orchestra with ease. The overall sound was rich and full, yet it maintained the subtle “airy” quality of the concert hall during the quiet passages. The Zawinul CD was chosen because it combines the full range of synthesizer sounds with vocals and myriad instruments from around the world, all presented with exceptional production values. The mixes are layered with subtle sounds that are easily lost on most other speakers and even studio monitors. Once again, the SA300s reproduced them all with astonishing clarity and definition. The big bass synth pedal notes came across tight and full, even at the lowest frequencies, and cymbals, bells and other high-frequency sounds were crystal-clear. Mid-frequency sounds, such as talking drums, vocals and guitars, were also crisp and clean.
On Thrak, there are really two sets of musicians performing in a “double trio” formation: two drummers, two guitarists and two bass/chapman stick players, so the mixes tend to be very dense and complex, often employing unorthodox imaging and panning effects. In addition, all of the musicians use multiple layers of effects processing, often in stereo, which further complicates things. The strengths and weaknesses of this approach were revealed by the Spendors. They faithfully reproduced the full range of sounds and maintained a high degree of stereo definition, while clearly highlighting those sections in which there was simply too much going on within a particular frequency range. Also, their reproduction of certain, often quite subtle, stereo effects was nothing short of amazing. The gong and vocal music from Sumatra tested the SA300’s ability to handle very complex high-frequency sounds with lots of overtones and the nuances of multiple voices. They met the challenge quite well in both regards.
Finally, I chose my own Voluntary Dreaming CD because I am familiar with how the original 2-inch masters sounded in a control room environment and I wanted to see just how close the Spendors could come to it. My recordings, like the Zawinul recording mentioned above, tend to have layers of extra sounds mixed in at relatively low levels. These sounds are the first things to go when you listen back on less-than-optimal speakers and they are inaudible on many. The Spendors reproduced them all in their pristine purity. And, I had essentially the same experience while listening to my DAT mixes of newer material, though in some cases, it was the problems and inconsistencies in those mixes that were revealed.
SUMMARY
Overall, I found these speakers to be exceptional. I could listen to them for long periods of time without feeling fatigued, which is fortunate because I got so much pleasure from them that I returned often and usually listened very intently. The Spendor SA300s are absolutely ruthless when it comes to reproducing a recording without coloration. Highs are crisp and clear, mids tight and well defined, and the low end rich and even. I detected no dead spots or other funny business in the critical 3kHz range, and the imaging was simply breathtaking. You may have to do a little searching to find a pair to check out, but I wholeheartedly recommend that you do so.
Spendor Audio Systems, dist. by Sascom Marketing Group, www.sascom.com.
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