See more ideas about hifi audio, loudspeaker and floor standing speakers. The d9 delivers music with exceptional resolution and a vibrant realism that conventional loudspeakers cannot match. This speaker is some of the better vintage stuff and i like it. I find the imaging is best with them toed in a fair bit so 30. According to my spendor manual, they keep a record of driver performance characteristics for every speaker they made, so if a driver needs replacement they can sell one that is an exact replacement. At the heart of the a4 is a spendor designed and engineered 7 bass mid drive unit that features the same ep77 polymer cone and new surround developed for spendor s flagship d7 model. Spendor bc1 speakers, spendor stands, original boxes and. In fact, we were so hohummed by the mundane appearance of this speaker that we found it hard to connect the pair up and give them a listen. These particular bc1s have the alnico magnet woofers and 55 watt power handling rating.
Choose the best matching replacement or upgrade with a higher quality driver to fit your repair project or next custom design. Years later one of those started fouling and i inverted the driver to solve the problem. These are probably among the best condition bc1s in north america. The crossover you see in the pics is about the best that was made. Some companies, like focal, make woofers and tweeters in separate facilities. Bc1 bass drivers can be replaced with a modern alternative for about. A key factor is spendor s commitment to making its own bass and mid drivers, a tradition begun by founder spencer hughes, derived from his painstaking.
I switched to pmc twenty 23s and they are brilliant. This is likely to totally change the sonic character of the bc1 speaker. The rear wall behind the largest drivers is critical to damp, as that is where the large back wave from the drivers wants to reflect or splash, muddying your bass response. A satellite is a cabinet that covers most of the audio range, with the exception of the very low frequencies, which are reproduced by a companion subwoofer. The driver has excellent power handling and excellent lowlevel linearity. Discussion in audio hardware started by alanb, apr 17, 20. As any hifi enthusiast will know, spendor has an illustrious history, its cofounder spencer hughes creating the companys first speaker, the bc1, using. We report on a classic with a modern twist as spendor launches a flagship inspired by its iconic 1970s models.
Does anyone know if there is a crossover part that can fail, or am i grasping at straws. The spendor bc1 is about as unimpressivelooking as any other smallish threeway loudspeaker, of which there are countless hundreds of models being made in the us at present. Bc stands for bextrene cone celestion tweeter, according to ken grey, former spendor employee. For me the best spendor was the early one with the alnico magnet though rather poor power handling, this was the model with the best midrange, a lot of claims were made to driver matching, with it assumed other manufacturers didnt match drivers.
Spendor bc1 upgrade kit speaker upgrades russ andrews. The bc1 69 was a limited edition, luxury, upgraded anniversary model. Along with codesigner dudley harwood, they used bextrene originally used for making egg cartons which, when covered in gunk, became suitable for making loudspeaker diaphragms. Improvements in many aspects of the dline speakers, including cabinet and driver design, has further refined integration of the drivers. For specs of the bciii, consult the informative owners manual or the japanese bciii page computertranslated. They too have a glorious midrange, but the size of the soundstage and the bass they produce is amazing for the size of drivers.
The spendor bc1 was designed in the late 1960s by spencer hughes who worked at the bbc. None of the specs or measurements matter if it does not sound great, which it does glorious in fact. As others have said, go easy on the drive as iirc the bass drivers are only rated at 25w rms. Terry\\\\\s view is that this is the optimum configuration of bc1 early cabinets and the later alnico bass drivers. The bottom, according to spendor s own curves and verified by our tests falls off rapidly below 55hz, and the system is rated at a maximum spl sound pressure level of 101dba. I would urge anyone to consider changing the original wiring on the older spendor units as the gains are worthwhile. No, i have not heard the spendor, so i really cannot pass judgement on its perceived value. Spendor takes great efforts to match drivers preciselyto within 1% i believeso getting a speaker with the original drivers would be very. I built my own copies using kef bass drivers and celestion and stc top end. The rebuild of my ls36s are described on the yahoo spendor group. How i rescued my 25year old spendor bc1 loudspeakers when the bass drivers failed summary for those who dont want to read this longish story.
Spendor bc1s in beautiful rosewood a simple rewire project. Terry miles says these are better than the later cabinets as over the years they have been revised to reduce manufacturing costs with minimum reduction of sound quality. Every time i did, spendor would ship me a new one without complaint. But keep em a couple of feet away from the back wall or the bass bloats up, ime. Iowned the bc1 successor, the sp1 mk2 for a few weeks see following point which explains why i kept em so short a time even for me. I have learned more about the celestion hf0 from the troels gravesen site e.
Tweeters we have a great selection of replacement cone tweeters, piezo horns, compression drivers, soft dome, mylar dome, and titanium dome tweeters. I had a pair of sp8, and the bc3 stock had better midrange, but bc3 modded made the sp8 sound unrealistic. I think this is because the original wiring was poorer on the bc1 and maybe the fact that his bass drivers had the alnico magnets. The speakers were in pretty bad shape and mid and bass drivers both had rotten foam surrounds and needed replacement. We report on a classic with a modern twist as spendor launches a flagship inspired by its iconic 1970s models as any hifi enthusiast will know, spendor has an illustrious history, its cofounder spencer hughes creating the companys first speaker, the bc1, using knowledge hed gained while working at the bbc in the 60s. The drivers can be refurbished not easily but packing a pair of bc1 if you dont have boxes is a pain in the neck. The new spendor d9 is an elegant, modern, fullsize, 3way, 4 driver, floorstanding loudspeaker. It delivers low frequencies with breathtaking power, scale and authority. I have had spendor s5es as well and they are great. The bc1 3 was a later, revised version using a 38mm hfmid driver and a 19mm shf driver.
Using oem hf drivers has been spendor s custom ever since. As for their worth, i rate all spendor bc1 and rogers studio 1 as very similar, and due to age many small specification differences such as driver matching and such anywhere between a. The resulting 3way design used an 8 inch bextrene mid bass driver, a celestion tweeter and a coles supertweeter. The sound from the drivers i used is acceptable but not comparable to the original drivers. For great pics, including internals, read the spanish audioplanet thread computertranslated. I kept these speakers for six years until i left the country, selling all my gear in the process. Superbly neutral and i mean dead flat frequency response from upper bass to midtreble which can be a bit of an eyeopener. Spendor bc1 8 red alnico bass drivers bc1studio monitors.
For loose fill, typically onehalf pound per cubic foot of internal volume is a good guideline especially for subwoofers. The spendor bc1 stayed in production until the celestion hf0 tweeter was discontinued in 1994. Draft excluder is nonporous and will act to make the port behave as if smaller in. The spendor bc1 is basically a threeway system with points of crossover around 3 khz and khz. The bc1 has in common with most british speakers a paucity of deep lowend range and of noisemaking ability. I have the original spendor bc1 u on its side spendor stands filled with lead shot which i angle so the speaker is leaning back a little. Trending price is based on prices from the last 90 days. The more recent designs tend to be slimmer, usually. A fullrange loudspeaker is a cabinet in which one or more individual drivers cover the whole audio frequency range. Later in the year spendor fitted replacement drivers with black surrounds. Offer is a pair of woofermidrange 8in drivers in excellent condition. The classic 3way, here from a 10 bass driver 25 fwbxdd, the magnificent 11fm h mid driver, and the soandso 1, h107 tweeter with polyamide dome. On the web ive seen the suggestion of the bc1 midbass driver being replaced by a vifa 8 paper cone driver, but i would never do this. Fullrange and satellite speakers are available in a number of popular configurations.
Richard allan, known is the high quality and very pleasing speakers drivers english maker. The ls36 are my favourite, but are not completely original as the bass units have been replaced with dalesford bextrene coned units. Spendor s latest technically advanced yet wholly musically satisfying d7. Admittedly, the classic series products look the pipe and slippers part all nostalgic finishes and appearance but even here, beneath the skin these venerable designs have benefitted. Soundwise, all drivers are functional and the speaker sounds great. The bass is tighter than the standard bc1 not a bad thing at all. Sometime later a pair came up for sale with one nonworking bass mid. Spendor may be one of the oldest and most respected names in the uk audio industry, but since its acquisition by philip swift once of audiolab its products have been anything but oldfashioned.
I also have spendor bc1 and rogers ls36, both have a slightly better mid than the dm2dm2a, but they have better bass. They were faithful right down to the grills, badges. Yet for the past decade the brand has been working hard to reinvent. Good as the bc1 s are, the ls36s are slightly better, slightly more extended and firmer bass, and the units seem to integrate better. Hifi replacement piezo tweeter horn output 150w pa speaker systems 90x90x50. Speaker parts tweeters, midranges and bass drivers, woofers, spikes, plinths and grilles all of the stuff you need to keep your speakers on the road.
Re the foam, replace the draft excluder with open cell grill foam. The spendor bass mid range unit uses a plastiflex coated bextrene cone and the most serious failure is the voice coil being. The ls36 uses the celestion hf2000 as a supertweeter instead of the coles 4001g, not much difference, except the celestion is slightly more robust in this situation. The midbass is a small 8 driver fitted with a bextrene cone and an inverted rubber surround, in fact quite similar to the kef b200, sp1039. Spendor makes their own midrange and bass drivers inhouse, but producing tweeters is an entirely different process. It also used an additional 12 driver for bass reinforcement. I think the rogers studio 1 gives the spendor bc1 a decent run for the money, with tighter bass and more power handling to boot. Cosmetically in fair to good shape, with a very slight water ring on top not that noticeable in normal lighting. However the bass drivers themselves were sent back to spendor for service and derek hughes, son of the bc1 designer and founder spencer hughes, worked on them. Acoustic research centre speaker grill price per item. Darrens bc1 s responded to the rewiring more than my own sp1s.
Not even a polypropylene driver may come near this driver. I really was excited to obtain a mint pair of spendor bc1 monitors but also happy to move on and sell them. There is a blog about someone replacing this driver with a visaton tiw 200 xs 8 inch 8 ohm high end woofer which might give some indication as to the specs. A product of bbc engineer spencer hughes cofounder with dorothy hughes, hence the spendor name and codesigner dudley harwood, the bc1 speakers had a threeway design.