Spendor s100

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Gooday all.
I need some advice on a pair of speakers that I intend to buy. They are Spendor S100's. I have read good stuff on the net, so I suppose they must be good. They will supposedly sound completely different from the AR 66Bx sealed monitors that I currently use. They first came out about in 1990. Does somebody perhaps have a diagram of the crossover, maybe there are electrolytic caps that needs to be replaced. Any info will be appreciated.:)
 
I bought Spendor SP100s new in 2001 and used them as my main speakers until a few months ago, nearly 17 years. The SP100 was an updated version of the S100 but supposedly there were only very minor differences, so hopefully my comments will have some value. My comments and suggestions:

1. If your Spendors are unmodified and have the original drivers, they are excellent speakers that can easily hold their own in today's market. They deserve to be used with the very best sounding components.

2. For best sound, you must use good stands. I tried Sound Anchor and Skylan stands and the Sound Anchors were the best in my opinion. I also tried several homemade stands made from wood and the SA steel stands always came out in top. The spikes on the bottom are a little inconvenient but they are important for best sound.

3. Spendor recommends bi-wiring or tri-wiring. I tried both but preferred the sound with a single high quality speaker cable attached to the midrange binding posts with quality jumper cables to the other binding posts.

4. Spendor recommends amps with 100 watts or more. I found they worked really well with medium power tube amps in the 25 to 50 watt range. Of the dozen or so amps I tried, the one I liked least was the most powerful, a Classe CA300.

5. Assuming your S100 has the original crossover components, I strongly recommend that you leave it alone. Spendor's crossover is very well matched to the drivers and cabinet. You will very likely mess up the tonal balance if you replace any of the crossover caps or other components.
 
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