Spendor S5e Speakers

These are great speakers with a huge sound stage - excellent condition, I am the original owner - one small blemish behind the grills, other than that no chips or scratches on the wood - drivers are all in perfect condition. Also the wood laminate is darker behind the grills

Used in a smoke free environment.

Spikes included- No original box

Spendor's
own drivers are used in the S5e.   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.

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), 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 has 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. 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.

Listed for local pickup, but will work with anyone wanting to ship in the lower 48.

Contact [email protected]