Speakers more lively than my Spendor S6Es

Several years ago I matched 72/180/s6e.

they were very enjoyable, very much liked ear yoshino/cd5i too at the dealer's.

Understand they may not suit you, Naim's, kudos or perhaps Proac might be more to your liking.

But if you are after fast ,dinamic speakers , as I am ,you should definitely demo ATC(they are a safe choice with SN2 onwards)

How about some SBLs? And because they are only about £800, you could afford to swap the 102 for an 82. 

Ooh now you're talking :-)

Trouble is SBL's are ugly - when I was on here years ago you used to talk about WAF factor!?..

If you don't like the look of SBLs that's fair enough, but I agree with HH, a preamp upgrade is a good call. This may also depend on where you want to take your system in the long term, as a better pre could pave the way for a better power amp, which might improve things even if you were to keep the S6e's. 

The Spendor A6 is a much better (quicker, more dynamic and accurate) loudspeaker than the S6e in my experience.

G

I used the S6e with a 300...a wee bit boring. The A6 (not very expensive S/H) really was a revelation.

G

Blobdang posted:

Well its been ages since I was here, anyway I'm looking to replace my Spendors.

Originally got my Spendors for a 'bigger' room-filling sound than my previous Rega ELAs (great little speaker!!).

However I now find them too polite and bland - guess I want best of both worlds :-)

Don't mind buying new or secondhand, any ideas?

Geoff

LP12/Lingo/Ittok LVIII/Adikt, itunes/Spotify/Macbook/Rega DAC-R, NAC102/HiCap/NAPSC, NAP180, Headline/Flatcap, all on Cosmic Ash Rack. NACA5, Spendor S6E speakers. ...

I am not sure how polite or bland the Spendor S6E is, though from the several responses you have got here, you have two choices. First is to upgrade the speakers as intended, or upgrade the amps (which wasn't in the original plan but it happens quite frequently over here) in an attempt to make the S6E work. 

I am not familiar with the Spendor so I cannot really advise, though you need to tread this carefully. All I want to add is you will likely get closer to your goal with either option, but if you take the amp upgrade path it will pave way for better things to come especially with the higher level amps, all at a higher cost. You may end up doing both speaker and amp upgrade together too. My advice is to be sure what exactly you want to do or you may end up getting no where, especially since you are still uncertain on the loudspeaker which is the single most important component in the system, in my opinion.

Good luck.

ryder. posted:

you have two choices. First is to upgrade the speakers as intended, or upgrade the amps (which wasn't in the original plan but it happens quite frequently over here) in an attempt to make the S6E work. 

I tend to agree with ryder. I'd look at higher sensitivity speakers better matched to your 180 or a more powerful amp. Either way, a better grip on the speakers ought to provide more positive results. Also possible your 180 is deserving of a service recapping?

Thanks guys, so consensus is..I have choice of either 1). keeping Spendors and upgrading 102 and/or 180 (probably 102 first?). 

Or 2). changing speaker.

To reiterate I'm looking for more lively dynamic sound.

btw I'm listening principally iTunes and Spotify these days rather than my beloved vinyl and my room is 22' by 15', wooden cherry floor.

budget dictates I'll prob go secondhand route - budget £500-£1k

Geoff

I thought at first that maybe vinyl was your main source, but if it's digital, perhaps a source upgrade should be your first priority. Ditching iTunes in favour of Audirvana on an optimised Mac might be a good option, plus maybe a DAC upgrade.....or start again with a streamer?

Spotify and iTunes are always going to sound pretty ropey. Have you looked at Qobuz and Tidal, which are (allegedly) cd quality. If you want a more lively sound, something like SBLs or Allaes are worth a go. They would be OK with the 102/180, and even better with 82/250. 

Have you considered the Focal Aria range? Easy to drive, so your 180 should be fine, and a lively presentation.

I had the 6e (anyone else advising?) through a few box changes. They remained uninvolving and the choke, no matter what was upstream.

G

Blobdang posted:

To reiterate I'm looking for more lively dynamic sound.

btw I'm listening principally iTunes and Spotify these days rather than my beloved vinyl f

Where are you getting your digital music / files from?  iTunes store?  Spotify is not lossless, right?

If you're listening to "lossy" files (iTunes store downloads, Spotify), I feel that that HAS to be the first thing to go.  Lossy files give me the antithesis of "lively dynamic sound."  Whether or not you believe whole-heartedly in the "source first" philosophy, my view is that using lossy files is holding back your digital music replay using hardware that you already own.

(I have no experience at all with Spendor speakers so have nothing to offer about those.  So if you don't want to take my suggestion and move to lossless digital, I'd do all the auditioning with the LP-12 and vinyl you know and love.)

I would say ANYTHING is more lively than the Spendor S6e. The only speakers which made me nod off in an otherwise all Naim system.

Sister xx

allaes if you don't like the asthetics of SBLs, a trifle coloured maybe and not up with SBLs but they boogie.