Hi all,I have demoed some spendor s3e speakers for my cd5i&nait5i,after 3 days of listening to these i am convinced spendor speakers are for me.I have tried loads of different speakers lately and never really liked any of them,i think naim & spendor work excellent together,the brightness of the naim and warm sound of the spendors sound spot on to me.They have a beautiful natural sound with excellent timing,they sound so much better to me than my credos.I returned them today and told my dealer what i thought of them and he said if liked these i would love the spendor s3/5 and is organising a home demo for me,i really can not wait to here them,i am very curios and would love to know how they compare to the s3e?Cheers Daryl.

Hi Daryl,

Naim electronics and Spendor speakers are an excellent combination. many Naim users use Spendor speakers and are very happy with them and often you will find that when Spendor exhibit at a show they use Naim electroics.

Regards

PB

Hi Daryl,Congratulations on or your near choice of Spendors.It took me a while to settle on s5es,at the time I was useing the same cd and amp which was last christmas.I have since gone to cd5x and they are still wonderfull speakers.Just give the s5e a try they are very petite in size but make a wonderfull sound all the best with which model you choose they will all gel well with Naim. Chris C.

Daryl that's great you're focusing in on the right speaker, I had a 92/90 with teh 3/5 as speaker for many years as my beginning system. I can't comment on the s3e, but liked the full sound of the 3/5. I just upgraded to the Harbeth SHL5, bigger and a 3way. You might consider listening to the Harbeth Compact 7 (same size as the 3/5) I think the high and mid range is more detailed and is very sweet.

Good luck on your hunt and decision.

BTW one of the Spendor designers just moved over to the Harbeth company.

glenn

Hi Daryl,

I too feel that Naim and Spendor exhibit a certain synergy that can be very rewarding. I'll be curious to see how you feel that the S3e and the 3/5e compare.

I owned the S5e, switched to the Harbeth Compact 7 ES-2 and then back to the S5e one more time. I felt that the music had a bit more "soul" to it when piped through the Spendors.

All the best,
Bill

Daryl, have you tried Sonus Fabers?

I run my CDX2/Nait5i/HiLine into Spendor 3/5s and thoroughly enjoy them. They easily reproduce the upgrade changes I've made in Naim source components and amplification over the last 5-6 years.

If you get 3/5s, invest in a good pair of stands - very important in getting the best performance.

Scott

quote:

Originally posted by Wolf:
You might consider listening to the Harbeth Compact 7 (same size as the 3/5)
glenn

Glenn,
I don't think so...
Harbeth Hp3 and Monitor 20 are same size of 3\5....C7s are quite bigger

bye
David

I'm using a S3e with CD5i/Nait5i too, and find it a great combination for smallish rooms, I actually prefer it to the Ariva for its fresher, more free sound.

In a larger room, I have S9e's with LP12/CDS3/282/HC/250.2 and it's great too. So I totally agree; the right Spendor with the right Naim electronics can be great.

I think the new Se-series has better and more modern dynamic and rhytmic abilities than the 3/5.

Regards

I am a current user of Spendor and Naim too !

Agree that Spendor's warmth makes it perfect match with naim's foward sound without taking out the timing and dynamic.

my system consisted of Arcam 72T / Nait 5i / Spendor S3 (i think is same as S3/5)

planning to upgrade to cd5i and spendor SP2-3E

The system

I find the midrange and treble of the S3/5 is absolutely glorious (and better than S3/5SE) with superb rendition of timbre. The S3e is slightly bigger and has a brighter balance, better dynamics and more bass output, but not quite the same magic in the midrange. The synergy between Spendors and Naim is indeed excellent.

I think the "S3" is last generation of the "new" range; the S3e (mind the suffix) being its successor. The S3 has more in common with the 3/5 (thinwalled heavy damped cabinet for one) than the S3e, which is thickwalled heavy braced, lightly damped.
Anyway, I think the S3 and the 3/5 sounds very different.

Regards

Thanks for your information.

I guessed they are the same becuase the spec of the drivers and size looks same to me from info i gather on internet.

in fact there are very little about S3 on Internet nearly everything is about either S3/5 or the S3e and of coz the S3/5se

Hi,well they do seem to be quite popular.Another thing i noticed with the s3e was that they made most of my poor recordings sound reasonably good and listenable again.At the dealers they had cds3,500 amps with spendor s9e,and i had to have a listen.WOW,what a fantastic sound ,i have never heard anything like this before.Natural was the first thing i thought after wiping the drool of my chin,aswell as sounding right in every aspect.I would love to think that one day i could have this sort of sound in my room.I can now see what this hobby is all about,and the post i started about( is it worth having a good hifi with all the poor recordings),my answer to this is YES IT IS,with out a doubt.Naim and spendor really do sound amazing,could this be the start of a whole new experience for me,i think so.Daryl.

ps.would love to here more about s3/5 compared to s3e.

http://www.spendoraudio.com/specs3-5.htm

http://www.spendoraudio.com/spec302.htm


I think they aren't quite the same:Sensitivity for 1W @ 1m
84dB and Frequency response
90Hz-20kHz ± 3dB
for 3\5, while 86dB and 60Hz-20kHz ± 3dB for s3e, just for eample....

bye
David

quote:

Originally posted by airdavid:
http://www.spendoraudio.com/specs3-5.htm

http://www.spendoraudio.com/spec302.htm


I think they aren't quite the same:Sensitivity for 1W @ 1m
84dB and Frequency response
90Hz-20kHz ± 3dB
for 3\5, while 86dB and 60Hz-20kHz ± 3dB for s3e, just for eample....

bye
David

David; with respect; I think you're confusing the S3 with the S3e! The latter is an entirely new design technically speaking vs its predecessor S3. There is no doubt that the S3e is very different from the 3/5 indeed!
The S3 (without the "e" suffix) is technically a bit closer to the 3/5 than the S3e, but still a different 'speaker.

Regards

Opss, sorry Vidar !!!
Anyway, I can't find S3 here
http://www.spendoraudio.com/history.htm

bye,
David

quote:

Originally posted by airdavid:
Opss, sorry Vidar !!!
Anyway, I can't find S3 here
http://www.spendoraudio.com/history.htm

bye,
David

David; that is because the "S"-series is quite new, and as far as I know was launched after Spendor was aquired by mr Philip Swift (ex Audiolab boss) in 2001.

Regards

Spendor and Naim are made for each other, just look at how well the logo's shape matches