Loudspeakers

The Classic Series has its roots in the very beginning of the Spendor brand when former BBC engineer Spencer Hughes turned his work with Bextrene as a driver material into a range of loudspeakers. As well as developing the BC1 for use as a BBC monitor, the company was one of the earliest to produce the LS3/5A under license, its production supplanting the company's own SA1 monitor speaker. After Hughes' death in 1983, his son Derek continued to develop the company's speakers to reflect improvements in driver material and cabinet design.

The current Classic Series is not a slavish copy of those originals, however. Philip Swift, who has co-owned Spendor since 2000, has gradually updated the range over recent years, making changes to the longstanding 3/5 speaker to such a degree that last year it was renamed the Classic 4/5. With all the designs in the lineup though, the fundamental values of benign impedance, respectable sensitivity and a cabinet that releases stored energy in a slow and controlled manner are viewed as crucial to the overall performance of the loudspeaker. As Swift notes, the past shapes Spendor but it doesn't define it.