Having listened to the Spendor D7's for many months we can certainly say that they deliver music in a fresh vibrant realism that many speakers cannot match at this price level. No doubt this is mostly due to some important innovations at Spendor.

Spendor's humble beginnings go back to the mid sixties. At the time speaker development work at the BBC had advanced to a stage that was beyond the capabilities of the available paper pulp coned drive units. So it was decided to experiment with various plastics. Here is an excerpt from the journal of the founder of Spendor, Spencer Hughes (1924-1983:

"My part as a laboratory technician in the operation, was to do most of the actual work both on the plastic investigation, and development of the LS5/5. With that experience I decided that it should be possible to make a loudspeaker from scratch in the home environment. With the aid of our electric fire, a compressor working in reverse and an old iron bedstead, the first vacuum former was built. Bins full of malformed cones were produced before any measure of success was achieved and the first 8 inch unit was produced. This turned out as the first commercial 8 inch bextrene driver and still arguably one of the best."

Spendor continue to explore new formulations and the D7 is no exception, the bass mid range cone being made of copolymer with the bass only unit employing Kevlar reinforced skins on a lightweight core.

The new LPZ tweeter is also rather special. Built around a stainless steel front plate that forms an acoustic chamber in front of the diaphragm which in turn equalizes the sound wave and provides a symmetrical pressure environment so the tweeter actually operates in a balanced linear mode. This coupled with the other drivers give an honest portrayal of the music being played with vocals and instrument timber being remarkably neutral.

The photo above shows the Linear Flow port. Designed to work with the dynamic damping and looking somewhat like an aeroplane wing, assures the smooth flow of air both in and out of the cabinet. This is tuned to a low 27Hz which reduces port distortion and gives a practical in room bass extension down to 30Hz.

With a nominal impedance of 8ohms and a sensitivity of 90dB/W they are an easy drive for any amplifier and will also be well suited to valve equipment. We have been listening to them with the new Nytech CP202/CPA402 pre-power combination (more on these in the next blog) and it has been magical.