A fresh pair or Spendor Classic 3/1 and matching stands, admittedly very expensive, but more on this below.
I did own a pair of Spendor Classic 4/5 in this 4.5m x 4.5m room. Overall they worked really well, and gave surprising presence and bass response (at times).
In the end, and after lots of agonising over it, I sold them and decided to upgrade to the Spendor Classic 3/1.
https://www.hifiwigwam.com/forum/threads/spendor-classic-3-1-demo-impressions.98821/
When I first demoed them, I found them a bit much for the room and found the smaller speakers were a bit more involving in some ways. However, after keeping the 4/5’s for a few more months longer, I continued to feel dissatisfied with the level of scale and bass on offer (tried a sub, didn’t get on with it).
So I then re-demoed the 3/1’s at length and gave them more time, but paid particular attention to playing with positioning, and tried them in other rooms in the house, and ended up preferring them, as an all-rounder, with more convincing scale and depth, better tone and texture of bass compared to the 4/5s with a sub, yet retaining (most) of the smaller speakers' other virtues. I think a lot of the initial feeling of ‘these may be too much for the room’ was as a result of not giving them a fair chance, and therefore not getting acclimatised to them (having been so used to the limited bass response of a ls3/5a type speaker, which was the norm of what my brain was used to).
And...I'd not tried them on proper, open stands. They've made such a difference! Tighter, more open sound. When in use, I tend to pull them right out into the room, which enhances that further.
I'm delighted with them and just can't stop listening to them.
Pictures below. Ahem, media unit is incoming. The amp is a little out of place on the floor!
I did own a pair of Spendor Classic 4/5 in this 4.5m x 4.5m room. Overall they worked really well, and gave surprising presence and bass response (at times).
In the end, and after lots of agonising over it, I sold them and decided to upgrade to the Spendor Classic 3/1.
https://www.hifiwigwam.com/forum/threads/spendor-classic-3-1-demo-impressions.98821/
When I first demoed them, I found them a bit much for the room and found the smaller speakers were a bit more involving in some ways. However, after keeping the 4/5’s for a few more months longer, I continued to feel dissatisfied with the level of scale and bass on offer (tried a sub, didn’t get on with it).
So I then re-demoed the 3/1’s at length and gave them more time, but paid particular attention to playing with positioning, and tried them in other rooms in the house, and ended up preferring them, as an all-rounder, with more convincing scale and depth, better tone and texture of bass compared to the 4/5s with a sub, yet retaining (most) of the smaller speakers' other virtues. I think a lot of the initial feeling of ‘these may be too much for the room’ was as a result of not giving them a fair chance, and therefore not getting acclimatised to them (having been so used to the limited bass response of a ls3/5a type speaker, which was the norm of what my brain was used to).
And...I'd not tried them on proper, open stands. They've made such a difference! Tighter, more open sound. When in use, I tend to pull them right out into the room, which enhances that further.
I'm delighted with them and just can't stop listening to them.
Pictures below. Ahem, media unit is incoming. The amp is a little out of place on the floor!