Spendor 1/2
Little is documented about the Spendor 1/2 loudspeaker. The record is thin. Even the model's exact production years and original price have not been preserved in any reliable source.
The 1/2 was a monitor loudspeaker from Spendor Audio Systems Ltd, of Kings Mill, South Nutfield, Redhill, Surrey. A 1974 survey in Studio Sound (January 1974, p.53) listed it at 800 × 394 × 394 mm and 34 kg. That is a big, heavy box. The same listing gave a sensitivity of 2.5 dB ref dyne/cm² for 1V applied and a maximum SPL of 105 dB.
Beyond those numbers, the 1/2 shows up in the period press mainly as a reference point. An Audio review of the Polk Model 10 (October 1978, p.155) noted that Polk themselves used the Spendor as a reference. The reviewer had compared many speakers against the Spendor and found most of them "extremely colored" next to it. Only a well-tuned Fulton J and the Rogers LS3/5A made the Spendor sound colored at all. The same text, reprinted in HiFI-Stereo (1978, p.23), described the Spendor as making the Model 10 sound "a trifle nasal."
That is the extent of the verified record. No driver complement, crossover topology, frequency response, or enclosure type has survived in quotable documentation. No production timeline, no successor, no collector-market data. The 1/2 remains a known quantity to those who heard it — a large, heavy monitor that set a reference standard for neutrality in the mid-1970s — but the technical details that would complete its story have yet to surface.
Known Specifications
- Dimensions: 800 × 394 × 394 mm
- Weight: 34 kg
- Sensitivity: 2.5 dB ref dyne/cm² for 1V applied
- Maximum SPL: 105 dB
eBay Listings
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.
Related Models
- Spendor 2/3
- Spendor 3/5
- Spendor 4/5
- Spendor A1.2
- Spendor A1
- Braun AUDIO-1 (1965)
- Braun AUDIO-250 (1965)
- Magnavox Component Systems (1972)
- Acoustic Research AR (1967-1976)
- Acoustic Research 11