Spendor 3/5

The Spendor 3/5 is an odd entry in the company's catalogue. It is a compact three-way monitor sold not directly by Spendor but through The Speaker Company Ltd, which also offered it with optional matching stands. Documentation is thin, and almost everything known comes from a single dealer-era source. It's a 3-way, closed-box design with a 200mm woofer, a 75mm midrange and a 22mm tweeter, all in a cabinet measuring just 380 × 280 × 230mm.

The enclosure is the most distinctive part. It isn't a plain rectangular box. The 3/5 uses a non-parallelepiped shape, with the front baffle narrower than the back, specifically to inhibit internal standing waves. Crossover networks were matched to the drive units, and internal wiring was by Van den Hul. The crossover points are documented at 600Hz and 3kHz. The speaker was intended to work either in free space or close to a wall, producing "a well-balanced, uncoloured performance over a wide area at all power levels."

Whoever reviewed it for The Speaker Company was plainly impressed, calling it "one of the most successful small monitor loudspeakers we have ever handled," with a "very neutral" overall balance that proved "very accurate and interesting on BBC material." A contemporary review in Audio (February 1985, p.82) noted that its timbre may suit some tastes in a way no comparably priced speaker can, especially on voice and small musical groups. Frequency response is listed as 65Hz–16kHz ±3dB, impedance 8Ω nominal, and recommended amplifier power a generous 10–150W. Sensitivity is given as 87dB, or 83dB depending on drive level — a slightly odd dual figure that suggests the source may be conflating two measurement conditions.

Beyond that, the record goes quiet. No production years are documented, no original retail price survives, and the only market data point is a used pair marked down to £368. The related 3/5P appears in sources as a separate model, but no specifications for it have surfaced.