Spender classic 1/2 vs SP1

Umm... what online reviews? I could only find this: http://famous-av.com/?p=1350 and also there's a discussion on another Australian forum, I don't know if it's appropriate to post the link but you can easily find it, with some interesting comments by the Australian dealer regarding many of the new Spendors. Anyway, I could not find anything else, much less a mixed / negative opinion.

Interested in these Spendors (and other Spendors that are not very very far away price-wise) as well...

So have you heard the Spendor New classic SP 1/2
BTW the link you provided is in Chinese?

The 1/2 is a great speaker. Not the most dynamic, but "the girl you marry" as they say.

I have not heard the new Classic 1/2, but I have been a long time Spendor owner. Started with the 3/1 back in 1996. Moved on to the 7/1, and then settled on the 1/2e. I eventually sold the 1/2e in 2008 to make room for a pair of AudioKinesis Jazz Modules, which are probably the best box speaker I have owned, but I did miss the 1/2e and recently re-purchased a pair, after having seriously considered the Stirling Broadcast LS3/6 (designed by Derek Hughes). I don't know what happened with Spendor but I never found a current model speaker of theirs that sounded as good to me as some of their older models. Something amiss in the midrange, which is what drew me to Spendor in the first place, much as the Quad ESL57 did, which I also own.

I’ve only heard the SP2/3R2 and it was instant love! As for the Chinese review, I used the Google translator...

@ roxy54: Are you talking about the old 1/2 with 2 tweeters or the new 3 way one?

I owned a set of SP1/2E speakers for a number of years. My understanding is with the newer R version, Spendor has yielded to the temptation to tweak their sound to a more modern "audiophile" sound and in the process lost some of the magic. 

I believe Robert E. Greene has a good review on this floating somewhere around on the Internet. 

In looking at the specs on the Classic 1/2 I do see that it is designed as a traditional 3-way vs. the 1/2e which is a 2.5 way essentially. Robert E. Greene does have a lot of great information on some of the earlier Spendor designs including the 1/2. One of the things he mentions is the main driver went from about 40 Hz to 3000 Hz (which I believe had it's origins in the Spencer Hughes designed BC-1), carrying most of the key frequencies with it which in his opinion gave it great coherence and transparency. From 3000 Hz to 13,000 Hz Spendor the signal was carried by a 1.5" tweeter, and above 13,000 Hz a 3/4" tweeter.
Here is a link to the Robert E. Greene article:

http://www.regonaudio.com/SpendorSP12Loudspeakers.html