SPICA revival and modification

I loved the Spica's. But you should know that the brilliance of Spica was it's ability to tame the beamy Audax tweeter. Its solution was basicaly to tilt the tweeter up so you were listenig off axis.

I suugest that you can use more modern tweeters.

I used to own Spica Angelus. Fabulous imaging, and very non-fatiguing, but unable to play rock music due to very thin bass and limited dynamics.

I switched them for Green Mountain Audio Europas, and I haven't missed them. The Europas do everything the Spicas did, but with improved high frequency, greater transparency, and much better dynamics.

The Angelus were a great speaker, but limited by the driver technology of the time. You can do better for not much more money with modern speakers.

IMHO the Spicas were great in their day, but, at their current infalted used prices, much better values exist. For very little more money one can often find either Thiel CS 2's or a Vandersteen 2C's. All in all, much better values to me, with active customer support to boot.

Here's a Spica story for ya' - Around 1987 or '88, after having heard new TC-50's in a showroom, I bought a used pair at Stereo Exchange (in NYC). When I got them set up, I was pleased but they didn't seem as incredibly magical as the new pair had at the dealer (on W. 8th St). I figured it must be my "cheap" receiver being the problem - so back to Stereo Exchange for a decent integrated amp (Phase Linear).

When I got that fugly thing hooked up, I was surprised to find no difference in sound quality from the receiver - so I returned the integrated.

I kept fidgeting with the Spicas to try to get them "right", but something kept bugging me that I couldn't put my finger on. The drivers all sounded fine, etc. - I thought I was going crazy, maybe just being neurotic, and after about 3 weeks of this, I tracked down Spica's phone number in New Mexico and called for some advice.

Whoever picked up the phone had me check the above mentioned "serial number" on the back of one speaker and they went off to check something re: those particular units I guess. When they came back, they hadn't found anything unusual to report, but said "Out of curiosity, what's the code on the back of the other speaker?"

I came back to the phone with the other code - and they immediately informed me that this was NOT a factory matched pair! So hmmmm, what did that mean? I called Stereo Exchange - and guess what - they had bought TWO pairs of TC-50's at an auction and hadn't realized they shouldn't mix and match - and they didn't have a record of who bought the other pair (supposedly)!

Called Spica back, and they told me the only way to get them right was to ship the pair back to New Mexico - which I did.

About a month later, my Spica's reappeared via UPS - Spica had replaced ALL FOUR drivers and crossovers, and they sounded great. So the "component matching" that SPica performed really did account for a huge amount of their magic - which certainly makes sense re: imaging.

The only thing that was missing when I opned the box was the hefty bill I had been expecting, so I called Spica again to ask how much I owed them and their reply was - ZERO - they didn't even charge me for the return shipping !!!

How about that for customer service on a pair of $500 speakers that I didn't even buy new?

The only thing that was missing when I opned the box was the hefty bill I had been expecting, so I called Spica again to ask how much I owed them and their reply was - ZERO - they didn't even charge me for the return shipping !!!

How about that for customer service on a pair of $500 speakers that I didn't even buy new?

...no wonder they went out of business.

I am still kicking myself - I lived in Albuquerque, NM for 8 years and never picked up a pair of Spicas. I retrospect I really regret that one.