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Home demo. ProAc D48R and Spendor D9

I am in the process of a home demo. of the ProAc D48R and Spendor D9 from different dealers.
The ProAc guy says it is well run in and the Spendor guy says only about 90 hours on them.

First off, love the D48R so far, midrange to die for & the bass, lots of bass, perhaps a tad too much. Not sure yet, vocals , treble from that ribbon is exceptional.
The Spendor in comparison is not bad at all, I think a bit better definition in the bass, not as full as D48R , seems just as deep, but more tuneful to me. The midrange is OK , it seems to lag behind the ProAc only just. The upper midrange/treble to me is a bit of a let down. For example acoustic guitar seems slightly less crisp, less involving compared to the ProAc.

Question for any D9 owners out there, how long did they take to fully run in ? I assume I am not hearing now what their final run in sound will be like. Will the midrange/ treble open up more, like D48R more, or is the ProAc ribbon tweeter that much better ?
seadog77
itzhak1969
515 posts
 
The ATC SCM 40 is not in the same league with the D9 and the D48 this  2 options are much better and you are correct the ATC are power hungry speakers, the other two are more efficient , anyway they are both excellent choices and I am sure you'll enjoy your new D9 speakers for many years.
donquichotte
129 posts
 
Between the Spendor D7 / D9 and Proac D30RS / D48R, which one does piano timbre better?  I'm allergic to hearing a piano reproduction that (given a good quality recording) does not easily, clearly and immediately tells me, even if I'm not paying much attention, that this is a real, mechanical piano, not a "digital" piano. There is a very... percussive, let's say, quality especially to the upper range notes of a piano that makes the listener very much aware that there are some very tight strings that are being hit, and some systems don't reproduce this quality too well. Take, for example, George Winston's album "December", the 12th track called "Peace". How do the Spendors and the Proacs fare in this regard? 
avanti1960
1,474 posts
 
I can state that the Spendor D7 (just below the D9) have the best piano sound I have ever heard in a speaker- better than my previous Harbeths which made piano sound excellent.  The Spendors make piano sound alive and real.  
milpai's avatar
milpai
2,375 posts
 
@donquichotte,You will get biased opinion on this question because between the ProAc and Spendor owners we have purchased the loudspeakers that "we" thought, sounded the most natural to us. I have heard the ProAc D30, Spendor D7 and own the ProAc D48R. For piano, I would highly recommend the D48R. But would also urge you to listen to the Spendor D9 to see what you prefer. Both my kids play the piano and based on that experience I can say that the larger speakers get the sound "closer" to the original. But one thing to remember is - for a piano recording to sound "like a real piano" on a large loudspeaker, you need to provide them with enough room to breath. The smaller D30 and D7 also do piano very well, but the "scale" is different compared to the larger loudspeakers.

itzhak1969
515 posts
 
@avanti1960
It’s a matter of synergy between speakers & system and personal taste too,the best piano sound I heard is with my Proac D30 RS ribbon twitters and with Harbeth 40.2 which I heard at high end show.
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