Your description is as far from the reality of the D9s in my system as possible. They are extremely musical with beautiful clarity and detail. Setup and proper positioning are paramount to their performance as is true for any speaker with their capability. I can imagine the best placement in a hotel room at a show could be sub-optimal as I have experienced at many shows with other highly reviewed speakers and systems. |
That's funny, you may have been in the same room with Art Dudley :) Checkout: https://www.stereophile.com/content/arts-saturday-morning-show He seemed to like the sound. The system overall had an impressive combination of clarity and beauty, openness and substance: I could have stayed there all day. Again, we all hear differently, and like what we like... |
In the D7 vs. Classic 100 comparison (remember: made by the same company), it wasn't just the D7's tweeter that I didn't like, it was the whole upper/mid range that sounded undernourished and constrained and unnatural by comparison to the '100, plus overall there was considerably less impact compared to the wave launch offered by the '100. It's a real pity this model isn't more widely auditionable in the U.S. But people (spouses) want narrow speakers for the décor, and Spendor now actually vaunts this narrowness in its print ads. A sad thing. |
I have sympathy for those who own the D series telling us they are not off putting or bright. After all: I own Thiel speakers ;-) But I can guarantee that no one listening to the Thiel 3.7 or 2.7s in my system would be putt off by "brightness." They've converted more than one Thiel skeptic. So I can see the Spendor D series being tamed, or working in some systems. Still, in both encounters with the D7 they had that same hard, steely, off-putting character in the treble, and when I heard the A series they also had a similar off-putting character in the highs. But, horses for courses... |
