New Spendor S9's seamless, very nice -

Heard the Spendor 9's. Been into audio 30 years. My reaction is the same as yours. The tone is very good for a 4k speaker. Remind me of the ProAc 2.5's. Open and smooth.

How are you driving the s9? (amp, preamp, source, cables)

I have the S9's and really can't summarize them any better than Spendor does on their website. They won me over after several months of auditioning similarly priced speakers from Magnepan, Thiel, Martin Logan, JMLabs, and Monitor Audio. It was the only audition where I truly craved listening to them again.

I would note that they are relatively inefficient (87db) and prefer solid state high current amps despite their easy impedence load (two dealers I spoke to have also concurred with this). They sounded unbelievable with the Plinius 150watt Class A amp. Similarly, I'm bi-amping them with McCormack DNA.5 Rev A for the highs and regular DNA.5 for lows.

Spendors build the sound from the back forward, versus the more common upfront/in-your-face sound. It results in a more balanced, natural, and musical presentation. On top of that, their legendary midrange has made many people conclude that Spendors are speakers for music lovers. I would concur.

The key that sold me on the S9 is that it kept all the virtues of Spendor's classic models, but added a pizazz that was missing - both sonically and musically. I'd be happy to give more specific info, but nothing beats listening to them first-hand. It made the choice very easy for me.