I had the good fortune to compare my 1801fs with a Spendor s6se speaker on Friday. It made me absolutely delighted I had built the 1801f.
The Spendor range has a superbly truthful midrange, and spot-on imaging. Its bass is of good quality as well. Spendor consistently win awards for the overall sound.
But....
The 1801f goes considerably deeper than the s6se, and sounds faster. The treble on the 1801f is just as detailed but sounds more delicate (transparent) and invisible.
Playing rock tracks or those with a double bass, the 1801f captured the geunuine character absolutely superbly with the power and the harmonics to bring the instrument alive. By comparison the s6se had a bass which lacked the low end power (for the same size bass driver, but smaller cabinet), and added an unwelcome emphasis higher up (to compensate I suppose).
So, for all of those folk in the UK, I have not found a speaker yet at under £1600 that comes close to the 1801f. I think that the 1801f has cost me in the region of around £750 in materials, chosen on quality grounds alone.
Regards,
Foxyb
