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We’re big fans of Spendor’s high-end A7 floorstanders. These small, easy-to-carry towers were introduced in early 2018 and went on to win our award for premium floorstanders that same year. Amazingly, Spendors held that Award for six years in a row until 2024 and only last year released the excellent ProAc D20R.
The new Spendor A7.2 clearly has a great legacy to live up to. On the surface, it looks like Spendor’s engineers played it safe. The 93.4cm long cabin is the same as before, and that’s a good thing. One of the attractive features of the original design was how easy it was to accommodate a typical UK cozy listening room.
Build & draw
As before, the enclosure is well done. Its edges are crisp, and the structure feels firm but well-drained. Spendor’s attention to detail is impressive, from the care taken to ensure the speaker/speaker cabinet interface is as tight as possible, to the high-quality, real wood veneer used in our review sample.
These are expensive speakers, but the build quality reflects that. They are unusually light at 17.7kg each, making them easy to move around, if needed.
Specifications of Spendor A7.2 tech
Kind of Ground floors
Call the units 27mm polyamide soft dome tweeter, 18cm polymer mid/bass
Ported? yes (after)
Bi-wire? No
Impedance 6.75 ohms (min 5.4 ohms)
Sensitivity 85 db
Dimensions (hwd) 93.4 x 18 x 30.5cm
Weight 17.7 kg
It ends x 4 (dark oak, oak, walnut, white satin)
However, Spendor’s engineers are not just twiddling their thumbs, as there are significant changes in this second generation model. The A7.2’s tweeter is a 27mm polyamide soft dome rather than the 22mm surround unit used in the original. There is no longer a protective grille over the tweeter to protect it from fingerprints.
The crossover network has been reworked, too. It now transmits to the company’s well-regarded 18cm EP77 polymer mid/bass unit at 2kHz rather than the previously unusually high 3.7kHz.
Unexpectedly, Spendor has also moved from the previous generation’s rear-firing hole to a more traditional tube design that sits straight in the middle of the rear panel rather than its base. The single-wire speaker terminals also move up the back panel, which we feel looks a lot neater than the original flat-bottomed position.
A combination of drive unit, crossover and porting changes resulted in the A7.2 being less sensitive than its predecessor (85dB/W/m vs 88dB/W/m) and a touch more demanding driving with an accurately measured impedance of 6.75ohms (minimum 5.4 ohms compared to the original’s 6 ohms)
Compatibility
In our opinion, small changes in impedance don’t make a big difference, but the drop in sensitivity means the A7.2 needs a more powerful muscle amplifier than before when used in large rooms or played at high volume levels.
Any speaker at this level deserves equipment that has the ability to interact with it. We use our reference Naim ND555/555 PS DR in many tests, and we get good results with the Rega Planar 6/Nd7 record player. Comparably priced amplifiers include Naim’s Nait XS3 and Cyrus 40 AMP, the latter of which works very well. We also plug in our Burmester 088/911 MkIII pre/power to hear how these speakers cope when fed a high-level signal.
Our comparison speakers are the Epos ES-14N, similarly priced large-stands (£3750 / $4500 / AU$7495), the PMC Prodigy 5 floorstanding (cheaper at £1995 / $2999 / AU$3399) and our top-of-the-line ATSCM50 speakers.
We don’t have a pair of original A7s to confirm this, but off the top of our heads we can tell that these new speakers have become a bit of an argument in terms of placement relative to the rear wall. We can’t remember the original sounding too loud when placed near the edge of the room.
Our listening room is 3 x 7 x 5m (hwd) in size, and we end up with an A7.2 about 80cm in the room, placed very far from the sides. We look for them to fall slightly behind our heads when we sit in our main listening position. This gives us a strong and expansive stereo image with precise focus and a convincing sense of depth.
The sound
Listen to us The Imperial March (from star Wars) by John Williams and you’ll find a lot to like in the Spendor A7.2. They feel fast and smart, uncovering a lot of information and organizing that information in an organized and organized way. We can track low-level instrument strings without a problem, even when the music gets dense.
The sound is well-analysed, with no mufflers, which strongly suggests that the work Spendor has done on the asymmetric bracing and damping in the cabinet is working well. There’s a good sense of scale here and a decent amount of bass authority for the size of the speaker. The tonal balance feels a little fuller than before, though it should still be described as generally neutral rather than warm or full-bodied.
Instrument textures are well-rendered, and there’s little to complain about when it comes to the A7.2’s superior definition or refinement. These are very clear and resolving speakers, as expected at this price, so if there is something wrong with the recording or the electronics of your system, they will not hesitate to point it out.
Those familiar with this piece by John Williams will know that it is surprising and challenging when it comes to dynamics. The A7.2 copes very well, although we find ourselves wanting the speakers to let go a little more and deliver the sound with more enthusiasm.
We feel the same way when we play Michael Jackson’s Jam. These Spendors have a limited delivery that we can appreciate, but they are a little shy when it comes to expressing the intensity and drive in this musical series.
We’re not entirely convinced by the updated carrier system here, either. The low notes may have more weight and power than before, but we’d like them to be faster, more balanced and clearer. We had no such bass complaints about the original.
The decision
As we work through our music library, taking in the music of Bach, Prince and Jill Scott, we find that we are less impressed with these new Spendor artists than we expected. They tick most of the boxes – detail resolution, clarity, stereo imaging and seamless integration between drivers – but they don’t draw us into the music the way the best speakers at this price should.
The A7.2 is a capable performer, but it no longer screams class leader.
Update published: 7th April 2026
POINTS
- The sound 4
- Build it 5
- Compatibility 4
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