Spendor A4

Compact Proportions, Room-Filling Sound

Between the petite A2 and the flagship A7 sat the Spendor A4, the middle tower of the original A-Line. Spendor started from everything the A2 did well, then added low-frequency weight and a larger sense of scale without widening the slender cabinet. Audio Lounge has a few of these first-generation pairs left, still brand new, in Black Oak or Satin White, and magnetic grilles and spike feet that adjust for height come with every pair.

The proportions were drawn for a lived-in room. A narrow front and a modest height let the pair stand beside a sofa or a bookcase without any rearranging, yet the sound fills far more of the room than the footprint suggests: open, articulate and quietly entertaining, carried by the sensitively judged sense of fun that Spendor names as part of the character of the A4.

One 18cm Cone, Every Voice in Focus

Low and middle frequencies in the Spendor A4 are handled by one 18cm cone of EP77, a polymer formulated by Spendor, mounted in a drive unit Spendor makes in-house and shared in size with the flagship A7. A custom surround and suspension hold the cone steady through changes of temperature and volume, so the faintest details remain readable and climaxes stay composed. Singers gain body and outline, and each instrument keeps a recognisable colour of tone.

Higher up, a polyamide dome tweeter with an unusually wide surround combines the airy extension of a small diaphragm with the lower reach normally reserved for a larger one. Spendor profiled the dome for even dispersion, so treble stays smooth and extended across the room, and the person on the far cushion hears much the same balance as the one in the centre.

Voices come through with impressive clarity, pleasing projection and a class-leading level of subtlety.

Bass Weight Without the Bulk

Compared with the A2, the Spendor A4 brings the extra low-frequency weight that lets an orchestra stand on solid ground and gives a bass line genuine stride. The enclosure is reflex loaded, and Spendor tuned the design to remain tuneful and articulate near a wall or inside a compact room, the kind of placement most homes impose.

Spendor’s set-up advice keeps placement simple: move the pair towards the rear wall for more bass, away from that wall for a crisper stereo picture, and toe both cabinets in towards the main seat to tighten the focus. Spendor also recommends running a new pair in before settling on a final position.

A Cabinet That Keeps Still

Heavy damping can make a cabinet store energy and release that energy late, which blurs timing. Spendor takes the opposite route in the A4: asymmetric internal bracing, plus small constrained polymer dampers of very low mass fitted at the points where unwanted energy collects, converting that energy into heat no one can hear. The payoff is speed and openness, with rhythms that arrive on the beat and an enclosure that stays silent while the music plays.

Underneath, four machined steel discs fixed straight into the cabinet structure stop the plinth and floor spikes from rocking or flexing, a common source of lost detail and ambience. The spikes adjust to level each tower on an uneven floor and send stray vibration down into the floor rather than back into the sound.

…the little Spendor A4 simply locks you into the wonderful natural flow of the music, and keeps you there transfixed.

Calibrated Pairs and a Coherent Crossover

Inside, a phase-linear crossover links tweeter and cone using precision-wound inductors of high linearity and audio-grade capacitors, with internal wiring of silver-plated pure copper. Each crossover and drive unit is calibrated and paired against broadcast reference standards, a habit that goes back to the BBC origins of Spendor, and the benefit is a stereo image with real stability: a singer pinned midway between the speakers, players spread across a stage that extends past the outer edges of the pair. Ideas proven in the SA1, A6R and D7 run through the whole A-Line.

Given Spendor’s heritage you’d expect instrumental tonality to be above par, and you’d be right.

A Gentle Load for Most Amplifiers

Certain floorstanders reveal little until a powerful amplifier takes hold. The Spendor A4 is a kinder partner, designed as an easy load that coaxes the best from whatever amplifier drives the pair, so a well-made integrated model is enough to hear what the A4 can do, and the remaining components can be chosen for taste rather than brute force.

First-Generation Pairs in Black Oak and Satin White

Of the four finishes Spendor offered for the first-generation A4, Audio Lounge has new pairs in two. Black Oak, a real wood veneer, lends depth to a darker interior; Satin White sits lightly in a pale, minimal room. A satin black plinth anchors either finish, and grilles that attach magnetically and spike feet that adjust for height are part of the set. Every pair is unused stock of the original design, never a demonstration unit, and the specification table lists the provenance openly as previous generation.

From the Spendor A4 to the A4.2

Spendor followed the A4 in 2025 with the A4.2, which keeps the outer dimensions, weight, finishes and 18cm EP77 cone but reworks much of the interior: Sorbothane damping between drive unit and enclosure, a refined port, restructured bracing, a simplified crossover set lower in frequency, a redesigned spider and a newly developed tweeter with a wide surround. The Spendor A4.2 is the current generation; the Spendor A4 preserves the original voicing that collected awards on release.

Anyone drawn to more scale within the first generation can look to the Spendor A7, which uses a cone of the same size in a taller enclosure, and the complete selection of towers sits in the Audio Lounge range of floorstanding speakers.

About Spendor

Spencer and Dorothy Hughes founded Spendor in the late 1960s and formed the name from the first syllables of the two founders’ names. Spencer had worked as an engineer in the sound department of the BBC, and the BC1, his first loudspeaker, became a reference monitor for broadcasters and recording studios worldwide. Half a century later, Spendor still designs, engineers and builds every model in the UK, assembling each one in South Yorkshire, and remains rare among loudspeaker companies in making drive units as well as cabinets in-house. By Spendor’s own account a new loudspeaker takes a year to design and six days to build, including hours of matching, staining and hand finishing for every pair. Audio Lounge demonstrates Spendor at the Wigmore Street showroom, with each model in stock listed in the complete Spendor range online.