Spica TC-50 Speaker Set Up Help

In general, put them on 24 inch free standing stands and pull them out from the back wall a few feet. The exact amount of space between the speaker and the wall behind the speaker will be determined empiracally. Try moving them at 6inch and then at 3 in intervals to get the best balance and image.

Play around with toeing them in towards the listener. Probably not too much. Let your ears be your guide.

Good luck. I have not heard these speakers in some time but remember them as very musical.

Barry

I've had a pair of TC50's for about 8 years now. I used them as my primary 2 channel speakers for a couple of years in between my Acoustats and Apogee Stages. I'd agree pretty much with your take on them. If you don't know already, John Bau, the slightly eccentric designer, intentionally rolled off the top and bottom ends of the TC50 to get a basically flat response curve from 60Hz to 17kHz. The result is a fantastic midrange with soft highs and a steeply rolled off bass response.

The steep rolloff on the bottom end makes for easy and excellent matching with a good subwoofer like an REL Strata or Vandersteen.

A company named Sound Anchor made a super heavy duty speaker stand in the early 1990's designed especially for the TC50's that used metal ball bearing couplings and a heavy duty bolt to firmly afix the speaker onto the stand.

Using this stand extended the bass about another octave down and made the TC50 into a truly wonderful main speaker rig.

Of course, 50Hz is still only 50Hz and you won't get the visceral bass slam you'd normally get with a fuller range speaker, but for holographic imaging and spatial presence, the Spicas are an incredible deal for the price.

I ran my TC50s with an Audio Research tube amp and they seemed to prefer tubes to solid state. When I switched amps to my current McCormack DNA1, the imaging and depth collapsed to a much greater degree than I expected.

Finally, be very careful with the drivers on the TC50. They are extremely fragile and easy to blow with a distorting amp or a short. Also, bear in mind that they are low impedance, 4 ohm speakers and need plenty of current to drive them properly. In this regard, they are VERY different speakers from the Proacs. You really need a high current amp to drive the TC50s properly.

I have a users manual that I could scan and post if you'd like. It gives extremely detailed instructions on setup and other topics.

BTW, I'm currently using my Spicas as the two front speakers in my 5.1 computer HT setup and they are amazing for DVDs and MP3s as you can imagine!

Madisound usually carries replacement drivers for the TC50s if you ever fry one of them. I think the exact original driver has long since been sold out, but there are comparable drivers that should fit the original mounting holes.

You can also mod the crossover on the TC50s pretty easily by replacing the cheapo caps, inductors and resistors in the network.

FINALLY, in case you haven't done so already, you may want to check and see if 1) both speakers are in phase and 2) all the individual drivers are in phase.

As I mentioned above, Spicas had a history of stressing out weaker amps and blowing out drivers. Many people would replace the drivers themselves and improperly wire the drivers (tweeters and/or woofers) out of phase. The Spicas should have a full midrange, if nothing else and having midrange "suck out" is often an indication of a phase problem.

Boy,
how efficient are the TC50s? I got a pair of SC30s that I need to refoam which I believe were the bottom of the Spica line.
If you could scan that TC50 manual, it would be appreciated!
thanks
md

Hi Guys,

Here's the directory with the TC50 user's manual files. I didn't have time to OCR them so they're up as .gifs for the moment. I'll prob. redo them as .pdf's next week.

Spica TC50 Manual

Hope you enjoy the Spicas!

I had a pair in the 80s, great speakers for the price!

Has there been any newer version of Spica since TC-50?

There was the Angelus in the late 80's (this was named the Gumby speaker because it looked like Gumby) and the TC-60 in the early 90's. Both were great speakers and had magical imaging.

John Bau sold Spica to Parasound and Parasound did away with the line after awhile. John Bau is now out of audio designing. A magazine (not sure if print or on-line) had an interview with him a couple of years ago.

Great speakers, that is the TC-50, 60 and Angelus.

Millerdog--

The Spica TC50s are not very efficient speakers, especially when compared to other bookshelf/minimonitor speakers. They present a pretty difficult 4 ohm load for most receivers and in my experience with them, need a dedicated amp capable of putting out at least 50+ watts into 4 ohms to sound their best.

So, are these speakers still in production?

Which one is the best in your opinion?

These speakers are long gone. The TC-50 were the originals, then the Angelus, then the TC-60 which were an update on the 50's.

Any of them are worthwhile. Hard to say which is best, they all did things well.