Spatial audio speakers

[raje7]

Spatial audio speakers Hello guys and girls has anyone here purchased a pair of the spatial audio open speakers. I would like to hear your impression of any of the models instead of watching add or seeing them on YouTube thanks Rick

 

[darkblue94]

I have not purchased a pair of Spatial Audio speakers however I did spend some quality time with a pair in a hotel room once.It was at "The Show" Newport (Costa Mesa) California 2015. I was favorably impressed. The display pair was their $1500 entry-level speaker and was one of my favorites at the show. There were speakers with a list price of more than 100 times the cost yet most of them lacked the musicality of the Spatial Audio's.

 

[Jim Widgren]

I bought a pair of M3 turbos new about 5 years ago. They did require an extensive break-in period for the bass to go deep, but I judiciously used a subwoofer to add some weight to the bottom octave (and still do on occasion) to compensate. They were set up to fire into the long dimension of my 32' long living room, with the speakers 3'-5' from the front wall with some toe-in and listening spot about 11' back, with the speakers ~ 9' -10' apart. The sound imaging has been simply amazing, able to go way beyond either side, to the rear, and above the speakers. I imagine a hemisphere around each speaker for images to localize and appear - truly 3D reproduction. Recently I moved them to the other end of the living room and set them up to fire across the narrow dimension of the room, using another set of electronics. They are now ~ 7' apart and ~ 7' to the listening spot, oh and they are now only ~2' from the front wall & slightly toed-in. They sound nearly as amazing as we experienced previously, the only negative change seems to be that the image height doesn't rise as high above the speakers as it did before, but some other characteristics may have actually gotten better. In the first arrangement I rarely hit 3 watts, with 10 watt peaks when listening very loud. Now, I routinely am in the milliwatt range with peaks rarely hitting a single watt, so they are very, very efficient indeed. I haven't heard anything better in my many years of listening and owning many different speakers. I am now considering buying a pair of the new Spatial X series to take the place in long dimension of the LR, giving me a Spatial OB system in each end of the room oriented orthagonally. Clayton Shaw really knows what he's doing IMHO and is always accessible for advice. Their build quality is great and I just can't see going back to speakers in boxes ever again.

 

[soundmig]

I've heard several models at RMAF over the years (2015-2019 I think?) and they attracted a lot of attention and always sounded very "realistic". The X series are particularly intriguing (although expensive) as they use the excellent Beyma AMT driver. Clayton configures it such that it radiates in a bipolar fashion - with the front radiation being horn loaded. The version that I head (his first one using the AMT) was crossed (he said) down around 700Hz. That seems pretty low, but it is a very robust driver, so ???? Anyway, my experience with Spatial has been positive, but only at shows, so ????? Never lived with a set.