Veroman,
To the contrary, they are very easy to drive. The 5 wpc tube amp had plenty of headroom. With my CJ amp, the volume pot on my preamp never gets past 9:00 to create a substantial SPL. |
Well, I listen to 90% acoustic jazz and some classical music. And a bit of blues. I found no deficiencies playing The Who "Who's Next". Diana Krall's voice sounds just right to my ears with the M4's. Thinking back to my Cornscala's (modified Cornwalls), the M4's are remarkably quicker in their response, revealing much more inner detail and resolution. I was playing a cut last night and seemingly out of nowhere was a succession of soft strikes on a music triangle and my head snapped around wondering where the sound came from. Their HF extension is wonderful. I would not have expected 4 12" woofers would be so detailed and articulate, but indeed they are, due no doubt to the engineering work Clayton has employed with them. They do need time to break and now at 100 hours on them, they still continue to improve. Cheers. |
My M4 Turbo's. paired with a REL T7, are simply amazing. I have since been using a McCormack DNA .05 Deluxe amp with 140 wpc (and a tube preamp) and it provides control, extension, and detail that my SET amp can't. They are the most satisfying speakers I have ever had and I have had several more expensive speakers than the Spatial Audio's. They are in my room not placement sensitive at all, performing fine just 3' from the rear wall. I think there are inherent benefits to the design of OB speakers and Clayton is a genius in his designs,
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Lolligager,
Thanks for the detailed post, it is very informative. I have long been a lover of the Gallo 3.5's, as well as the Strada's, which are exemplary as well. I nearly bought the 3.5's at an audio show in CA, but decided against them for ascetic reasons. I am unfamiliar with the Hologram 2T's, but of course am familiar with the "house sound" of Clayton's speakers.
I have had many speakers in the past several years, all of which had performance aspects I liked, but kept moving on until I got the M4T's. Price aside, they are the pinnacle of musical joy I have ever had in my 45 years of having good gear. Life is too short not to enjoy these stellar speakers.
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Lolligager,
You and I are on the same page, my friend, and thanks for chiming in. I have a DSPeaker Antimode 2.0 digital signal processor in my system that I have employed to great sonic improvements with previous speakers I have had in my system, but it is superfluous with the T4's. I don't doubt that Clayton will come up with performance enhancements that will make his speakers sound even better.
Another impression. These speakers are easily the least placement-sensitive speakers I have ever had in my room. I have a slight asymmetrical setup in my room and have fiddled for days locating earlier speakers, but I haven't found the need to do that at all with the 4T's. They sound great about 2.5' from the rear wall, but do benefit in this position with some Aurelex foam behind them. If I had more distance to the rear wall, I doubt I'd need the sound treatment behind them.
I spent the afternoon yesterday on the sofa listening to the speakers and simply marvel at the openness of their sound, everything sounding so natural and tonally balanced, completely uncontested. I will again provide this caveat: I mate my 4T's with a sub. Frankly, I would be happy with the speakers absent the sub in the system, but they are profoundly more full-ranged and balanced with the addition of the sub. I listen to almost all jazz so I am not a bass nut, but the inclusion of the LF extension brings it all together. This phenomenon is well understood in the audio world and I concur with the notion.
My take is that if your room dimensions permit it, I recommend the Hologram M3T's over the 4T's for the bass extension, which clearly the former will have. If you have a good sub, go with the 4T's and never look back. I have enjoyed virtually every set of speakers I have had in my system over the past 45 years, but these Spatial Audio speakers are really magical and just do everything just splendidly right. To wit, they are the only speakers that I have had in my system that my non-audiophile pals have commented that they look very cool.
If you a reader of this thread who is on the fence about trying these speakers in their system, Spatial Audio provides a period of time to a audition them in your system. I absolutely think there is magic in the inherent design of open-baffle (OB) speakers and can't see myself ever going back to conventional box speakers. I doubt anyone in the audio business will execute the design of an OB speaker better than the brilliant Clayton Shaw. He is not a tinkerer... his speakers are based on years of design, testing, and refinement and he has the educational background to know what he is doing. There a now lots of reviews of the Spatial Audio line that you can Google to see if my impressions are correct.
Cheers, Mark
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I am not sure how to do PM, but here is my email addy if the forum always it: msw2626@comcast.net. Mark
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Oh my, my sage friend Rebbi, I am delighted to hear about your initial impressions of your upgrade to the M3TS speakers. Clayton waved me off of them due to the smallish size of my room (which I judged to a thoughtful suggestion), and as I have posted, I am over-the-top delighted with them. No doubt the M3's will go deeper for a modest increase in cost.
I was unimpressed with the sound of the Holograms for the first several hours, but then they simply bloomed. One must not judge them until they have had a time to break in. Great that yours sounded great from the onset.
For the 100th time, I will say that these speaker eclipse the SQ of any speakers I have had in my lengthly audiophile experience and I have had a lot of them, several costing 4X the price of the Holograms. I personally think that there is an intrinsic design advantage with open baffle speakers, and Clayton is a sheer genius in the OB speakers he produces. I can't imagine that a box speaker could ever give me the realistic sound reproduction that I experience with my Holograms. They are easy to drive, very affordable, and quite attractive in their appearance.
Keep us posted on your comparison between the M4's and your new speakers. Thanks, Mark
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A further thought about that Hologram speakers. I initially drove them with a Dennis Had SET EL84 SET amp and the sound was luminous with my Don Sachs 6SN7-based preamp. Later, I swapped in a McCormack DNA .05 Deluxe solid state amp and was blown away with the improvement. The sound now has much better extension and inner detail to the music. I have long believed that the magical combination is a tube preamp and solid state amp and it is rewarding with the Holograms. Other may see it differently, this is just my take. Please check out the link to Rebbi's blog, it is excellent.
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Erniek,
Your Odyssey front end ought to be great with the M4ts speakers. I agree that the REL T7 is a wonderful match with the speakers to round out that lower octave. Since I swapped out my Mogami 3013 speaker cable for Supra Ply3.4 cable, I haven't felt the need for the sub. Thanks for sharing your impressions. Mark
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I have a 13'X26'X9' room with the speakers on the long wall and Clayton advised me that the M4's would be more suitable than the M3's, which I was prepared to buy. I have the speakers no more than 3' from the rear wall and the are, in my experience, far less locationally-dependent than most conventional speakers I have owned. Off-axis, where I sit at my computer, they sound fantastic. I think 2' from the rear wall might adequate if the space it tight.
I will upgrade my earlier post about driving them with the Had and McCormack amps with my impressions of the Holograms since I acquired a Labs First Watt F5 amp. The McCormack amp provides thunderous power to the speakers, but the F5 reveals inner details, with crystal clarity, that the McCormack amp can't match. It is by far the finest audio component to grace my system in 45 years of having audio gear.
You have an overall expansive room, and Clayton would be the right guy to talk to about whether the M4's or the more robust M3's would be more efficacious in your room. I am augmenting the LF of my M4's with a REL T7, but honestly I often forget to turn it on as the LF is quite adequate with out it.
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Way too small for the M1T as Clayton informed me that my room was too small for the M3T and my room is much larger that yours. |
That is a great amp for the speakers. I used a REL T7 sub with high-level outputs and it worked very well. Honestly, since I got the upgrade to the Triode Master, I haven't felt the need to hook up the sub. |
For a single sub, the conventional wisdom is to locate the sub between the speakers, but honestly, subs are not all that much locationally sensitive so it is no really a big deal where you locate the sub. I upgraded to the Triode Master variants and have not felt the need for a sub in my room.
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rjhd and mktracy,
Here is the latest from an M4TM owner who upgraded from the Turbo S speakers. I haven't held on to a pair of speakers for over a year for many years, but I have had the Spatial Audio speakers now for 2+ years and I fancy them more all the time. The Turbo S speakers have a 4 ohm load which I thought really benefitted from a more potent amp. However, the Triode Master's present a 16 ohm load, much more compatible with a lower-powered tube amps. I love the sound of the TM's with my McCormack DNA .05 with 100 wpc of SS power, but I recently auditioned my system with Don Sachs Kootenay 120 tube amp and was pretty much blown away. The SQ of the speakers is excellent with the McCormack amp, but hugely more three-dimensional with the Don Sachs ~60wpc KT88-based preamp, no question. The tube amp handled the LF with the same authority as did the McCormack, which completely surprised me as this is often my rub with tubes amps... flaccid LF response. The speakers were nearly holographic, reminding me of my Linkwitz Mini's, which are truly holographic.
Mktracy, your front end would be well matched to the M4's, but I would definitely recommend the upgrade to the Triode Masters. It is a no-brainer. Planar speakers have a openness often not matched by box speakers, but the clear advantage of the Spatial Audio speakers is that they sound very good even when listening off-axis. The Maggie's suffer in comparison. The TM's also have a considerably greater LF response at least perceptually. Since I got my TM's, I haven't felt the need to hook up my REL T7 subwoofer.
I hope this post is informative. I posted a longer review of Don Sachs's Kootenay earlier on this forum. I also have Don Sachs 6SN7 tube preamp and admit to being a devotee of his excellent, and affordable, gear.
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Mktracy,
There are lots of blog reviews of the Spatial Audio speakers to inform you owners' impressions of them. Your amp and preamp are, in my view, simply stellar and a fine match for the speakers. If you room can accommodate them, the M3TM are the way to go as they have quite a bit more LF response, but that said, I am satisfied with the low end response of the M4TM.
Dunno if I posted this above... I did elsewhere, but I auditions my speakers for an audiophile with large box speakers last week and he called up Clayton at Spatial Audio and purchased a pair of M3TM for to replace his current speakers,which are twice the cost of the M3TM's. He said he is giving up on box speakers after hearing my speakers. You have glimpse of the magic of OB speakers with your Maggie's, but they suffer, if I may say so, from tepid bass response and a narrow sweet spot in comparison. However, the Spatial Audio's, by design, have an expansive soundstage and are easy to drive with tube amps given their 12 ohm impedance.
Clayton offers a 60-day audition of them so you can draw your own conclusions in your listening room. If you do give them a try, please be aware that they take a good long time to break in. At 100 hours, they settle down and after 250 hours, pretty much the full magic is revealed. Make no judgments until they have run in for a spell. Clayton informs me that he gets very few returns.
I admit to being a homer for Spatial Audio speakers because they are simply the most engaging speakers I have ever had during my 45-year progression in audio. I hope this is helpful.
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Sweet! I have smallish room and Clayton waved me off to the M3's, feeling the M4's would be more room appropriate. If funds allow, consider the better LF response of the M3's, but Clayton will let you know the best match for your room. Cheers, Mark |
