Figured I’d make a thread for these, really enjoy the spatial speakers I’ve heard, specifically the x5 which I now own, and the m3 sapphire. Open baffle speakers really are pretty interesting experience, how they are spatially is very unique and harder to describe, it will tend to meld it’s stage more to the music being played, the source gear, and the room, moreso than other speakers in their price bracket. It really just does a great job at blending into the room and exciting the whole environment, but still having sharpness in placement and overall stage definition so it’s not really that hazy or anything for how it stages. Dynamically it’s very lively, both in macro and micro, even at low volumes which is a big plus imo, so both pretty engaging and accurate in that regard. Also surprising bass extension and impact on the x5 specifically, that powered sub pulls it’s weight and it really is impressive coming from an open baffle. When it comes to resolution and low level retrieval, they do very very well here for the money, assuming good source they really do resolve things impressively along with presenting it fairly organically. The weight these have is also more than I’d expect, reasonably tonally dense without being sluggish or hampered by it. Speed and separation are solid, timbre is solid, coherency is solid, tonally nothing is off and they lean more toward the neutral side of things with good extension on both ends and are also more forward leaning overall.
There is a few gripes with these speakers though, and I think the biggest potential problem with them is potential lack of emotion. These speakers can sound technically impressive but lack emotion and engagement if paired or placed correctly, so you want to make sure you pair them with something that has that energy and some slight romance to it. Personally I think cleaner leaning tube gear really scratches that itch well, and things like LTA amps like the z40 or z10 are excellent synergistic matches (combined with a lampi dac really is something lol), and there’s other good matches as well with modwright kwh 225i int, quicksilver mid monos + line stage, ava ultravalve + fet valve cf rb, and an audio research setup that I don’t recall what was in it lol. If you can’t tell I do really lean more tube with this speaker lol (although it’s not bad with some of the ss options)
Bass while pretty extended, reasonably tight, and impactful, it somewhat isn’t that impressive when it comes to texture or layering and feels a bit more one note, but not enough to distract from the rest of the experience imo.
Placement wise they are both picky and not picky. They care less about the actual room than I expected, but they love to be in the almost middle of whatever room which can be inconvenient. Also they had a long break in lol
Overall when paired with the right amp they really are a blast imo. I know this is also the spatial audio thread, but I’d also give a nod to pureaudioproject as a good alternative to spatials depending on what you are after
