Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?

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James Edward

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Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #120 on: 19 Jun 2018, 08:53 pm »
Hi, it’s the L-590AX Mark ll. 30 wpc Class A Integrated.
I should add that imaging and soundstage are low on my list of priorities,
with tonality and the ability to play loudly being more important to me. Hence
my ability to say I like the speaker with only a single one playing in mono.
Two speakers at the same time should really be the icing on the cake.
Interestingly, both speakers left Utah and one headed east, the other in a more
southerly fashion. It’s in Virginia as I write this.
BTW, is the owner’s manual online somewhere? A cursory look at the Spatial site
turned up nothing. I’d like it for tomorrow’s arrival so I have some positioning tips.
Maybe it’s in the other box...

rebbi

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Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #121 on: 19 Jun 2018, 08:55 pm »
Hi, it’s the L-590AX Mark ll. 30 wpc Class A Integrated.
I should add that imaging and soundstage are low on my list of priorities,
with tonality and the ability to play loudly being more important to me. Hence
my ability to say I like the speaker with only a single one playing in mono.
Two speakers at the same time should really be the icing on the cake.
Interestingly, both speakers left Utah and one headed east, the other in a more
southerly fashion. It’s in Virginia as I write this.
BTW, is the owner’s manual online somewhere? A cursory look at the Spatial site
turned up nothing. I’d like it for tomorrow’s arrival so I have some positioning tips.
Maybe it’s in the other box...

I received my PDF of the owners' manual via email from Clayton after placing my order, but he may be distributing it differently now. I'd ask him.

Wind Chaser

Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #122 on: 19 Jun 2018, 10:16 pm »



Wind Chaser

Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #123 on: 19 Jun 2018, 10:20 pm »
Hey James,

If you send me a private message with your email address, I can email you a PDF of the owners manual.

John

md92468

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Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #124 on: 20 Jun 2018, 06:22 pm »
I had my eye on a Belles Aria, and the reviews have indeed been good. I even think I've recently seen a used one somewhere. I am frustrated at all the great gear out there that you can't listen to in your system before purchase. But I guess that's a good reason to buy used!

Hey Rebbi,

Long time! Hope all is well. FWIW, I have heard (at a local dealer) the Aria Integrated and Aria mono blocks with speakers that are in a comparable class to the Spatials, and while there are noticeable improvements in moving up the ladder (as there should be given the price points), the Belles house sound and virtues are present in both. I am continually impressed by the Aria's sense of scale and detail, the latter of which I did not expect from this amp (in part because the lone review I could find made little mention of it). For my needs and in my set up, the integrated is enough to keep me happy; the convenience of having one box trumps the benefits of the last level of detail that become available by the upgrade to mono blocks. Bottom line - I wouldn't shy away from the Aria simply because of what might be possible with Belles' three box solution....

rebbi

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Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #125 on: 20 Jun 2018, 06:33 pm »
Hey Rebbi,

Long time! Hope all is well. FWIW, I have heard (at a local dealer) the Aria Integrated and Aria mono blocks with speakers that are in a comparable class to the Spatials, and while there are noticeable improvements in moving up the ladder (as there should be given the price points), the Belles house sound and virtues are present in both. I am continually impressed by the Aria's sense of scale and detail, the latter of which I did not expect from this amp (in part because the lone review I could find made little mention of it). For my needs and in my set up, the integrated is enough to keep me happy; the convenience of having one box trumps the benefits of the last level of detail that become available by the upgrade to mono blocks. Bottom line - I wouldn't shy away from the Aria simply because of what might be possible with Belles' three box solution....

That’s really nice to know, thank you!

heywaj10

Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #126 on: 15 Nov 2018, 06:57 pm »
May be blasphemous in these parts, but still curious all the same. Has anyone had experience with Spatial M3/M4's with any McIntosh amps or integrateds?  I'm curious how the synergy between the brands' house sound play. I'm considering a McIntosh MHA-150 as a one-stop-shop component in the future, which provides 50w @ 4ohms. I'd figure Spatial's sensitivity would do well with that power, but curious if any of you have heard the combo.

Dgood107

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Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #127 on: 30 Mar 2019, 03:47 pm »
Does anyone have or heard an M3 turbo/M3tm with an Ayre AX7e integrated amp

SnowPuppy77

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Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #128 on: 29 Jun 2019, 12:12 am »
Wondering if the M3 would go well with the PS AUDIO - Stellar S300.  Class D amp as Windchaser recommends.  Reasonable price.  Anyone here ever tried it on the Spatials? 

I have the M3 TM by the way.

JackD

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Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #129 on: 29 Jun 2019, 02:35 am »
Based on my experience with the M3TS and M3TM this is a better choice than the S300 and cheaper also the Nuprime ST-10.

https://www.nordacoustics.co.uk/nord-two-ice-power-1200as2-power-am

harley.guy07

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Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #130 on: 29 Jun 2019, 10:36 pm »
Wondering if the M3 would go well with the PS AUDIO - Stellar S300.  Class D amp as Windchaser recommends.  Reasonable price.  Anyone here ever tried it on the Spatials? 

I have the M3 TM by the way.

I do not have the S300 but I did just install the Stellar Gain Cell DAC into my system and it is a killer component. Totally balanced design which my Pass Labs amp loves. Gain Cell technology that has no Potentiometer or Resistor latter volume control to get in the way of the sound and the ability to play almost all the formats. If the amps are any where as good and the Preamp I thank they would sound great with them

paolocaminiti

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Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #131 on: 12 Mar 2021, 05:42 pm »
Bumping this thread as I'm a still M3 Turbo S owner. Would have gone sapphire or X already but is so difficult to buy Spatial from UK.

Has anyone tried Line Magnetic beefy set amplifiers with spiatial speakers? Especially the diffuclt to drive turbo s? Or any other 805 845 based amp?

Since I owned them I tried a multitude of amps: t-amps, icepower, forte class a, ahb2... With and without a freya+ running high quality tube... but I keep coming back to my humble PSVANE tc-3 300b integrated set, it's just so much more musical, makes everything flow and swing especially with jazz. At the cost of almost no bass under 50hz is still my favourite choice.

So I've been wondering if one of those Line Magnetic high wattage integrated like the 508/805 or 219/845 could just be the soultion or if it's time to abandond the turbo s for me which will be a more difficult road.

Thanks, I read all I could about those amps but all feedback is very appreciated.

morganc

Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #132 on: 12 Mar 2021, 06:54 pm »
I have experience with 300/845/211 amps, and Spatials, but not together.
If you like a low powered 300 amp, I would bet that a 845 would give you the bass that you want and keep some of the 300 magic. 
I owned a pair of Audion Black Shadows (845) and the Audion Golden Dreams (300) with a pair of Zu Druids and the combo was amazing. 
The Melody 845 Integrated is also a nice amp.
I have not heard the Line Magnetic, but I am sure that the 845 must be nice as well. 
The 6C33 based amps are also a good choice if the heat is not too much and you do not have kids or pets!  Excellent warmth, bass and tonality. 

geerock

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Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #133 on: 12 Mar 2021, 07:26 pm »
Take the Krell!

1)  You already know you like it.   
2)  A class D amp will not "Grip" your speakers like a well built AB amp.

YMMV, but you asked.

My thoughts exactly!  Grab it.

genjamon

Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #134 on: 12 Mar 2021, 08:37 pm »
Back in early 2015 I bought the Spatial M1 Turbo about a month before Clayton released the original M3's to mate with my Line Magnetic 518IA amp (845 tubes).  The M1 Turbo is pretty much the same thing as the M3 Turbo S, just with a more expensive to manufacture baffle that is probably better damped than the M3 baffle.  At least, that's what Clayton told me when I asked him why he didn't tell me before I ordered the M1 that he was going to release a much less expensive equivalent to the M1 in the near future.

It sounded good, for sure.  But I blew two 845 tubes within a few months.  The first was one of a used pair that a local buddy loaned me.  Not sure how many hours it had on it, but they could have been closer to end of life.  The second one was a brand new Psvane 845WE, which Grant Fidelity replaced since it was under warranty.  At the time, a friend and I had inquired of Clayton quite a bit regarding impedance curves and had a bit of hard time extracting the info from him.  He just kept insisting the speakers were good with tubes, generally.  But later we learned they do dip below 4 ohms in the bass frequencies, which made us wary of the match with tubes. 

Anyway, I'm really not sure if the tubes blowing was due to the difficulty of the M1 load, or due to the age of one tube and a quality control issue in the other tube.  But it made me suspicious at the time, and when I nabbed some used Daedalus speakers at a good price, I sold the M1's and never looked back. 

The fact that Clayton subsequently designed the Triode Master version of the M3 to be a better fit with tubes also makes me think the M3 Turbo S is not the best match with tubes.  And 845 tubes are darned expensive to experiment with in this manner.  Therefore, I'd be hesitant to recommend the pairing you're envisioning, though it did sound good.

ric

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Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #135 on: 13 Mar 2021, 02:30 pm »
"The fact that Clayton subsequently designed the Triode Master version of the M3 to be a better fit with tubes also makes me think the M3 Turbo S is not the best match with tubes." 
(Sorry, I don't know how to highlight) I would disagree with the above. I own the M3TS and have never had a problem. I own a VAC integrated EL34 tube amp, and I HAVE had problems with Chinese made tubes, specifically Sophia Electric, which sound great but are not reliable IMO. I can't comment about an amp blowing tubes because of an impedance problem, because I have not had that experience. It DOES seem that others had problems with their (lower wattage?) amps hence the upgrade for the TriodeMasters, but for some reason I got lucky and my amp seems to work fine.

paolocaminiti

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Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #136 on: 13 Mar 2021, 07:35 pm »
Thanks guys for the inputs. The VAC surely is a gorgeous piece of gear and Clayton too recommended me to try a push pull el34 to drive the turbo s.
But I'm really "biased" - pun intended - I really believe SET and pure class a have an edge on how the music flows. The speakers have been happy with most of the amps I tried, I love the speakers and even the 70$ tamps can get a proper hold of the big drivers with ostensively better performance in many areas... it's just not the same thing as a SET musically, and the highs... I mean the spatial will really let you know if it's transistors or class d they are coming from.

It sounded good, for sure.  But I blew two 845 tubes within a few months.

Did both channels blow up? I didn't have tube issues rolling 300b in the low powered set. And I suppose the transformer should take the burden first, but then the 845 are a different beast for sure.

Does anyone have any of that information about the impedance curves dropping below 4ohms to share? Curves graphs or anything? I remember I saw one for the triode master but not for the turbo s. Perhaps if this information exist I can check with the people at Line Magnetic, they have been quite prompt in answering my emails.

genjamon

Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #137 on: 13 Mar 2021, 08:12 pm »
I never got any impedance curves from Clayton - only him admitting after a period of time of pressing him for the info that they did dip down into the 3's in the bass. 

No, it wasn't both channels - just one channel each time.  And again, one of the tube sets had plenty of use, so might have just been end of life on that one.  And the other tube was brand new, so could have been a quality control issue.  So I'm not saying there is definitely an issue.  Make of my situation what you will.  It made me skittish enough to be interested in moving on from either amp or speakers if an interesting alternative became available, but someone else might have taken more of a wait-and-see approach.  I probably would have given it a longer time horizon to see as well, but the Daedalus came along at a good price and I found them a higher quality speaker all around and without the impedance concerns, so kept them over the M1's.     

If you have a good line of communication with Line Magnetic, you should definitely take advantage of the opportunity to ask them.  Maybe Clayton has some curves he can share with you to share with them. 


paolocaminiti

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Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #138 on: 13 Mar 2021, 08:46 pm »
This is all very uselful, thank you.

Out of curiosity and a bit off topic did you keep the line magnetic to this day? Did you compare it to other amps with the spatials?

I'll try reach to Clayton, but I understand as a second hand customer from Europer (which should not even be a thing to begin with) I must in a position to be too annoying :)
Indeed if I was in the US I had long go with a pair of the new lines he is making...

genjamon

Re: Integrated amp recommendations for M3 Turbo S?
« Reply #139 on: 13 Mar 2021, 10:12 pm »
I do still have the Line Magnetic, but have not used it hardly at all for the last 3+ years.  I have an almost 3 year old, and have almost exclusively been using an Odyssey Kismet stereo amp instead of the Line Magnetic since he was born.  The 845 tubes are just too dangerous for little fingers, even with the tube cage.  It would be too easy for him to poke at them with something small through the tube cage gaps.  And he also LOVES turning dials.  I needed a sturdier amplifier solution.  I have thought of selling the Line Magnetic, since it likely won't be in use for quite a while longer, but just haven't gotten around to it.