I was fortunate to hear a pair of X5s driven by the S-30 and MP-3, and I have no reservation in saying the sound was glorious. I realize non-descriptive general adjectives such as glorious aren't very useful except as expressions of enthusiasm, so let me also say that, after hearing the S-30 and X5s together, I put my money where my adjectives are and ordered a pair of X5s. In general, I find most descriptions of sound, no matter how specific they try to be, to be next to useless. Bright, dark, round, flat, lush, dry, etc, may all mean something different to different people. That said, unless we're just going to give measurements or show graphs of sound waves, we're stuck with metaphor, so, my previous objections notwithstanding, here goes.
There were many aspects to the sound of the X5s driven by the Atma-Sphere gear that made an impression on me. One of the first and best qualities was the sense or feeling of space and detail in the sound production. It was immersive, but not just that. There was (for me), the feeling of being in a planetarium, of sitting, surrounded by that dark enormity, hearing the music against the backdrop like seeing the stars against that black sky. If you've been in a planetarium and can picture lying back in your seat and looking up at, yet also being immersed in, the darkness and the wash of both galaxies and individual stars above you, that is something of the feeling I had listening to the S-30 and X5s. I know. Dude. But it truly was remarkable. I'd been casting around for something different, and had listened to a wide variety of speakers and electronics in that search, and the Spatial speakers, this time the X5s powered this time by the S-30, and earlier a pair of X4s powered by a Don Sachs Vahalla integrated amp, was the first setup to make me say, without any hesitation or caviling, this is the rig I want, the only one that didn't feel simply like a lateral move. The combination of detail and (I've made this lame crack before, but I'm going to make it again) atmosphere, of presentation but also immersion, was unlike any rig I'd heard before.
But these qualities in themselves could be parlor tricks. What they added up to, and what was most important to me, was how moving the music was listening to them. That seems like an odd thing to say. After all, the music is the music, and it's the composition, the music itself, that should move you, not the gear. I'm not smart or informed enough to explain it. Maybe it's a matter of subtle harmonics certain gear can render. I don't know. What I do know is, everything I listened to, from Jacqueline Du Pre's Elgar Cello Concerto, to Bill Evans' Waltz for Debbie, to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, to Great Big World's Say Something, to Macklemore's downtown, were all moving in all the ways each piece was intended to be. And if it wasn't as they were intended to be, I'm more than happy to live with how they moved me under the gear's influence. While listening to Du Pre's rendition of Elgar, or Lauren Daigle's Rescue, I had to keep telling myself (while sitting in someone else's home) do not cry, do not cry. And the X5s and S-30 were equally compelling in delivering the the delightful and wild exuberance of Bohemian Rhapsody and Downtown. In more prosaic and typical terms, the highs were high without being fatiguing; the lows were deep and powerful without being boomy or flabby; the mids were gorgeous without being syrupy or sentimental, etc. Again, many speakers can meet those standard standards. What this speaker and amp did for me was move me, infuse me with a spirit not my own, but which my own spirit took in and was enhanced, enlarged by. It's what made me buy them, having already bought excellent new speakers only 6 months before (which I now have to sell), and what prompts me to such effusive and somewhat silly prose now.
Freud said that giving oneself over to music, that surrendering, had a (psychologically speaking) masochistic component to it. Tolstoy, in a wacky story called The Kreutzer Sonata, expressed his belief that the power of music, in its ability to infuse you with feelings not natively your own, was actually dangerous and could, and does in the story, have regrettable consequences. While I find both of these views both interesting and a bit nutty, I think what most of us are looking for from our hifi rigs is to be just so moved, to be taken over, overtaken, transported, even amazed. I found this combination to be just that: amazing. Hope that helps.
