Yup. Once more, as in yet another "I've got new speakers! (again)" post, and once more, as in "Here's my new speaker review!" post. New gear acquisition announcements are the audio equivalent of gender reveal parties: of paramount importance and excitement to the revealer; to the revealees, an afternoon sadly spent inhaling lung-fulls of unidentified and highly questionable blue or pink powder. Another similarity is the revealers' relentless and remorseless perpetration of said reveal on their loyal soon to be be-powdered friends; there simply is no stopping them. Who am I to break with tradition? Hold your breath and read on, dear friends.
After much researching, hemming, hawing, yawing, and generally being a pest to those in the Spatial (acknowledgements and thanks here to Clayton, Cloud, and Mark) world, I finally got down to business and bought a pair of X5s (in walnut, not pink or blue). I had some real trepidation about buying them, as I genuinely loved the speakers I had, a pair of Dynaudio Heritage Specials, which I had purchased only last July. I had gone from B&W 802 Diamonds, which I also loved (I wonder if all this casting off of things I love worries my wife?), to the Heritage Specials because, for some reason, I wanted a different sound, something that would possibly better suit my at the time medium-sized room. The Dynaudios were brilliant - sweet, smooth, articulate, with surprisingly deep quick bass, imaged like crazy, and just, as we like to say, completely disappeared. But, but, they were more of a lateral move than I expected, really lovely and always a pleasure to listen to, but not really more so than the 802s. And, while the mid-range was a bit sweeter, more mellifluous than the 802's, and the imaging a bit more distinct (possibly down to room issues), they lacked that ineffable quality of scale, heft, weight, of bass that both underpins and helps create that total harmonic structure that seems to move us, literally, in a kind of physical displacement, and figuratively, emotionally, which is also a kind of displacement, as the music moves into us and sets up shop, moving our interior furnishings here and there, governing our feelings. The Dynaudios, while beautiful, lacked, for me, that essential scope and gravitas. It sounds silly as I write it, but I believe that lack is what, despite the pleasure I took in them, kept me searching.
That rather directionless searching led me to Spatial Audio's open baffle speakers. In my casting about, I came across a review of them on New Record Day's YouTube channel. I'd seen the odd open baffle speaker before in my years of looking at pictures, ads, and reviews, but had no idea what they were and assumed they were a mere novelty and, since, as a rule, I'm not much given to novelty, just passed them by. But Ron's NRD review was so genuine and interesting and compelling, I thought I'd do some more research, which led me to discover that Spatial Audio is located about 10 miles from me. I emailed Spatial, and Clayton put me in touch with Cloud, with whom I set up a time to hear the speakers. Here I'd like to give a shoutout to Cloud, whose hospitality and patience were practically preternatural. Over the next couple of months, I plagued him with questions and visits, and he was always pleasant, informative, and generous with his time. My first visit, I listened to a pair of X4s, driven by an LTA amp (I forget which one) and a Benchmark DAC that functioned as the pre as well. That combo was great, but then he hooked up the Don Sachs Valhalla to the X4s and I was, well, in the vernacular, blown away. Like love at first sight in a John Cusack romcom, I was done, smitten. For the first time in all my listening, I had no doubt that that was the sound I wanted: big, bold, clear, detailed, yet liquid, beautiful, moving, compelling. It gripped me in a way no combination of speakers and amp ever had before. The 802s were a revelation to me when I first heard them, but this was different. The X4s had all the impact of the 802s, but on a grander, more open scale, and at the same time rendered the music with whatever dignity, beauty, sweetness, comedy, pathos, or combination of any or all of these was called for. I'm aware this sounds like hyperbole, but there was something hyperbole-inducing in the sound, something intensified in each element of the music. Intensified, but not exaggerated. It sounded genuine, sincere, truthful.
Given all the superlatives I just lavished on the X4/Don Sachs combo, you'd think I'd've thrown my money down on the spot. However, not willing to get married after only a first date, I thought I'd better listen both again and to more, other. I was curious about the amplifier possibilities speakers with an active subwoofer would give, so I next tried the X5s. For this, Clayton put me in touch with a friend of his, Mark, who very generously offered to let me come to his house and listen to his setup. At Mark's, I was able to listen to the X5s driven by an Atma-Sphere S-30 amp and MP-3 preamp. The experience was every bit as revelatory as listening to the X4s had been, but more so. I think, in the world of marketing, it's rare to come across products that so well mimic and reflect their name. For example, much as I loved the Valhalla, and it is every bit as good as the Atma-Sphere gear I listened to, Valhalla is, while a good name, a bit, well, over the top. Valhalla. Olympus. Throne of God. It's a lot to live up to. Atma-Sphere and Spatial (the cleverish reworking of atmosphere notwithstanding) are more descriptive than suggestive, as two of the primary and significant qualities of both products is their ability to create an atmosphere and a feeling of space. I wrote in an earlier post, and it's the image and impression that most stays with me, about how listening to the X5/Atma-Sphere combo was the audio equivalent of sitting in a planetarium, leaning back and looking up, as if floating in the immense blackness of space, and seeing the wash of galaxies and pinpoints of individual stars above and around you. Exaggeration? Maybe on my part, as I find myself unequal to the task of capturing sensorial experiences in words and can only relate the associations and images the experience brought to mind. But one thing was certain - that experience provided the push I needed and I bought a pair of X5s, which leads me to
finally, the gender reveal. I warned you: relentlessly, remorselessly, the new parents foists their joy and excitement on their weary friends. So, my new X5s. I was concerned, after reading all the warnings and admonishments and parables about the Spatial's need for break-in, that, for the first few weeks, I'd be listening to music as if from a trashcan, that the highs would be bright, the mids would be recessed, that bass simply wouldn't be, and that not one element of this cacophony would blend with the other. So, after Clayton and Mark graciously delivered the speakers to my home and set them up, I steeled myself and began listening. I was gobsmacked. The sound was gorgeous right out of the box (yeah, I know, but I'm leaving it). Seriously, they were beautiful, coherent, the soundstage deep and wide behind the speakers, with none of the thinness or brightness or disparity between the drivers I'd been led to expect. We listened for a while to Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, which, though not hard-driving or exceptionally layered in an orchestral sense, is wonderfully recorded, and the X5s produced a wide and distinct and detailed soundstage, with a clear picture of where Davis' trumpet and Cannonball Adderly and John Coltrane's saxes played, with Paul Chambers' bass solidly located but binding all the instruments and musicians together. And all of it large, human, with the weight and scale I'd been missing in the Dynaudios. Once Clayton and Mark left, I put the speakers through their paces. Lauren Daigle singing Rescue; Freya Ridings' Lost Without You, Macklemore's Downtown, Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, Melody Gardot, Frank Sinatra, Ben Webster, Yo-Yo Ma, Bill Evans, Michael Buble, Diana Krall, Florence and the Machine, Bob Marley, Patricia Barber, Holly Cole, Mozart's Jupiter Symphony and Marriage of Figaro, Puccini's La Boheme, Verdi's Rigoletto, the list goes on, all delivered power, beauty, concision, and deep deep feeling. I was amazed and beyond gratified. Don't get me wrong. I realize we're talking about speakers here, not curing cancer or ending the war in Ukraine or stopping inflation, that I woke up this morning essentially the same person I was the day before, and that writing has its own ecstatic momentum that may cause the incautious writer to be carried away. So let me say this, that, were this the best these speakers had to give, I would be satisfied, that the breadth, depth, scale, resolution, and beauty of their sound would easily sustain me and make me feel I'd spent my money well. All this, with no break-in and driven by my current electronics, which are high-quality, but no Don Sachs, no Atma-Sphere. Clayton says this is the worst they will sound and that they will only get better and better. It seems like gilding the lilly, but I'll take it.
So, the reveal is done. All that's left is to wash away the powder or dye or whatever noxious instrument of revelation was employed. I'll be amazed if anyone has actually read all of this. If you have, I congratulate you on your persistence and fortitude. You know what comes after the reveal - baby pictures.
