[timing3435]

I moved the M3's to a smaller room (12X 16) and what big a difference. Listening 10 ft from speakers. Now the sound stage is correct with songs I know have a center image vocal.  My high-end range concern is gone, period. I will give them 100 hours of run time over the Holidays and come back around. Merry Christmas

[Audiosaurusrex]

Finally, Yay Yay!!

[Audiosaurusrex]

Had to squeeze them next to my Vandys. Gonna be a long night 

[timing3435]

Give them time. They need at least 100 hours before they became remarkable in my room. Happy listening .....

[Audiosaurusrex]

Christened my new M3's with Aja last night, definitely much more revealing than my Vandersteens which I spend a lot of time to tweak. See what everyone is saying about tweeter being harsh initially. They do look very substantial in the room especially adding the Gaia footers and while my Vandys really grew on me visually the Spatial is sleek and modern looking. Have to return my anticables for a longer length as I had to move my audio rack. Gonna do more playing tonight during the snowstorm. Fun stuff!!

[timing3435]

Have fun!

[jazzman463]

NICE... Enjoy !  Hope your power don't go out !

[SnowPuppy77]

Christened my new M3's with Aja last night, definitely much more revealing than my Vandersteens which I spend a lot of time to tweak. See what everyone is saying about tweeter being harsh initially. They do look very substantial in the room especially adding the Gaia footers and while my Vandys really grew on me visually the Spatial is sleek and modern looking. Have to return my anticables for a longer length as I had to move my audio rack. Gonna do more playing tonight during the snowstorm. Fun stuff!!

Based on my experience with the M3S at about 30 hours of break-in the dome will start to sound more natural.  For example sibilance and splashy whited out cymbals will go away.  Midrange will also become fuller.  It think this comes from not only the dome break-in in but from the woofer break-in which results in a fuller bass and mids.  That said you will still experience notable improvements even past 100 hours with the dome.  After the very long listening sessions over Thanksgiving weekend with my Dad I noticed that the imaging and coherence had improved.  The M3S were just disappearing when music played.  Also the coherence between the bass rest of the frequency spectrum is now remarkable.  Even better than with my M3TM with its concentric compression driver in the top woofer.

By the way your new speakers look great in that room!  Here are a few more thoughts:
Try keeping the front of the M3S at least 30” off the front wall.  Too close to the wall will cancel out bass.  With break-in you will likely want to reposition the speakers.  The location of your Vandersteens next to the M3S may be impacting acoustics.  Hard to tell from the pic but your room may be pretty reflective on walls and floor.  Not sure if there is a rug on the hard wood floor for example.  Hope all goes well.  Look forward to hearing more of your journey with the M3S.

[Audiosaurusrex]

Thanks Snowpuppy
Yes packed up the Vandys and have them listed for sale now. Probably 10 hours and I have to say so revealing and dynamic. My girl said so much clearer than the Vandersteen’s.
This is how they are now but will add some acoustic panels along the way.

[SnowPuppy77]

Thanks Snowpuppy
Yes packed up the Vandys and have them listed for sale now. Probably 10 hours and I have to say so revealing and dynamic. My girl said so much clearer than the Vandersteen’s.
This is how they are now but will add some acoustic panels along the way.

That is an even better picture of your space.  That looks like a real nice listening space with plenty room for good placement.  Another thing I like about the M3S is how thin they are and easy to walk behind.

Regarding your Anticables did you get the 3.1 and are you doing a single run or a double run like Paul talked about?  Would like to know how they work out for you as I will likely upgrade speaker cables this summer.

[Audiosaurusrex]

Snowpuppy,
Paul from Anticables has been great, I initially had purchased the 3.1's and got 8ft. I had my rack in the middle on the fireplace hearth but was getting rain down the chimney. Yikes! This was before my M3's arrived. Moved the rack to the corner and of course the cables were too short. Paul offered a full refund and I'm ordering the correct length in a single run for now.
Love these speakers so far!

[timing3435]

I have started to play with connecting different cables directly from the amp to mid/ tweeter on the M3's as Paul suggested. I think it makes a big difference in getting micro-details also the sound stage got wider with my silver cables, in my system. I think it will be interesting to try Paul's cables once he lands on something. In the mean-time, I suggest you try hooking the mid/tweeter directly to the amp, it changes the sound profile quite a bit even with copper cables.  I really love not having speakers unless the recording engineer wanted to play with the channel. Happy Listening, T3435 

[ibehoang]

How would the M3 Sapphire fare in a HT setting compared to the M3TM? I'm looking to make a purchase in the near future. Usage would be 70/30 between HT and music. Would appreciate any insight you have on this. Thanks!

[SnowPuppy77]

How would the M3 Sapphire fare in a HT setting compared to the M3TM? I'm looking to make a purchase in the near future. Usage would be 70/30 between HT and music. Would appreciate any insight you have on this. Thanks!

Just so you know my biases I like to keep my home theater (HT) separate from my two channel listening.  And the speakers I would pick for two channel would likely not be the same as what I would pick for home theater.  I do really enjoy a nice home theater and have one myself (Paradigm Reference and Marantz).  That said I know that separate systems do not work for every audiophile household and a home theater bypass on a two channel preamp is a very valid solution.

One of the key advantages the M3S over the M3TM for home theater to me would be a meatier more impactful bass especially if you were running your HT mains full range.  If you are cutting off you mains at 80hz then that would let less important but still useful for mid-bass.  The rest of the spectrum would benefit with more insight into the signal.  I could say the M3S is a little clearer but as you know the M3TM is very clear.  As far as power handling the M3TM may have the edge being more efficient and with drivers that have a history of being very hardy.  However I am finding that my M3S handle power with no trouble and I turn them up as loud as I want whenever I want and I always give up long before the M3S ever gives up.  So if your HT amplification has plenty of clean power you should be ok.  My HT and music listening ratio is the reverse of yours (10/90) so HT is not as big of a priority for me.  If I had M3TM speakers in my HT I would probably not see the need to upgrade to the M3S.  But for two channel listening most definitely worth upgrading to the M3S.

If I do ever upgrade my HT speakers it would be important to have good matching between the speakers.  Especially the center channel and the mains.  I would probably go with PSB or Paradigm since they make matching center channels and are highly competent.  So another question would be which would be a better match with your center channel.

[Audiosaurusrex]

I would agree with snowpuppy. I think it would be tough to match the M3's with surrounds. It's a testament to how really good they sound. Clayton might be able to advise on this one. Quite a few years back I had a Parasound HT with Aerial Acoustics 10ts as mains and NHT surrounds. It just never had a well integrated sound for HT.

[abd1]

How would the M3 Sapphire fare in a HT setting compared to the M3TM? I'm looking to make a purchase in the near future. Usage would be 70/30 between HT and music. Would appreciate any insight you have on this. Thanks!

I don't own Spatials but I've considered getting a used pair to put in my HT room. I think matching the front stage would be the most important part of a HT setup, but it might not be necessary. In most movies/shows, almost all of the dialogue is coming from the center channel. The L/R channel will play more effects and score. Surrounds are primarily for effects. Of course, there are some exceptions, but primarily this is what I've experienced. I've actually almost never had matching surrounds from the front stage since my space dictates that my surrounds have to be small. So I use Paradigm cinema speakers as my surrounds. The only reason is they're from a 5 channel set that I used in a previous dwelling. My front stage is a completely different speaker. And, it still sounds awesome. I've used mismatched centers as well and while the timbre may be off slightly, when I'm immersed in a show or movie I never really noticed. I have to try and notice. So, what I try and do is match the character of the speakers. Since Spatials are known to be fairly efficient and have really fast bass, I would look for something similar. To get a center channel that is efficient it may have to be larger. A good candidate for a reasonable price for me would be the Emotiva C2. It uses an AMT tweeter, has larger drivers to move more air (to keep up with the larger drivers of the spatials) and is 92 db efficient. I haven't heard this speaker so I'm not sure how good the execution is in real use, but on paper and if it were me that's where I would start. Their surrounds may also be a good deal and decent match. Another good option might be the HSU CCB-8. Again, good sensitivity to match the Spatials, uses a large 8" woofer, and is also a point source similar to the Spatial M3TM. You can also get a set to use as surrounds, and they now have an option for a black cone instead of the yellow.

[kidgleason]

Anyone else notice that the price went up $750 on the M3 Sapphires? They were introduced at $4,200 and are now being sold for $4,950 ($5,150 for the paint options). I had begun filling my piggy bank in preparation of getting these but now I'm leaning towards the M5 (or a used pair of M3 Turbos) as the price increase has stretched my budget too far. 

[SnowPuppy77]

Anyone else notice that the price went up $750 on the M3 Sapphires? They were introduced at $4,200 and are now being sold for $4,950 ($5,150 for the paint options). I had begun filling my piggy bank in preparation of getting these but now I'm leaning towards the M5 (or a used pair of M3 Turbos) as the price increase has stretched my budget too far.

Just went and looked and you are right.  I noticed that the M5 now cost more as well. 

[dvdboulet]

Christened my new M3's with Aja last night, definitely much more revealing than my Vandersteens which I spend a lot of time to tweak. See what everyone is saying about tweeter being harsh initially. They do look very substantial in the room especially adding the Gaia footers and while my Vandys really grew on me visually the Spatial is sleek and modern looking. Have to return my anticables for a longer length as I had to move my audio rack. Gonna do more playing tonight during the snowstorm. Fun stuff!!

Hey!

Once they break in nicely could you compare with and without the Gaia footers to see what a difference they make? Also which version did you get (I think they make 3 for different "weights" of speakers)? Thanks!

[Audiosaurusrex]

Hey!

Once they break in nicely could you compare with and without the Gaia footers to see what a difference they make? Also which version did you get (I think they make 3 for different "weights" of speakers)? Thanks!

dvdboulet
Sorry missed this, Been busy listening 
With my wooden floors the Gaia II was what I went with because of the weight of the M3’s. A minor quibble with the construction of the Spatial’s is that the footers are double sided taped on. I noticed when I put the Gaia’s on the footers on the Spatial’s fell off. I actually think for a speaker of this price they should be drilled through the base. The Gaia’s add another level of detail to the music. So after some 50 hours the Sapphires continue to develop sonically. Initially they were very bright almost harsh and I wasn’t really impressed with the bass either. Some tweaking of positioning and they got better. I actually think I need to address the room acoustics where I didn’t really hear that with my Vandys although I did do the SR HFT level 4 in the room. So I am going to use some diffusers behind them and some panels on the side walls. The M3’s are so much more present in the mids and highs and the bass is very different than I’m used to. My history since my first system when I was 15 was time and phase aligned boxes. This is a totally different listening experience that certainly grows on you. The depth, and feel is what I would call ethereal. As I write this I’m listening to Talking Heads Remain in Light on vinyl and it has incredible presence and detail. Still tweaking and very intriguing listening going on.