M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.

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DaveWin88

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M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.
« on: 12 Jan 2022, 01:24 am »
Hello
 Back again with my impressions so far :) of the M6 sapphires. First thing is that are boxed very well. The build quality of the speakers are very apparent once you start assembling them. The finish on the speakers seem like an enamel? They have a hardness/slick feel to them. Great texture that I think helps how they pick up light or not in the room. The very first thing listening to them I was in shock at how little they seemed to interact with the room. This cannot be overstated. I'm like 90% of us that have less than an ideal space. On to the sound. They had little to no bass, and the upper mids were very pronounced. The highs seemed OK but I was really really concerned to say the least. Cd's sounded like crap. Vinyl was the only thing that sounded OK. I listen to mostly classical and was quite surprised at how dynamic they are. I think the lack of room interaction contributes to that as they can get whisper quiet to the point of me being able to hear the clock on the wall. Feast or famine :) I feel like for classical you might have to play them at a louder volume than you are use to? So yeah for three weeks I was listening to music two to three hours a day and I'm like man these are not balanced at all. The bass seemed to be in the background a few feet from the mids. I could tell though that the bass had a ton of potential. So after three weeks to no real avail, I let them sit for a week, just giving myself a break. So I fire my system back up and the bass seemed really boomy. I thought I'll have to get some room treatment. Everything else seemed the same :( The next day I fire them up and was listening to a few tracks before it dawned on me that they changed DRASTICALLY. The whole presentation seemed to come from the same playing field. Not talking about sound-stage here. The bass is unreal :) I will never go back to a box speakers as my main system. One of the main reason that I upgraded from the Tekton lore reference be was lack of bass and classical music really benefits from more range down low. The highs are really starting to open up and getting some real detail. I still feel like they could benefit from a sub for the last octave, but they are pretty bad ass as is. I had no idea what the Parasound A21+ was capable of till now. Man what a transformation. The sound stage at first seemed to be all over the place but now has widened and is pinpoint coherent. So if you are new to Spatial speakers please be patient. These speakers are hands down something really special. Can't wait to see how they evolve down the road. Yeah MR Big was right :) just play the darn things, they will come around. This image is really how I feel. Thank you




Tyson

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Re: M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.
« Reply #1 on: 12 Jan 2022, 01:33 am »
Ah, the ubiquitous "oh crap, did I make a huge mistake buying these" burn in period, eventually leading to the "holy crap I'm so glad I bought these, they are amazing" period.  :thumb:

sockpit

Re: M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.
« Reply #2 on: 12 Jan 2022, 04:18 am »
Welcome to the club.  Wait till you get a year out . . .  No point in messing with anything else until you’ve put months on them. But room treatments did eventually pay off for me in a bedroom sized space. M5 owner.

iowa

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Re: M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.
« Reply #3 on: 12 Jan 2022, 02:19 pm »
Pics or it didn't happen.  :D
I'd love to see the M6's in your room.

DaveWin88

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Re: M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.
« Reply #4 on: 12 Jan 2022, 10:39 pm »
Hello
I wanted to clarify a few things, I feel you do not need a sub woofer whatsoever. I'm very satisfied with the range they play, but if you were hardcore you could use one for the last 20-40 hz. These I feel are a match made in heaven for classical music. The bass is so articulate and defined that it breaths life into all the instruments that get blended together as just bass notes with a lot of other speakers. Notes have the proper weight, dimension, nuance. For the first time I'm hearing the body of the instruments :)

Welcome to the club.  Wait till you get a year out . . .  No point in messing with anything else until you’ve put months on them. But room treatments did eventually pay off for me in a bedroom sized space. M5 owner.
I'm going to take your advice and not mess with a good thing.

Ah, the ubiquitous "oh crap, did I make a huge mistake buying these" burn in period, eventually leading to the "holy crap I'm so glad I bought these, they are amazing" period.  :thumb:
That pretty much sums up my experience so far.

Pics or it didn't happen.  :D
I'd love to see the M6's in your room.
Here are a couple of photos.




DaveWin88

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Re: M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.
« Reply #5 on: 15 Jan 2022, 03:14 pm »
Hello
I wanted to add to the comment that if you listen to classical music you might have to turn them up a bit. It's the whole room interaction thing again? It's not like you have to crank the heck out of them, but the sound just seems to come out of the speakers themselves. I know that sounds weird to say but that lack of room interaction is so HUGE. I'm still not exceeding 75db peak for most all of my listening.  Listening to rock Buckethead / Satriani :) sounds amazing. It's just something to keep in mind for those especially dynamic pieces. I didn't want to give the wrong impression. A picture next to my Lore reference (which I really like)


« Last Edit: 16 Jan 2022, 12:58 am by DaveWin88 »

franSSS

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Re: M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.
« Reply #6 on: 15 Jan 2022, 06:53 pm »
Nice Gear. Blends in well and seems coherent on the eye. Cant say the same for mine at this point in time. :?



RonN5

Re: M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.
« Reply #7 on: 15 Jan 2022, 08:23 pm »
I know it’s an unfair comparison since the Spatials aren’t broken in… but from a big picture standpoint what are the similarities and differences. Also, I see you have the Be tweeters on the Lores which should be an improvement from the standard Audax.

DaveWin88

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Re: M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.
« Reply #8 on: 16 Jan 2022, 12:53 am »
Nice Gear. Blends in well and seems coherent on the eye. Cant say the same for mine at this point in time. :?
You know franSS aesthetics can be important to. I hear you on that.

I know it’s an unfair comparison since the Spatials aren’t broken in… but from a big picture standpoint what are the similarities and differences. Also, I see you have the Be tweeters on the Lores which should be an improvement from the standard Audax.
RonN5 I should have been more specific. These are the Lore reference be, so they would have come with a soft dome tweeter. I just hooked them up and listened to a couple tracks. Man what a difference. The Beryllium tweeter seems to settle quicker. The M100 has a longer decay which sounds more natural, but this is what makes it so difficult to compare. The M6's have much much more midrange information than you are getting out of the Tektons, plus you are not so focused on the bass being boomy / box heavy. So I feel the be's are not given a real chance because the whole presentation seems to be focused more on the main 8in driver doing everything else. The Tektons do have a heavy weighted feel. The whole presentation of the sapphires is not so focused on what the bass / box is doing or not doing so it opens up the mids and highs. The Spatials are really about speed, finesse, balance. This is going to sound weird but when the music stops the M6's just get quiet immediately. Hope that helps a little.  Keep in mind that this is also a testament to the A21+

RonN5

Re: M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.
« Reply #9 on: 16 Jan 2022, 10:21 pm »
Dave, thanks. A few more questions. What are your room dimensions?  Which Halo preamp are you using?  How many hours do you now have on the Spatials?

DaveWin88

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Re: M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.
« Reply #10 on: 17 Jan 2022, 12:12 am »
Dave, thanks. A few more questions. What are your room dimensions?  Which Halo preamp are you using?  How many hours do you now have on the Spatials?

Hello RonN5
My room is 12x15. The first picture is the short end 12ft from the couch to the picture window. The second is the 15ft. You can see that it's an odd shape. The crazy thing is the speaker on the right closest to the wall always sounded muted compared to the left. I'm guessing because of cancellation? That's what makes the M6's so killer is that they work wonderful even with the same layout.  I'm using the P6 Parasound pre-amp. I figure I have upwards of 75 hours on the Spatial's.





RonN5

Re: M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.
« Reply #11 on: 17 Jan 2022, 01:05 am »
Nice looking room…except maybe for the antique tv… haha… Based on all the Sapphire comments, your speakers will keep improving for another 4-500 hours 😀

Tyson

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Re: M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.
« Reply #12 on: 17 Jan 2022, 02:11 am »






This type of uneven room loading is exactly why I will never go back to box speakers.  There’s no way to get a box speaker to sound right in that space.  An OB speaker just works so much better.

DaveWin88

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Re: M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.
« Reply #13 on: 17 Jan 2022, 09:25 pm »
This type of uneven room loading is exactly why I will never go back to box speakers.  There’s no way to get a box speaker to sound right in that space.  An OB speaker just works so much better.
These will be my last speakers for sure. Glad I didn't upgrade to another box speaker.

Nice looking room…except maybe for the antique tv… haha… Based on all the Sapphire comments, your speakers will keep improving for another 4-500 hours 😀
Dude that antique TV is bad ass :) I canceled TV a couple years ago, and just use it for old school gaming. Plus with the EverDrive carts :)





RonN5

Re: M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.
« Reply #14 on: 18 Jan 2022, 12:50 am »
Great comeback… hmm, I suspect it might still be there because it weighs too much to move… another advantage of the Spatials.

DaveWin88

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Re: M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.
« Reply #15 on: 18 Jan 2022, 01:48 am »
Great comeback… hmm, I suspect it might still be there because it weighs too much to move… another advantage of the Spatials.
:) It does weigh 160 lbs

mdlurie

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Re: M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.
« Reply #16 on: 8 Jan 2023, 08:42 pm »
I'm not even a newbie at this point, but seriously considering going w/ Spatials. - Concern for me is whether they're more than my room can handle -- 10x12x8....  Am I just barking up the wrong tree to think about the M6s?

DaveWin88

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Re: M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.
« Reply #17 on: 8 Jan 2023, 11:57 pm »
I'm not even a newbie at this point, but seriously considering going w/ Spatials. - Concern for me is whether they're more than my room can handle -- 10x12x8....  Am I just barking up the wrong tree to think about the M6s?
I had them in a 12 foot space. 3 feet from the front wall, and the seating all the way back. The side walls are less? important. It wasn't ideal, but it did work.

RonN5


DaveWin88

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Re: M6 sapphire impressions from a newbie.
« Reply #19 on: 9 Jan 2023, 01:27 am »
Maybe time to act… this looks like a good price…

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649899830-spatial-audio-lab-m6-sapphire-demo-pair-in-rare-porsche-gentian-blue-open-baffle/
Dude I would be all over these. Considering where they're coming from. One thing to keep in mind, imho open baffle speakers are more for the connoisseur of music (I'll probably get some flak for this) if your Joe rocker and just jam to music, maybe not the best fit? Killer deal though.