[Tomy2Tone]

There is a pair of M1's for sale in Tucson right now! Free shipping too.
I know the seller, been to his house a few times to listen to these Spatial's. 
He's a good guy too.

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=136388.msg1450197#msg1450197

Wayne

Hey Wayne, I've chatted a few times with Ben about his Lampi dac and he does seem like a great guy. Hoping he gets his stuff sold so he can bring that Big 7 on in to AZ.

How would you characterize the M1's from what you've heard at his house? I heard the M3's which I think are the entry level speakers now in the lineup at Newport and honestly wasn't all that impressed. Then again I wasn't impressed with the TAD room either...
Probably just tough to setup a hotel room right as I didn't care for about 90% of the rooms I heard there.

[Poultrygeist]

Emerald Physics OB's using Eminence Alphas and Betas. Nothing wrong with that as I've had great results with them as well. The Alpha with its high Qts is probably the most popular OB woofer around.

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/emerald/1.html

[genjamon]

There is a pair of M1's for sale in Tucson right now! Free shipping too.
I know the seller, been to his house a few times to listen to these Spatial's. 
He's a good guy too.

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=136388.msg1450197#msg1450197

Wayne

Thanks for the bump, Wayne!     Looking forward to some fun listening this weekend, my friend!

As for comparisons to the M3 go, I wish I had been able to make it to the show and hear them.  I know the M1's were quite impressive at RMAF, so not sure what might have gone on at Axpona that would have been much different.  He had the same amplification at Axpona as he did at RMAF from the looks of it.  But then, while the specs look pretty similar between M1's and M3's, I assume Clayton still has the M1's available at twice the price for a reason - there must be a performance difference.  I would assume it's in the "refinement" factor.  The Ron Brenay video kind of says it all, if you read between the lines.  Clayton works closely with the driver manufacturers and is working hard on his cabinets as well - all in an effort to value engineer the performance he obtained with the M1 and M2 to cheaper and cheaper levels.  That is, he's seeing how much he can get away with in terms of lower cost manufacturing methods while preserving "most" of the performance of the M1 and M2.  The key is in that "most" word.  With high end audio, we pay, often quite dearly, for those extra levels of refinement.  My guess is that the M1 still provides a helluva value in the broader audio marketplace when you take laws of diminishing returns into account.

But, hey, that's just me speculating about it.  All I know is that these Spatial M1's sound really good, and it took a speaker that retails well over $10K for me to be tempted to trade them out.  And the M1's still do a few things better than these much more expensive speakers.  I went to RMAF last year shopping for speakers, and to me the M1 was by far the best price/performance ratio at the show.  There were other great speakers there, but all at astronomically higher prices.  And there were other $5K and below speakers there, but none with the performance combination and real-world aesthetics of the M1. 

Ben

[Quiet Earth]

I assume Clayton still has the M1's available at twice the price for a reason - there must be a performance difference.  I would assume it's in the "refinement" factor.

I'm going off of memory, so go forgive me if it's not quiet right.....

When I spoke with Clayton at the show he said that the M3 was designed from the ground up for mass production. So, a lot of time was spent working with the speaker vender to get everything just right so he could order a boat load of them to get the price down. Similar idea with the baffle. Wait,,, what do you call the baffle in an open baffle speaker?  Anyway, same idea, lots of baffles made - machined I think . Probably lots of them sitting in inventory waiting to be painted. Only two choices of color. Black or white.

He said most of what he has learned has been boiled down into the M3 to build a mass produced speaker that is DSP-free and user friendly. And at a price that most people can afford. He was very excited about it and I think that is one reason why I was so impressed. Plus, I really did think it sounded good.

YMMV of course.

[WGH]

How would you characterize the M1's from what you've heard at his house?

Dynamic! The M1's are also revealing making it easy to hear differences in amps, pre-amps and even cables. The Line Magnetic 518 amp has a nice relaxed tube based sound and the Job 225 solid state amp increased the jump factor but with a cleaner more analytical sound. So even though the M1's are easy to drive with low power I would not skimp on quality or you will regret it.

In my opinion the best sound I heard from the M1's was when we plugged in the Van Alstine Synergy 450 amp. The Synergy 450 doubles down into 4 ohms so we had 450 watts per channel, 900 watts total! The AVA Synergy line is solid state and has a slightly warm tube like quality which kept the Spacials from getting shouty, at a low volume the sound was practically identical to the 35w/channel AVA Ultravalve amp except for the bass. The Spacial M1 with the Synergy 450 was magic with bass that was subterranean, controlled and limitless no matter how loud the music got.

Don't be afraid to raise them off the floor a little, they sound better higher up.

Wayne

[Tomy2Tone]

Dynamic! The M1's are also revealing making it easy to hear differences in amps, pre-amps and even cables. The Line Magnetic 518 amp has a nice relaxed tube based sound and the Job 225 solid state amp increased the jump factor but with a cleaner more analytical sound. So even though the M1's are easy to drive with low power I would not skimp on quality or you will regret it.

In my opinion the best sound I heard from the M1's was when we plugged in the Van Alstine Synergy 450 amp. The Synergy 450 doubles down into 4 ohms so we had 450 watts per channel, 900 watts total! The AVA Synergy line is solid state and has a slightly warm tube like quality which kept the Spacials from getting shouty, at a low volume the sound was practically identical to the 35w/channel AVA Ultravalve amp except for the bass. The Spacial M1 with the Synergy 450 was magic with bass that was subterranean, controlled and limitless no matter how loud the music got.

Don't be afraid to raise them off the floor a little, they sound better higher up.

Wayne

Thanks for the response Wayne!

You guys going to RMAF this year? I'll be making my first trip and will be there all three days and hope Spatial will have the M1's. It would be cool if Clayton would show the Lumina series and see how they perform.

[genjamon]

I don't think I'll be able to make it this year, unfortunately. But you'd be welcome to join us for one of our group sessions in Tucson sometime. I'll likely be hosting one later in the month as I audition the Vinnie Rossi LIO gear against my other stuff. If I still have the M1's at that time we could hook them up and you could hear them.

[WGH]

Thanks for the response Wayne!

You guys going to RMAF this year? I'll be making my first trip and will be there all three days and hope Spatial will have the M1's. It would be cool if Clayton would show the Lumina series and see how they perform.

One thing I forgot to mention: everyone noticed the headroom when listening to the M1/AVA Synergy 450 combo. Even at a normal volume you could tell there was power just waiting to be tapped, like driving a high powered car at 30 mph.

Probably have to skip RMAF this year too. I'm going to Chicago this month for a family reunion and by the time Oct. rolls around I'll be in the middle of another big job.

There is so much new and used stereo stuff my friends are cycling through it's like a mini RMAF every month around this desert town.

Wayne

[mark@emeraldphysics]

Emerald Physics OB's using Eminence Alphas and Betas. Nothing wrong with that as I've had great results with them as well. The Alpha with its high Qts is probably the most popular OB woofer around.

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/emerald/1.html

Actually... ALL current Emerald Physics loudspeakers are produced with custom drivers made solely for Emerald. We have two makers that each do a great job for us...

Thanks,

Mark

[mirekti]

...But then, while the specs look pretty similar between M1's and M3's, I assume Clayton still has the M1's available at twice the price for a reason - there must be a performance difference.

I think I read somewhere he stated the price savings came from the direct sale and mass production.
Some guys didn't like to top end of M1 (compared to ribbon, ATM etc. drivers). However, there is a new Turbo S version of M3 which uses newly developed M25 compression driver which in turn uses something similar to Beryllium, but much cheaper. I guess the top end should be much better with this new driver. Not sure how this relates to M1 vs M3 top end.

I wondered if anyone had a chance to compare M1 and the new M3 Turbo S.