[jtwrace]

Central Texas.

Ah, not that close and no plans of going there where I can bring some amps.  Oh well.  I'm sure others are closer though. 

[shahed]

Mick Wolfe likes class D with his M2's more than his ST70 tube amp - but that's in his TV room setup, not his main rig.  I think he likes the way they rock out a bit more with the class D.  But I had my M1's powered by 22 watts of 845 tubes to good effect.  The impedance of the M3's are on the low end for tubes, so you just need to make sure your amp is cool with lower impedance loads and have healthy power supplies.  I bet TRL is pretty overbuilt, so probably are fine.  Sound-wise, the highs on the M3's will love the tubes, but the bass realm may not be as tight as you like - depending on your tastes.  With quality solid state, you'll get tighter bass, but maybe not as refined of highs/midrange - depending - and probably better dynamics.  They're high efficiency and very revealing speakers in terms of what electronics they're paired with.  In a small room, I would bet dynamics will not be lacking with tubes, but hard to say what will work best in terms of bass. 

Just some things to chew on...

Very helpful post Genjamon! Sent you a PM.

[shahed]

Any M3/M4 owner in NYC area willing to demo the speaker?

[Hear Clifford Brown]

Any M3/M4 owner in Seattle/Tacoma/Portland area willing to provide a demo to an honest audiophile? I'm in Gig Harbor near Tacoma.
Jeff

[Hear Clifford Brown]

I ordered a pair of M3 Turbo S couple days ago, they should be here around Sept. 6th.  I had a long phone conversation with Clayton and I'm really looking forward to these speakers.

[zybar]

I ordered a pair of M3 Turbo S couple days ago, they should be here around Sept. 6th.  I had a long phone conversation with Clayton and I'm really looking forward to these speakers.

Congrats!!

George

[CSI]

I ordered a pair of M3 Turbo S couple days ago, they should be here around Sept. 6th.  I had a long phone conversation with Clayton and I'm really looking forward to these speakers.

You are going to love the way Brownie sounds on your new M3's. I'm listening to Joy Spring for the umpteenth time right now on my M4's and that sweet, strong articulate tone comes through like never before.

[Hear Clifford Brown]

Beautiful, Joy Spring so good!

[Hear Clifford Brown]

A friend asked if I was going to try the Velocity Bridge with my Spatial's.  I never gave it a thought but said I'd ask here if anyone is using them or thought about it.

http://www.spatialaudio.us/velocity-bridge/

[mirekti]

A friend asked if I was going to try the Velocity Bridge with my Spatial's.  I never gave it a thought but said I'd ask here if anyone is using them or thought about it.

Have you asked Clayton what he thinks about adding the bridge to M3s?

[Don_S]

A friend asked if I was going to try the Velocity Bridge with my Spatial's.  I never gave it a thought but said I'd ask here if anyone is using them or thought about it.

http://www.spatialaudio.us/velocity-bridge/

I asked Clayton about the VBs.  I wish I could remember his explanation but basically he said they are not needed for his speakers because he designed his speakers to avoid the issue the VBs are meant to mitigate. I also think he said they don't work on electrostatic speakers.  They might prove useful on other brands.

But if you are serious about them, check with Clayton and don't trust my faultiy memory. If someone knows the technical details, please chime in.

[poseidonsvoice]

I asked Clayton about the VBs.  I wish I could remember his explanation but basically he said they are not needed for his speakers because he designed his speakers to avoid the issue the VBs are meant to mitigate. I also think he said they don't work on electrostatic speakers.  They might prove useful on other brands.

But if you are serious about them, check with Clayton and don't trust my faultiy memory. If someone knows the technical details, please chime in.

The Velocity Bridge is for loudspeakers that have an inductive rise in their impedance response in the higher frequencies. Some loudspeaker designers compensate for that with a network, others do not. So it FLATTENS the impedance in the higher frequencies. Here is an example of an impedance curve where the VB would be of benefit-> See Figure 1 or 2: http://www.stereophile.com/content/dynaudio-excite-x12-loudspeaker-measurements#tcy2Lb0ckZOXTdeE.97

and -> http://www.stereophile.com/images/archivesart/607WILFIG03.jpg

Here is one where it would NOT be of benefit -> http://www.stereophile.com/images/archivesart/theC24FIG1.jpg

And-> http://www.soundstagenetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1238:nrc-measurements-revel-performa3-f206-loudspeakers&catid=77&Itemid=153

Or even -> http://www.soundstagenetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=941:nrc-measurements-kef-ls50-loudspeakers&catid=77&Itemid=153

So unless you have made an impedance measurement of your loudspeaker or have published measurements, you have no idea. Yes, you can measure this right at home.

As you can see the cost of the loudspeaker is immaterial. Some include this network and some don't.

Amplifiers that have HIGH output impedances (like greater than 1 ohm) will benefit more. An example would be a SET 300B design and perhaps the Pass F2 or F3. An amplifier like the NCore 400 for example would probably not benefit as its output impedance is about 1 milliohm from 20-20khz. That's 0.001 ohm. Your speaker cable will influence it more than anything else in that scenario!

Best,
Anand.

[Don_S]

Anand,

If there was a "Thanks for the Post" button I would have clicked it.  Thanks for the education. 

[Hear Clifford Brown]

Yes Anand, many thanks.

[Chris Adams]

Anand, Clearly stated and easy to understand. Thank you.

[cfisher835]

Finally was able to do proper burn in and now I am starting to fool with placement. It's been a bit difficult. My left speaker is slightly closer to the sidewall and it required sharper toe-in on that speaker to fix the image in the center. Took a long time to figure that out. Not crazy about the aesthetics but the sound is great.

[Jannemann]

Hi Guys,

some words from Germany about my M3 turbo S. I have them up and running for nearly 3 months now. Unfortunately I don't have a LIO. I used to have a Signature 16 from Vinnie which was very nice with my former Zu Soul Supremes. LIO unfortunately is too expensive for my budget.

After about 70 hours of break in I used them with four different amplifiers. First I tried a 300B Trafomatic Experience II SET and was a bit disappointed. Especially voices lacked the richness that they had when using this amp with WLM Divas and Zu Soul Supremes. The low end was a bit poor too. Okay, 8 watts per channel. I then switched over to a Melody EL 34 tube amp. With 2x50 Watts it has plenty of power but when played at higher levels it started to make unwanted noises. My guess is that M3s extremely high impedance at 1-2 kHz ( up to 200 Ohms ) is the reason that the EL34 valves acted that strange. After that I was done with tube amps in combination with the M3s.

I then hooked up a Class T amp which here in Germany is quite famous when being paired to Klipsch speakers. It is a chinese brand and here we call it "Poppy T-180". With this amp voices became sweet and the low end extremely deep. Hard to believe how deep these speakers go. But the soundstage was sort of limited. There was not much space between instruments.

I was sure that there has to be an amp who could do better and after some consideration I bought a Hegel H-160 for a special price during a sale of a big dealer in the Netherlands. I liked that it has a very good DAC built in and with 2 x 150 Watts at 8 ohm and 2 x 250 Watts at 4 ohm it has lots of power. And it has a damping factor of more than 1000. The bass this combo emits is insane. The soundstage is huge and all instruments are perfectly separated. The near live experience of this combo is shocking. It even got better when I removed the bass traps I used to use with all my prior speakers. My guess is that they are counter productive when using open baffle bass systems. At least they were in my room. As I saw some of you also use bass traps it could be worth a try to remove them and step away from the perfect room that is necessary for standard speaker concepts.

The only thing that remains is that mids are not as detailed as I was used to when listening to WLM or Zu. Sometimes when listening to songs which I know very well there is a lack of midrange information. Effects that I clearly remember from the past are less audible with the M3 turbo S. Maybe it's just because there is so much overall information and dynamics. Hard to tell.

What do you think about the midrange of the M3s? Are you satisfied?

The speakers are much more expensive in my country. With taxes, transportation and dealer profit they cost about 4,800 dollars here. But a Zu Soul Supreme is close to 9,000 dollars in Germany If there was a bit more mid range details the cheaper M3 definitely would be the best speakers I had so far. And I had lots

cheers
Jan

[2glory]

Where did all the talk go??

Germany speaks and all go silent.

Just sold my MBL 121 speakers and have ordered the M3s.

[zybar]

Where did all the talk go??

Germany speaks and all go silent.

Just sold my MBL 121 speakers and have ordered the M3s.

Too busy listening and enjoying the music.   

Plus, I already stated that the midrange is excellent - open, detailed, holographic, with great depth and presence.

George

[Guy 13]

Where did all the talk go??

Germany speaks and all go silent.

Just sold my MBL 121 speakers and have ordered the M3s.

A warm welcome to AudioCircle 2glory.

Guy 13 on planet Vietnam.