My New X-5's

bbybaudio · « **Reply #20 on:** 29 Jan 2020, 06:20 pm »

Big Red Machine, my room is 22.5 X 15.5 x 9. X5s on long wall about 39" from rear wall. Playing organ music, the floor and couch vibrate, even at moderate volumes. Remember, the amps feeding the subwoofers are adjustable, so you can "turn it up." I used the Stereophile Test CD2 to adjust my subwoofer amp levels.

Hear Clifford Brown · « **Reply #21 on:** 29 Jan 2020, 08:16 pm »

Dan,

Nice job on the Redwood stand, looks good in the pictures, probably beautiful in person. I'll try and send you a private message tonight re: jazz vinyl for sale. Yes Brownie was amazing, his improvisations were so well constructed, they almost sound like compositions. I was listening to him a lot back when I joined AC, haven't for a while, will again tonight.

On the diffusers, I look for who made them when home. Not sure if they are still available.

Jeff

Hear Clifford Brown · « **Reply #22 on:** 30 Jan 2020, 03:52 am »

The diffusers I bought via Audiogon from a local seller 8 years ago for a great price, $200 for all of them They are made by MSR Acoustics.

Dana · « **Reply #23 on:** 24 Mar 2020, 03:19 am »

Hi All,
I wasn’t sure which of the three or four threads dealing with the X5s to post in, so I selected this one. I received my X5s from Clayton just before Christmas and now have over 300 hours on them. I love these speakers! I noticed improvements in the sound at about 65 hours, 150 hours, and 225 hours. They’ve continued to improve somewhat, but these were the most noticeable benchmarks in my system. They gained in overall weight and coherence, and the bass lost its stiffness as the cones broke in. I really like the speed and clarity of the sound the X5s make. Bass is good OB bass: quick and clean, and with decent weight when it’s in the recording. To me the overall sound is organic, natural, open, fairly punchy, and detailed, with no brightness or etch. My younger son listened to the X5s in my system a couple of weeks ago and guessed I had paid $10,000+ for them! He was really surprised when I told him they retail for $5950.

One thing I noticed is that these speakers sound best to me when I’m sitting at least 11-12 feet from the plane created by the front of the speakers. I started out at about 9 feet away, and while they sounded good, the coherence and sense of space was not as great. I moved my listening seat back a few feet and things really gelled.

Three of my favorite pop test tracks are Ben Harper: By My Side (Retrospective) > “Gold to Me;” Lake Street Dive: Fun Machine > “I Want You Back;” and John Mellencamp: Words & Music—Greatest Hits [Disc 2] > “Wild Night.” I love the way these tracks are so well articulated on the X5s.

Right now, I mostly play hi-rez files and CD rips through an Auraliti PK-90 > PS Audio Direct Stream DAC > Pass Labs XA25 amp, with AntiCables speaker and power cables = the best sounding system I’ve ever had.

Clayton has been great to work with. He lent me a pair of M3TMs over a year ago (I live in Utah). They were good, but the X5s are so much better (I haven’t heard the M5s or M3s). He worked with me to get the X5s to my house before the holidays. Spatial is a great customer-oriented operation, as well as making great-sounding speakers.

Shakeydeal · « **Reply #24 on:** 24 Mar 2020, 12:39 pm »

Congrats. These are certainly very good speakers.

BTW, please don't ever call Ben Harper "pop" again...........

Shakey

bbybaudio · « **Reply #25 on:** 24 Mar 2020, 07:08 pm »

Dana and other X5 owners, my X5s 40" from rear wall, minimally 40" from side walls and are 8' apart center to cente. My listening position is about 10 ft back, which I prefer. I have moved listening position as close as 8 feet away, realigned sweet spot, and overall, I prefer listening further back.

I too have all anti cables which I like better than my previous Audience AU 24 SE cables, which I loved. Potential additions for me will be the diffusers/sound absorber panels that have been discussed on these forums, and an upgrade to the DAC and a rebuild to my cartridge (currently at Soundsmith). Overall, the best sound I have ever had and the X5s are a major reason why.

bbybaudio · « **Reply #26 on:** 26 Mar 2020, 01:02 pm »

Had a great time last night listening to an album I have rarely played, the "Best of Earl Klugh" on Blue Note. Listened from start to finish then went back and replayed several songs again. The music coming from the X5s just made me smile.

Dana · « **Reply #27 on:** 28 Mar 2020, 12:18 am »

ShakeyDeal: I'll presume from your comment that you like Ben Harper (as I do)--you know I only meant "pop" broadly!

Bbybaudio: My X5s are 9 feet apart on the ribbon tweeter centers. My baffles are only 34" from the wall behind them. I'd move them out further, like yours, but domestic tranquility takes precedence!

I find I'm getting closer to my music with all this social distancing!

bbybaudio · « **Reply #28 on:** 28 Mar 2020, 04:26 pm »

Dana, I just moved my X5s from 9ft apart to 8. In my room this sounds best so far. Maybe when the diffusers arrive and are in the picture, this will change. Understand the WAF!

bbybaudio · « **Reply #29 on:** 5 Apr 2020, 03:50 pm »

Update on X5s. It has now been two weeks with Tung Sol EL34b tubes in amp compared to KT150s. Sound is magical out of X5s, sound is now holographic and 3 Dimensional. I do not perceive a loss in bass with these tubes compared with the KT150s through the X5s. The X5s sound gorgeous with EL-34bs on triode!! It the LTA integrated is more 3D than this, then wow! Like the rest of you, loving these speakers. When things have began to normalize, will entertain upgrading DAC, but otherwise, Nothing else.

Shakey, hoping the diffusers that have been talked about in a few circles here will add some of the improvements you mentioned you heard using your diffusers/bass traps?

Happy listening everyone!

mrotino332 · « **Reply #30 on:** 13 Apr 2020, 04:06 pm »

Hi,

Just received my X5's this past Friday and have about 10 hours on them. Even with such low hours I can agree with what everyone is saying about them. Extremely transparent with a very large well defined deep

soundstage and very smooth at the same time. It is indeed a very special speaker and wasn't sure if it would be more transparent than the various Green MOuntain audio speakers I've had for the past several years but they are for sure.

I'm running them with a Pathos Twin Towers 30w/channel Class A hybrid single ended integrated with RCA blackplates as the input driver tubes. This amp easily powers them even at half volume or so. What impresses me as well as how involving they are at lower volumes. I have two rel storm subs that I haven't even powered on yet and not sure if I will need them. With the X5 amp gain at around 9/10 the bass is more than satisfying but I will try activating the subs at a very low crossover and gain to see what sounds best.

I'm using a Audience Au24sx interconnects, Ven haus audio chela speaker cables, a metrum onyx dac, wywires digital cable, modified wyred for sound sonos connect and G&D transforms cd transport. I will probably try the innous mini streamer soon as well to see how I like it.

I have them about 8 feet apart and am 10 feet from them and they are 4 1/2 feet from the front wall. My room is narrow at only 11 feet wide but I have extensive room treatments on the walls, ceiling, front wall and bass traps which help for sure.

Question: I'm sitting with my ear height at about 1 inch above the center of the tweeter, what is the optimal height, maybe ear level at the center

of the tweeter?

Also any benefits to removing the midrange grille? And what do you recommend for toe in? I have them toed in firing about a half foot outside my shoulders and sounds good to me.

mrotino332 · « **Reply #31 on:** 13 Apr 2020, 04:11 pm »

Here's a photo of the room treatments. The system is in my basement which is 20 feet by 11 feet by 7 feet so the room treatments and bass traps were a necessity.

Wind Chaser · « **Reply #32 on:** 13 Apr 2020, 04:42 pm »

Try pulling them out further into the room, like another 6' or so off the front wall.

Shakeydeal · « **Reply #33 on:** 13 Apr 2020, 04:53 pm »

In my opinion, you are sitting too high. You should be more on axis with the midrange driver, the tweeter has pretty wide vertical dispersion, so sitting slightly off axis of it will have no ill effects.

I took the midrange and sub grills off. Not sure about the sound, but I like the look better. Mine are toed in so they cross about a ft. behind my head. I didn't like them firing directly at me, and less toe in made them less involving. The speakers totally disappear at their present location in my room, which is 55 inches from the rear wall and 29 inches from the side walls. This puts them ~9.5 ft apart center to center.

Shakey

mrotino332 · « **Reply #34 on:** 13 Apr 2020, 05:23 pm »

Thanks both for your suggestions, really appreciate it. I'll try toeing them in a little more based on Shakey's suggestion.

Shakey how do the grills come off, sorry if it's a stupid question but don't want to damage the wood finish.

For now I'll try to switch my chair to a lower one and/or maybe get taller spikes to raise the speakers a bit or I could even tilt them upwards I guess. For my ears to be on the midrange axis would probably mean raising the speakers at least six inches or so which I don't believe is feasible unless I either get a much shorter chair or put them on some type of short platform base.

Windchaser, right now they are almost five feet from the front wall. I can try six feet from the front wall in the near future to see how I like it. If I do that I would probably have to realign the four sidewall acoustic panels but it could be done.

Don_S · « **Reply #35 on:** 13 Apr 2020, 05:52 pm »

Gentlemen,

I have a question based upon what I may or may not remember correctly. I thought the reflected back wave has to coincide with the front wave for optimum results. I have found 36"-42" has worked for the various OBs I have tried. Call it 3' even for discussion. Therefore speakers would have to be 3' or a multiple like 6'. Therefore 4', 4.5', 5' would not be optimum. Is my thinking correct or at least close?

Then there is the psycho-acoustic affect of when our ears hear and our brain interprets a reflection. Too soon and the brain "hears" confusion or a blurring. A more delayed reflection is interpreted as just what it is, a reflection. We live in an environment of constant audio reflection but perhaps not enough personal reflection.

undertowogt1 · « **Reply #36 on:** 13 Apr 2020, 06:30 pm »

Quote from: Wind Chaser on 13 Apr 2020, 04:42 pm

Try pulling them out further into the room, like another 6' or so off the front wall.

In my room if my Spatial M3 Turbos are against the wall like that they do not sound good at all. Mine sit about 4.5 feet off the wall. I would try pulling them out

Shakeydeal · « **Reply #37 on:** 13 Apr 2020, 06:32 pm »

The OP says his are 4.5 ft from the front wall.

Shakey

mrotino332 · « **Reply #38 on:** 13 Apr 2020, 07:17 pm »

Yes the photo is a bit misleading probably due to my phone camera but my speakers are a little more than 4.5 feet out from the front wall. I believe the optimum distance from the front wall is probably room dependent on where you obtain the most bass at the listening position being most likely the best distance from the front wall. I'll experiment after the speakers break in some more to see what sounds best.

I'll also experiment with toe in and seating height as suggested and am sure the sound will be even better. But I am amazed at the performance at this price level, really excellent craftmanship as well.

ric · « **Reply #39 on:** 14 Apr 2020, 01:52 pm »

I would recommend breaking the speakers in first, get used to the sound, make adjustments of course but let your ears and the speakers break in.
Once you "know your sound" and want to tweak, try removing the grills, see what happens. I also recommend Iso Acoustics Gaia's for feet and also their Orea products under...everything. Try them out, I think they offer returns. Here is Clayton's manual for the M4's, might help a little.

[url]https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0189/4544/files/Hologram_M4_User_Manual_R2.pdf