[Cloud.sessions]

Hey Guys, thought I would post an update on my system. I received the Ian Canada streamer earlier and have been listening to it and burning it in. I must say I’m impressed with it. First working with the Raspberry pi has been a breeze, getting it up and going, and installing the operating system was as simple as watching a YouTube tutorial, And everything worked the first time. It’s been one of the most reliable streamers I’ve had in, it takes like 30 seconds to boot up, always shows up in roon, and I have yet to have a dropout. Assembling the steamer was also a breeze, Ian has projects that you can purchase that have everything you need bundled up and the Gabster channel on YouTube has some nice tutorials on how to set it up. Honestly no Diy experience needed. This could be a first time project for somebody.
The sound is much better then I anticipated, it’s smooth, natural, and fluid sounding with very good layering in the sound stage. The highs are detailed yet sweet and refined, and the bass is very textured and big sounding. I would say it’s better than the Sonore opticalrendu, the opticalrendu has a blacker background and more presence in the mids. But the Ian Canada has more inner detail and is a bit more fluid and relaxed sounding. Overall they are comparable, but the Ian Canadas (raspberry pi) network reliability and software wins hands down. I’ve decided the Sonore will be the one to go and I’ll keep the Ian Canada and continue to build it out to see if I can improve it further. I’ve already ordered the first upgrade, I ordered his very good performing PSU to run the steamer as I have a generic switch mode powering it now because my ifi supply was too high of voltage  .

Overall I’m very pleased to see a company producing a steamer that is more in line with what streamers SHOULD cost . Most of these companies out there are slapping a computer in a case and charging $5k+ for them. Not saying all of them are bad many of them are actually quite good (hifi Rose RS130) just that we’re paying quite a ridiculous markup a lot of the time.
 
I also received my final crossover parts and have been living with them for a while now. I’ll post my thoughts and information on the new x-over thread made by catluck!

If anybody wants to post about their system go ahead, we would love to see it. I made this thread to connect with other Spatial customers setups and learn about what equipment they enjoy on their speakers. I’ll jump in from time to time and update it with new and interesting components and room upgrades we find. Spatial will be acquiring the LTA Aero DAC soon, I’m excited to hear that on our speakers and how it sounds. I’ve heard it a few different times and thought it always sounded really good.

[DaveWin88]

Hey guys. I'm back with some observations   After all the newness has worn off, I've been dumbfounded on getting bass in my room. It's not the deep bass! just any bass if you will I've moved my room treatment around (Front wall, first and second reflections) I just couldn't understand the upper frequency dominance!! I'm still learning this stuff too. The balance is better which made it harder? to pinpoint. Well through some technique I use I determined that the ceiling is a major issue with the Spatials! It's just the nature of the dispersion of this style tweeter! So I came up with the solution! Guys please take this serious!! I discovered this at the end of the weekend, and have little time with it. I've have also tried to get them more straight up and down (I'm still got a bit more) It's made a HUGE improvement!!! Just like that I have bass! (It was so heavily masked)  I'm talking all the mid bass that makes up so many instruments.Try this even with a towel! I'm using a piece of Jute rug. Game changer guys!!!!!!!!! Please try this and get back with us. The soundstage did not suffer any highs, width or height where it counts. I'm still going to work on how much to have hanging over. It's mostly my room issue, but the dispersion is the culprit.

Back to the crossover   The dynamics are the star of the show Theirs so much information that you weren't hearing, as the old setup was more on and off if you will. (the music-just an example) the instruments seem to last longer in time (decay, depth, spatial information) So much wonderful detail comes along with it!    Stupid quiet! As I've said before, VERY 3D sounding!


   

[Spatial Audio]

Hey guys. I'm back with some observations   After all the newness has worn off, I've been dumbfounded on getting bass in my room. It's not the deep bass! just any bass if you will I've moved my room treatment around (Front wall, first and second reflections) I just couldn't understand the upper frequency dominance!! I'm still learning this stuff too. The balance is better which made it harder? to pinpoint. Well through some technique I use I determined that the ceiling is a major issue with the Spatials! It's just the nature of the dispersion of this style tweeter! So I came up with the solution! Guys please take this serious!! I discovered this at the end of the weekend, and have little time with it. I've have also tried to get them more straight up and down (I'm still got a bit more) It's made a HUGE improvement!!! Just like that I have bass! (It was so heavily masked)  I'm talking all the mid bass that makes up so many instruments.Try this even with a towel! I'm using a piece of Jute rug. Game changer guys!!!!!!!!! Please try this and get back with us. The soundstage did not suffer any highs, width or height where it counts. I'm still going to work on how much to have hanging over. It's mostly my room issue, but the dispersion is the culprit.

Back to the crossover   The dynamics are the star of the show Theirs so much information that you weren't hearing, as the old setup was more on and off if you will. (the music-just an example) the instruments seem to last longer in time (decay, depth, spatial information) So much wonderful detail comes along with it!    Stupid quiet! As I've said before, VERY 3D sounding!


 

Thanks for your follow up posts, Dave!
We may have to look into audiophile-grade speaker toupees 

One of the things we did with the S6 (M6 successor) was to make the baffle slightly taller and adjust the driver separation to mitigate the lobe interaction. But, every room is different and many times solving one issue raises a different issue. Also, we have found that using the grills can help reduce any immediate diffraction as the sound waves leave the woofers.

Keep experimenting and let us know what you find.

[fataxeman]

Ive been making some system changes and thought I’d post about it. First I’m selling my Sonore streaming system, it’s been amazing and is amoung the best streamers I’ve heard. We just had the lampizator gulf stream in and I preferred the Sonore gear in my system. Sonore is a very good digital company and I couldn’t speak higher praise of them. I’ve really wanted to pull the trigger on the flagship hi-fi rose streamer, but alas I’m a bit of a tinkerer and design nut so I prefer something a little more involving. (Plus I mean 5 grand for a computer is starting to get into silly town, but hey this is a silly hobby). I’ve ordered the Ian Canada I2s streamer and I’m very excited to compare it to the Sonore stuff going into my May DAC and Sam’s DIY DAC. I’ve used Ian’s power supplies and they are wicked good so if he is a similar level of Digital designer, it could be really nice for the money. We'll see I’m a bit sceptical, if it can’t top the Sonore I will probably build an audiolinix based solution.
On some more fun news, I convinced Sam to refine the M4 crossover. You didn’t hear this from me, but the Sapphire tweeter is scheduled to be re-released and we may or may have not ordered a stash  . Sam was eager to get his hands on them again with potential of the sapphire line coming back. And I must say….what Sam did with this latest revision is astounding. I have never heard my M4 or any sapphire sound like this. the stage they throw defies logic, it is massive in every direction. Left to right, up and down, front to back, this speaker is throwing Hail Marys! Things 15 feet to the left of the speaker and things 15 feet deep in the stage and the images are still focused with great intelligibility. I’ve only ever heard 2 other systems do this, one is Ron’s room in Texas and the other is the Magico system at Minneapolis hi-fi. The vocals are also to die for! It’s right there with the Q3 in vocal performance. The way it viscerally places the vocalist while giving them a holographic nature is among the best I’ve heard, right there with the Q3. And last the clarity and detail got dialed up to 11. I’ve always felt like once Clayton had to put a full-fledged crossover on that sapphire tweeter and then later transitioned to a two way on the M4, It lost a lot of natural detail and fluidity. The original M3 was just…. Amazing. I’ve tried diligently to resurrect that in my M4. i’ve gone through a number of design revisions with Clayton and Sam. And alas I’d gotten better then a stock  sapphire but never to that level. Until now!! I don’t put this lightly. It’s better than the original M3 (no crossover) in terms of that effortless not in your face detail. It has that same resolution where the sapphire tweeter is playing but those 12 inch woofers just have a bit more resolution than the 15 inch. This has to be the most transparent crossover I’ve heard, and I’ve heard a lot, on different speakers. The downside to these new speakers is that you gotta know what you like in sound and how to get there. This crossover/speaker takes on so much of the sound of your system. If you want a scalpel, they will be that, if you wanna hook them up to a warm, smooth, forgiving system, they’ll be that too.

Spatial needs to come out with the sapphires again lol 

[fataxeman]

Hi,
I haven't visited this site or posted in over a year I'm guessing.  It's been so long, I don't even know if I'm going about this correctly.

A couple of things.  I have owned two Sonore products and think they sound good, but, operationally, it has been kind of a rocky road.  I still have a microRendu, but it is not being used currently.  It was the one that I had a lot of trouble with and had to go back to the company; I had multiple problems with getting it repaired/replaced and I won't go in to that.

For several months now, I have been using their Signature Rendu and it sounds quite good.  I am running it with it's only output (I2S) in to a Denafrips Pontus II 12th-1 DAC and am really happy with it, especially because I bought it at a great used price.

I was just wondering which Sonore model you had and what your experience with it was.

Also, I am a M3 Sapphire owner.  I bought these new from Clayton about 2-3 years ago.  I would like to buy a spare tweeter from Spatial and was wondering how best to go about this/what thread might get me headed in the right direction.  I don't know which brand tweeter it is or anything about it without going to look or take a picture.  I only know enough about electronics to be dangerous.

I appreciate any info you could give me.

Thank you,
Charles Cannon a.k.a. Fataxeman

[Charles Xavier]

Hi,
I haven't visited this site or posted in over a year I'm guessing.  It's been so long, I don't even know if I'm going about this correctly.

A couple of things.  I have owned two Sonore products and think they sound good, but, operationally, it has been kind of a rocky road.  I still have a microRendu, but it is not being used currently.  It was the one that I had a lot of trouble with and had to go back to the company; I had multiple problems with getting it repaired/replaced and I won't go in to that.

For several months now, I have been using their Signature Rendu and it sounds quite good.  I am running it with it's only output (I2S) in to a Denafrips Pontus II 12th-1 DAC and am really happy with it, especially because I bought it at a great used price.

I was just wondering which Sonore model you had and what your experience with it was.

Also, I am a M3 Sapphire owner.  I bought these new from Clayton about 2-3 years ago.  I would like to buy a spare tweeter from Spatial and was wondering how best to go about this/what thread might get me headed in the right direction.  I don't know which brand tweeter it is or anything about it without going to look or take a picture.  I only know enough about electronics to be dangerous.

I appreciate any info you could give me.

Thank you,
Charles Cannon a.k.a. Fataxeman

https://www.parts-express.com/Peerless-DA32TX00-08-1-1-4-Corundum-Dome-Tweeter-264-1678?quantity=1

Just became available today after a long out of stock

[fataxeman]

I appreciate the information.  If you care to share your thoughts on your Sonore experience, that would be great as well.

Thank you,
Charles Cannon