Too good to be true?

[tino]

Apparently not ... $2000, fantastic looking, passive, open baffle, 100dB sensitivity, 20 year warranty .... best in show in US (AXPONA 2014)

.... wonder if these'll ever make it over here ray:

PS They're called Spatial Audio M2 Hologram

 

[Vladimir]

People are very impressed with Spatial Audio. One fellow audiophile replaced his WIlson Alexandrias with a pair of SA's at much lower cost and double the pleasure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvmNDKYrRoY

 

[Hi-FiOutlaw]

People are very impressed with Spatial Audio. One fellow audiophile replaced his WIlson Alexandrias with a pair of SA's at much lower cost and double the pleasure.

 

[nopiano]

Reminds me a bit of the Maggie MMG which I don't think we can get here, but used to cost less than a thousand USD. Always struck me as potentially much nicer than a tall box.

 

[MajorFubar]

People are very impressed with Spatial Audio. One fellow audiophile replaced his WIlson Alexandrias with a pair of SA's at much lower cost and double the pleasure.

Think you're being very disrespectful to the Anglia lol. More character than the Euroboxes on the road nowadays. Oh and it wasn't a 70s car.

 

[Hi-FiOutlaw]

People are very impressed with Spatial Audio. One fellow audiophile replaced his WIlson Alexandrias with a pair of SA's at much lower cost and double the pleasure.

Think you're being very disrespectful to the Anglia lol. More character than the Euroboxes on the road nowadays. Oh and it wasn't a 70s car.

sorry, but they were so popular in Portugal in the 70's, so...

 

[tino]

What's the difference between the open baffle design with a few exposed wires and the back of your average AV rack?

You mostly will look at and listen to the speakers from the front.

 

[busb]

What's the difference between the open baffle design with a few exposed wires and the back of your average AV rack?

You mostly will look at and listen to the speakers from the front.

The fact that most of us can't see behind our racks may have something to do with it any more than seeing the back of a fridge or cooker

No that maybe we shouldn't - we may find out what the awful smell was!

 

[matt49]

I think they look splendid: very sleek and minimalist. I hope they reach our shores soon.

The high sensitivity is enticing. They should be easy to drive.

Although they're not that big, they may be a challenge to many UK homes. Like dipoles, they probably need quite a bit of clearance to the back and sides. And the modern look won't go well with UK standard-issue chintz and woodchip.

Matt

 

[tino]

I think they look splendid: very sleek and minimalist. I hope they reach our shores soon.

The high sensitivity is enticing. They should be easy to drive.

Although they're not that big, they may be a challenge to many UK homes. Like dipoles, they probably need quite a bit of clearance to the back and sides. And the modern look won't go well with UK standard-issue chintz and woodchip.

Matt

Apparently they need 18 inch wall clearance (according to the designer) and reading the US reports, they were remarkably tolerant of room size and room interaction.

I agree they look fab, like a skinny Avantgarde Acoustic Zero.

 

[hoopsontoast]

I think they look splendid: very sleek and minimalist. I hope they reach our shores soon.

The high sensitivity is enticing. They should be easy to drive.

Although they're not that big, they may be a challenge to many UK homes. Like dipoles, they probably need quite a bit of clearance to the back and sides. And the modern look won't go well with UK standard-issue chintz and woodchip.

Matt

Actually, being Di-Pole speakers they will work very well up against side walls due to the figure-of-8 radiation pattern, but as you say, will need some space behind them.

Interesting though, I have had the Magnepan MMG mentioned too, lovely speakers and at $599 great value over in the USA but by the time you get them here its about £750, still good value but ex-demo MG12s can be had around £900-£1k.

 

[Electro]

They look unusual but very nice and I would love to hear a pair if they ever reach the UK , if they sound like their name then I would have no hesitation buying a pair .

 

[matt49]

Actually, being Di-Pole speakers they will work very well up against side walls due to the figure-of-8 radiation pattern, but as you say, will need some space behind them.

Yes, you're right, some dipoles don't mind being close to side walls. I was thinking of Martin Logans. This mixed message is from the manual for my speakers:

A good rule of thumb is to have the side walls as far away from the speaker sides as possible. However, Martin Logan’s unique controlled dispersion electrostatic transducer inherently minimizes side wall reflections—a position as little as two feet from the side walls often proves adequate. Sometimes, if the system is bright or the imaging is not to your liking, and the side walls are very near, try putting curtains or softening material directly to the edge of each speaker. An ideal side wall, however, is no side wall at all.

But it seems the speakers in questions aren't picky, which is good.

Matt

 

[Neptune_Twilight]

10 mins with a bag of cable ties would work wonders for reliability - Just catching the cable at the bottom would pull off all the tagged connections to the drivers? Surely that’s a picture of the pre-production product? My childrens science experiments they have brought home in the past show more thought in wiring.

 

[hoopsontoast]

Actually, being Di-Pole speakers they will work very well up against side walls due to the figure-of-8 radiation pattern, but as you say, will need some space behind them.

Yes, you're right, some dipoles don't mind being close to side walls. I was thinking of Martin Logans. This mixed message is from the manual for my speakers:

A good rule of thumb is to have the side walls as far away from the speaker sides as possible. However, Martin Logan’s unique controlled dispersion electrostatic transducer inherently minimizes side wall reflections—a position as little as two feet from the side walls often proves adequate. Sometimes, if the system is bright or the imaging is not to your liking, and the side walls are very near, try putting curtains or softening material directly to the edge of each speaker. An ideal side wall, however, is no side wall at all.

But it seems the speakers in questions aren't picky, which is good.

Matt

Ah ah thats beacuse the ML speakers usually use a dynamic driver in a sealed/ported enclosure for bass, so are not true Di-Pole speakers at bass frequencys, only for the mid-treble.

Any true Di-Pole like Magnepan, Quad ESL, Apogee or Dyanamic Open baffles like the Jamo R909 for example, will all be happy close to side walls, like the speakers in the OP.

 

[namefail]

10 mins with a bag of cable ties would work wonders for reliability - Just catching the cable at the bottom would pull off all the tagged connections to the drivers? Surely that’s a picture of the pre-production product? My childrens science experiments they have brought home in the past show more thought in wiring.

There’s a shot (about 1.05 in) of the rear of the speaker in the video Vlad linked to and it doesn’t look much different to the photo.

 

[DocG]

I agree they look fab, like a skinny Avantgarde Acoustic Zero.

Zackly! Stunning! :cheers:

 

[lindsayt]

I quite like open baffles for their simplicity. They are the easiest type of speakers to DIY.

I suspect the 100 db efficiency speaker may be optimistic or not telling the whole story. Getting 100 dbs efficiency with a horn loaded midrange compression driver is easy. The difficulty is in getting that efficiency from 12" drivers on an open baffle. What they've done here is use two 8 ohm 12" drivers in parallel to give a low impedance in that area to suck more current from the amp. They don't specifiy what the minimum impedance is. It's likely that it would rather lower than optimum for low powered SET amps.

I also suspect that the frequency response would not be the flatest for this speaker over the total range from 20 hz to 20 khz. It's one of those design decisions where they've sacrificed this area for simplicity and having only 1 crossover area.

There's every chance that these will be good sounding speakers for something that's commercially available new for $2000.

 

[DocG]

I quite like open baffles for their simplicity. They are the easiest type of speakers to DIY.

I suspect the 100 db efficiency speaker may be optimistic or not telling the whole story. Getting 100 dbs efficiency with a horn loaded midrange compression driver is easy. The difficulty is in getting that efficiency from 12" drivers on an open baffle. What they've done here is use two 8 ohm 12" drivers in parallel to give a low impedance in that area to suck more current from the amp. They don't specifiy what the minimum impedance is. It's likely that it would rather lower than optimum for low powered SET amps.

I also suspect that the frequency response would not be the flatest for this speaker over the total range from 20 hz to 20 khz. It's one of those design decisions where they've sacrificed this area for simplicity and having only 1 crossover area.

There's every chance that these will be good sounding speakers for something that's commercially available new for $2000.

Sounds like an excellent companion for a Devialet with SAM protocol: all the current they need and a DSP to smooth out the frequency curve!

Now if they could just cross the Atlantic...

 

[matt49]

Sounds like an excellent companion for a Devialet with SAM protocol: all the current they need and a DSP to smooth out the frequency curve!

Now if they could just cross the Atlantic...

Argh! You beat me to it.

 

[Vladimir]

Well you can go bit higher in the range and get this.

 

[DocG]

Well you can go bit higher in the range and get this.

"A bit higher": that's what they call an understatement, right?

 

[steve_1979]

Excuse my stupidity. But where's the tweeter? How would those 12" drivers sound with the high frequency stuff?

They do look nice. 8)

 

[lindsayt]

As far as I can tell, it looks like a dual concentric design, with the tweeter in the centre of the upper 12" driver.

 

[matt49]

Or does it use a compression driver for HF?