I had a chance to fly to SLC with some others and this is what I've posted elsewhere.
I'm sure the others above will give more detail explained more eloquently but here's my take after an incredible weekend full of fun and long travel. I'm toast tonight.
I arrived at Spatial on Friday (12/9/16) at about noon along with "TomS". When we arrived Clayton and Vinnie Rossi were already doing their thing. We briefly talked about the X1's that were standing proud in the room. After a brief talk we listened with the Spatial demo equipment on hand at the time. It was a 2009 iMac > miniDSP > Red Dragon Amps. Basically as simple as it could really be. It certainly sounded good. After that the Vinnie Rossi LIO was installed and measurements were taken as "TomS" posted above. Vinnie and Clayton started to do what they do; and do best. I must say that Vinnie Rossi impressed me before this day after seeing the LIO back at RMAF with Tom back in 2014 (?) at its debut. To have the foresight and knowledge to pull something of that magnitude is no small feat.
Enter the Vinnie Rossi X1 Amp Module. What Vinnie did while we were standing there with iteration after iteration of tweaking on a board based on measurements and math was nothing short of incredible. The guy is by far the best I've ever seen with a soldering iron on a very small board with very small components where there is no room for error. He and Clayton pulled it off! After a bunch of measurements it was time to hookup some of the electronics I brought. We installed my Apple Airport Extreme that I put a static IP address on for the Sonore µRendu. With that I used my MacBook Air with a Seagate 2TB drive using JRiver along to the µRendu in DLNA mode. The power for the µRendu was provided by the 7Vdc from the LIO and the USB Cable Dongle was from P.I. Audio/TWL.
After things were set and sounding good we listened until 11:30 pm Friday night. It was sounding so damn good and we were having such a great time it was hard to leave. Oh, did I mention the food that was catered?!?! Thanks Clayton! Great company, food, music and suddenly all was right. On Saturday, "goskers" and his buddy Nick arrived before us. Basically we proceeded to play tunes and eat he same thing for the next 12 hrs giving them along with "Bob" from WPB, FL a chance to have the chair and play what they wanted. We ended Saturday at 8:30 pm as a big storm was brewing for the mountains and it was important that Clayton be able to get home. I flew back Sunday and figured that I occupied enough of Clayton's time so I didn't return on Sunday but instead got to sit at the airport for 5 hrs and watch football. So the question is how do they sound, right? Let me say that after living with the M3 Turbo S' for the past 10 months I really had no desire to change. The M3's still to this day do more than most and certainly in their price range. Quite frankly, I don't get how he does it but he does. Being able to see the Spatial facility and see the process and the actual parts that make up the whole production line was fantastic. I have even more respect for the company and products. I should also add that Spatial is in an industrial park in Salt Lake City and not in a basement. It's run like a real business and looks like it too. Back to sonics. So how do they compare? They really don't. That's where my problem lies. As happy as I am with the M3's the X1's are just simply better in every regard as you would expect. This is where things get a bit odd for me. I went there thinking that the X1's would be good and I'd like them and that would be it. I never thought I'd go there and listen to them and really think about replacing the $2800 M3's with the $10k+ (VR X1 Module) but they really do strike me in a way that hits home. As you may know, I had GedLee Abbeys for years. I loved them. There was nothing they didn't do right IMO. After a divorce and loss of listening space and quite frankly really wanting to simplify my stereo and life the thought of the LIO and M3's was refreshing. After having them side by side I decided that I could be happy with this setup for the foreseeable future. What I wasn't expecting was to have an audition of X1's that brought back some listening qualities that I've missed. The shear amount of detail done with such finese of the X1's is simply jaw dropping. I guess the way to put it is that the X1's are the well designed speakers that have that "it" factor while listening. Along with the Vinnie Rossi LIO, the X1 and LIO combo still retains my simple setup and provides a listening experience that I prefer. Whether it's for you or not; only you can decide. It seems as though there will be plenty of pairs out there to audition in time but of course you can hear them at the Munich and LA Show coming in May and June respectively. I have no doubt that if you wanted to take a trip to Spatial in SLC that Clayton would accommodate you too. It's important to note that the room at Spatial isn't ideal. In fact, I see that as a good thing. If it was a purpose built top notch room you would then always question how they could sound in your space. The advantage here is that you get to hear them in a real world environment and hear what a properly designed CD design can actually do.
Thanks again to Clayton, Vinnie Rossi and the other guys. It was a fantastic weekend for Audio Tourism (Tom's term).
