Magnepan, Ohm, Spatial or ??

Jerry,

Yes, everything sounds better with a Lava Lamp.

Those are classic Boston A40s along the side wall, one under chess table. I am original owner and refoamed a couple years back. Great little speakers! I use them for sound off wall mounted TV above the rack. Driven by a $80 Fosi Class D bluetooth integrated amp about the size of a pack of cigarettes. Sound is very good! That is my third standalone system that is mostly for 2 channel A/V but still pretty competent with music.

I don’t do surround sound. Too much hassle and I am mostly a music guy.

Yes and an inversion table. Ohm’s image like champs to the side and upside down. :)

You will notice neither of my two most common listening spots are dead center in front of the Ohms. Not needed. Imaging and soundstage is coherent and tonality balanced anywhere in the room in front of the speakers.

THe blue chair is my preferred listening location. SOundstage there extends a good 20’ left to right and narrows as you move left and loose exposure to the area to the left of the speakers. That is the "coherent" part of the Ohm CLS driver at play.

Most interesting of all (at least to me): with mono recordings the central image is tightly focused in the middle of the rear wall to the left of the left Ohm, just left of the sliding door. REcordings sound like the band is set up right around the middle with ambience similar to what you would hear in a small jazz club, like The Village Vanguard (my room is smaller but similar shaped). I’ve actually been there and compared.    Mono recordings are another particular strength of the Ohms.   So many I enjoy now that never could prior.

Could never get the old Magnepans to work well in this room when we moved in. Basement of our old townhouse which was just a wider and bigger rectangle was easier, but I always missed being able to feel as well as hear the music with planars.

A comment about Ohms v. Magnapans. Mapman describes this well -- the Ohms present a wonderful image regardless of the listener' position in front of the speakers, even in "difficult" or asymmetrical rooms.

I contrast that to the Maggies (I owned a pair of 1.6QRs) which work great IF the room is right. I loved them at my prior house which had a larger, symmetrical room with plenty of room to have the Maggies out from the walls. In the current house, they were a nightmare and quickly got sold.

Take that experience into consideration when choosing speakers. Some makes are far more forgiving than others of the room they are in.

I also had the Spatial M5 Sapphire for a few weeks and couldn’t stand them. They had none of the magic that the Vandy’s have. AND the speakers were damaged in shipping returning them to Spatial and Clayton put me on the hook for the costs. If it wasn't for the buyer protections on my Citibank credit card I would have been out the $2300 or whatever the costs were. Buyer beware.....

Strange. I had quite the opposite experience with Clayton and Spatial. While I ultimately didn't keep the speakers due to room constraints I had at the time, the transactions were smooth and painless. 

To the OP, 

Having owned the Spatial M4 Turbos and M4 Triode Masters, Magnepan 1.7is and .7s, Vandy 2Ce Sig IIs and 1Cis, my bet is the M5 Sapphires would be the best performance value in your space. Of all the speakers I listed, the Vandy 2CE sigs were the most disappointing. I couldn't get them to sound good and my 44-year- old Large Advents outperformed them in many regards. I still own the .7s which I prefer to the 1.7is. The .7s have a rare and addictive musicality but are not as dynamic as Spatials and obviously less efficient. 

If the M5 Sapphires are indeed an improvement over the M4 Triode Masters, they'll outperform most of the aforementioned speakers in three main respects: bass texture, detail, and high frequency distortion. The 2CE Sigs don't hold a candle in those areas. The Maggies can manage much of the bass texture but lack the resolution of the Spatials. 

Thanks @helomech.

Can't vouch for seller but there is seemingly nice pair of white Spatial M4 just up for sale here today for a very reasonable price.   I was half tempted....would be fully if I needed another pair of speakers.