Spatial X5 speakers

@ hilde45 I have collected some excess stereo equipment intentionally.  I love the Pass Lab amps.  To my ear, they do solid state right.  I actually have another Pass Lab X250.5  amp that will be returned to me after mods after the first of the year.  So, I am just throwing different amps at the Spatials in a grand natural experiment.

@ decooney, I am running a range of amps thru the Spatials because I have a range of amps to run thru them.  Hard to really predict how they will sound based on wattage.  No reason a 20 wpc tube amp should have trouble driving 97 db sensitive speakers yet some have tried some of these amps, and to their ears, they did not satisfactorily drive the Spatials.  So I am going to try a range of moderate to mid high power amps, bot tube and solid state, until my ears reconcile the winners.

@ hilde45, I do not think the Spatials need soft presentation tube amp to not sound harsh.  I am still in the breakin phase at at 335 hours now.  During this phase I have gotten some harsh reproduction with the Sachs amp.  However, as time goes by the occasional music that can sound this way is definitely lessening.  I think this is significantly, maybe not entirely, a break in issue

@jaymark Totally on the same page with you about trying different amps and not just looking at wattage alone. The Pass XA-25 and some of the Firstwatt amps have proven that its more about quality than quantity of watts. Select output transistors and quality big iron transformers help. Btw, I like the older .5 amps too. While I’m wrapped up on SS and mostly into tube mono amps any more, I still admire a few select ss amps. Following to learn what tube guys are doing with Spatial now in the mid-power 40-60w range, not into fleawatt tube or high power SS any more.

For X3's, the XO point to the powered sub is 90hz. "The 12” mid crossover point is 2nd order at 1kHz. The driver runs without a filter on the bottom of its range to preserve performance". (Per Clayton)

I'm running X3's with Allnic Audio A-6000 300b monoblocks. 50 watts per channel or 60w with EML XLS tubes.

The 50 watts from the Allnic amps feels like more than enough for the X3.

I've been through a lot of speakers and these are proving to be among the most difficult to get dialed in properly. I'm sure they'll be fantastic once I get everything right in the room and with cabling.

Congrats on your X5's.

Rooze

I have the X5s and am unclear Rooze on the crossover.  My understanding is that the 12 inch mid driver is blocked at 90hz so that it isn't reproducing any frequencies below 90hz and that the 12 mid bass driver does not have any crossover parts on the top of it's range and just rolls off naturally.  The tweeter has a capacitor at 1 kz.

Maybe you are saying the same thing above and I apologize if you are or maybe I'm mistaken in regards to the 12 mid driver.  I know the 12 inch mid driver does not move much with heavy bass material so it seems it's being blocked at 90 hz.

Amazing discussion of Spatial X3's here, including a complete rundown of the effects of different amps. 

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=179575.0