Spatial Audio Labs

I own the Sapphire M3s. Coming from many good speakers including Quad ESL's, the M3's sound as good and better than many costing much more. They give you what you feed them and any changes will be easily heard. Room acoustics I had to work with when I got my Quad ESLs. Dye to radiate sound as strongly from the back as the front, panel does the same. So I was set when mine arrived, the sound is very in-room like you hear from a mic feed. They are not bright but every open like a panel speaker or ESL. They image well and go not just low but low with definition with no bloat or forward base as many speakers have on all songs, they can really go low but then on another track bass will be very laid back, so again they give you what is on the recordings. In this day and age when $15,000 speakers are called a bargain, what Spatial charge vs. sound quality are high value, high-quality sound, and a steal. 40 years in this hobby and this is one of the better speakers I've owned or heard regardless of price. 

And I own the X5s and they are my endgame speaker. Great transparency plus dynamics. Easy to drive and a great price. You can occasionally find the X5s or X3s on the used markets for great prices. Fantastic speakers, IMHO. 

I recently heard one of the latest Spatial speakers at an NYC show, and for me they were one of the best sounds in show (shown with LTA electronics if memory serves) albeit at a much lower cost than most of the others.  Very impressive.  I think it’s awesome that they can use relatively cheap professional drivers in a dipole configuration and cut out a huge amount of cost by not using a heavy and very expensive box cabinet.  It’s so contra to the rest of the Uber-expensive speakers yet they still achieve great results, which I love.  Definitely now on my radar for an end-game speaker.  

I recently acquired a pair of X3's and first and foremost I'd call them revealing with an omnipresent quality. I've tried five amps with them, leading the pack is a Naim Uniti Nova. The combination has quick reflexes and an exquisitely controlled, musical, extended bass. I only have two memories of systems I'll never forget and the X3's belong right there with them.

I know that many of the AC guys love tubes with Spatial speakers but I'm interested to know what else folks have successfully paired with their Spatials. The Nova is my favorite out of Hegel H390, Vinnie Rossi LIO with VR120 or Musical Fidelity 550K Superchargers and my plucky Naim Nait 2.

@jpm

It seems to me that most amps sound good with the Xs because they are so easy to drive so you can do SS or tube and SETs and easily drive them with low wattage. My experience has pretty much been, whenever I find the new best thing, it makes the speakers sound better. Of course, I hope that’s better and not different. My 2 favorites so far are my LTA Z40+ integrated and now my bestest favorite is Don Sachs’ Valhalla. I've heard that the guys who work on these speakers love Don Sachs' stuff which I guess used to be the Valhalla and may now be some wild 300b mono blocks that sound ungodly expensive.