![]() Yet all of my past speaker reviews had relied upon the only amp I own: the Audio Note Kits Kit 1 single-ended triode (SET) integrated that I built a number of years ago. After all, when you read a first-rate, professional speaker review, a thorough reviewer will typically test the speaker system with more than one amplifier (not to mention with different cables and other ancillary equipment). In that spirit, consider the rest of this review an object lesson in what you may be missing out on if you become a little too certain of the truth of various, high-end audio orthodoxies… Lend me an amp…Ībout a month ago, I began to question the validity of my emerging conclusions about the performance of the Spatial Hologram M3 Turbo S. This brings me to the revised title of this Prologue – “Certainty.” The title is a tribute to Leonard Kravitz (no, not that Lenny Kravitz), a professor of mine in grad school who used to like to say, ![]() And, it did turn out that the music made by the pairing of that amplifier with the M4’s was so dreamy, and so much more captivating than anything else I had ever heard in my listening room, that I was certain I was “done.” At 93 dB efficiency, they seemed perfectly suited to my low-power, single-ended amp. So the search for a good speaker match for my SET led me (with a detour into single driver speakers along the way) to the Spatial M4’s. Thus, I was going to have to find speakers that were better suited to its capabilities, because that amp simply wasn’t going anywhere, ever. As a card carrying member of Team SET (not to mention cherishing my memories of the hours and hours I had invested in lovingly building that amp, resistor by resistor, capacitor by capacitor, with my own two hands), I was convinced that the Kit 1 was my “forever” amplifier. I have been a member of the SET Tube Team ever since I heard how much better my old Reference 3A De Capo monitors sounded when driven by my Audio Note Kits “Kit 1,” compared to the Manley Mahi push-pull, mono-block amps that preceded it (and the Bel Canto S300, Class D amp that had come before it…) This SET “conversion” experience was itself the result of an online forum comment to the effect that “you haven’t really heard what the De Capo’s are capable of until you have heard them with a SET amp!!” So FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) dictated that I had to try a SET amp.įast forwarding a year or so, I began to suspect that the De Capos weren’t nearly as efficient as I had thought. And within the tube amplifier tribe, you’ll encounter battles between the folks who think that push-pull designs can be just dandy, shaking their heads in condescension at those who, fervent in their belief that no other topology is worthy of their time and money, swear by single-ended triode designs. For example, it’s easy to find folks in the solid-state tribe who swear by Class D amplifiers, versus those who swear at all Class D amps as cold and lifeless. And in the universe of amplification, you find not only devotees of solid-state versus true believers in tube power, but there are also smaller rivalries within the two camps. You know what I’m talking about: people who believe that digital will never catch up to analogue, or that a speaker must use first order crossovers (or no crossover at all) to sound like real music. I had originally planned to call this Prologue, “Amplifier Orthodoxy,” which is one of many audiophile orthodoxies that you encounter in online forum posts. Here’s what happened… Prologue: “Certainty” While much of the delay had to do with the busyness of my work and family commitments, this review was also delayed because my experience with the Spatial M3’s took a major and unexpected left turn a couple of weeks ago. I have been writing this review for several months and I appreciate your being so patient during that time. As those of you who follow this blog may remember, a few months ago I boxed up my Spatial Audio M4’s and shipped them back to Spatial in Utah in partial credit for an upgrade to the big sibling of the M4, the M3 Turbo S.
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