A fellow audiophile, who also happens to be a friend and good customer, has a blog which he calls

A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE

He recently made an attempt to hear for himself a speaker that others had spoken of highly. He was able to take part in two demos at the homes and offices of “passionate” audiophiles selling the speaker in question — stereo showrooms being a thing of the past — as well as lots of other high-end equipment.

Let’s just say that all did not go as well as Robert had hoped.

On the bright side, he now has a newfound appreciation for the listening skills, or lack thereof, of some of the folks in our hobby.

Spatial Audio Lab M3 Sapphires: NOT a Review!

This youtube demonstration of the speakers is worth watching, or at least skimming through, which is about all I could manage. I’ve added some of my own comments at the end of Robert’s review which you may find interesting.

One quick note: the monstrous Legacy Whisper speaker system I used to own had a similar design, with four 15″ woofers per side in an open baffle array. It did some things I have never heard any other speaker do, and the free-air design no doubt was a big part of its remarkable ability to move air with great speed and authority above a hundred cycles or thereabouts.

Below that, not so much, which turns out to be a problem that is very difficult to solve.

It was fun while it lasted, but it had too many shortcomings, shortcomings its little brother, the Legacy Focus, I discovered to my endless joy, did not have. The Focus sounds right to us in every way, which is why it is our reference speaker and will likely remain so far into the future.

I freely admit that there are surely better speakers in the world. I just have not heard them.

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