A little history, before we discuss the Spatial Audio Lab M3 Sapphire loudspeaker. About fifteen years ago, I was auditioning loudspeakers one after the other, like somebody trying on an armload of pants in a department store fitting room. I auditioned speakers from Ohm (multiple models), Totem, Reference 3A (multiple models), PSB, Silverline, Merlin, LSA, Ascend and Omega. Some (Ohm, Merlin, Reference 3A) took up residence in my listening room for months or longer. Others entered and exited in a matter of weeks. Ultimately, I found all of them not quite the right fit, and sold them online or sent them back to the manufacturer. My wife and daughter would tease me — “New speakers again?” — as I wrestled yet another bulky shipping carton across the threshold. You know all those audiophile forum threads with subject lines that begin, “Looking to get off the speaker merry-go-round”? I was one of those guys and I participated in a lot of those threads, weary of all the tweaking, buying and selling and buying again, and the financial drain of losing a few hundred dollars (at least!) with each trade. Being an audiophile was getting to be a joyless chore. What had […]
