I just bought a pair of these based on this thread and some ancient Audiokarma ones for 60 bucks. I want to buy a better amplifier to make them sing, I have read (on old forums for what that is worth) that the Holographic line really displays the flaws of whatever you plug into it.
That said, I really am blown away. I can see why these are cult speakers. They are not perfectly tuned, I find the upper mids a little fatiguing but there’s a surprising amount of bass in these, and a lot to work with. But importantly, the imagining is incredible.
This old hifi review of the M4 (the smallest floor standing model) puts it very succinctly.
“The M4 produced perhaps the most natural music stage in our room that we have heard from any conventional or unaided speaker. We are not comparing it with some larger, and much more expensive, speakers that employ interaural crosstalk cancellation to enhance their spatial characteristics, or with systems using electronic means of achieving “holographic” effects, which can be pleasing but are very different from the sound of the M4’s.
Putting it as simply as possible, the M4 speakers rarely appeared to be the source of the sound we heard. The music came from that end of the room, with much of the depth, width, and height that we associate with a live performance, but never seemed to emerge from those small black boxes.”
What really is impressive about these is not the sound that they create, but that they come out of such weird, small 90s speakers. I listened to the soundtrack of Annihilation and it felt like they were made for these speakers. I have jokingly described them as sounding “haunted”. A few people I’ve turned these on to have said similar things. They fill the room in a very unique way, and create a sound that you appear to live in.
I’ve seen a number of comments from people describing them as not perfect but a speaker they will never part with. I feel that way too, there just really are few speakers like them. I could see someone either in a DIY or commercial context running with this design, and refining it into something incredible, and I would love to see some testing down the line.
