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got my Holographic Imaging M5's, got questions


michiganpat

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My parents came out for a visit and brought the holographic imaging M5's I picked up. they're in decent shape, need some cosmetic work. I have some questions for those who may be in the know....

after taking them apart (yes, I took them apart before listening to them ;), I am thinking the woofers in the head units are not original. if anyone has a pair, could you let me know what the part numbers for your midwoofers are?

guess I'll have to listen to them before making a judgement about midwoof replacement, whether or not I should (and can?) find an original pair.

tweets look like the correct units, one looks original, the other a factory service part.

after googling, I verified the subwoofers in the towers are original, they have foam surrounds, the surrounds are usable as is, but feel like they'll need replacement in the next few years. the sub tower construction is very interesting, the woofer baffle slides right out with a little coaxing.

I'm debating if I want to repaint the towers, or veneer them in something...

I'll try post some pics in the next few days

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  • 2 weeks later...

We will all hunt you down if you don't let us know what you think of them:)!!

BTW, I scored a Marantz 7200SR and a Sony 135-watt stereo integrated amp.

Now I will be biamping the M5's and letting you folks know what impact that makes on my system.

well, I'll get them together this weekend. hard to say what they'll sound like with non-original 5" woofers.

found a couple options that look like they'll fit better than what's in there from MCM and parts express, but they're

aluminum cone, and the P-E ones have a bit of a peak at 5khz that might need a slight xover mod (I'm thinking a ~.7mH inductor for a low pass on the woof)

if you could, could you open up one of your M5's top sections, and snap some pics of the 5" midwoofer, noting the part number? pics of mine tomorrow or sunday...

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well, I'll get them together this weekend. hard to say what they'll sound like with non-original 5" woofers.

found a couple options that look like they'll fit better than what's in there from MCM and parts express, but they're

aluminum cone, and the P-E ones have a bit of a peak at 5khz that might need a slight xover mod (I'm thinking a ~.7mH inductor for a low pass on the woof)

if you could, could you open up one of your M5's top sections, and snap some pics of the 5" midwoofer, noting the part number? pics of mine tomorrow or sunday...

got them back together, will bring to my office tomorrow...did a quick listen, compared to my AR 312HO's pm my home theater setup, they are dry, and not as efficient

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OK, after 1/2 a day of listening, I'm quite impressed...they're in the corner of my 12x12 office, against the wall, and I'm between them, about 3-4' back, so I'm quite a ways off axis, tweeters inboard....

it sounds like I'm wearing headphones, like the sound is inside my head. there's a little boom to the bass, I might try bringing them closer to my desk (would be about 1.5' from the corner then) and see if that helps. even without the correct midwoofs, they're very clear and airy, much more so than my home-brews that use AR holographic imaging M1/M4 midwoofs and vifa tweets, which in the midrange/upper end detail almost the same amount better than my smaller advents. the M5's kick as good as the SA, maybe a little boomier. I think I'll keep them a while. there's some cosmetic issues that need to be addressed, and I'm debating repainting the bases vs. wrapping in real veneer or a woodgrain vinyl from parts-express...

I'd love to hear the M5's with the proper midwoofers, or ones that would fit better than the 4.5"ers in them now...I had to get creative with some weatherstripping to seal them to the woofer opening...I'm looking at some newer AR "the edge" poly woofers on fleabay that look like they'll fit quite nice, or these woofers:

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=295-330

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/55-1870&green=96197974-E8E6-5B3B-A56A-0AFB2D12C1CF&utm_campaign=MyBuys&utm_medium=Recommendation&utm_source=prod&utm_term=55-1870

size wize will both fit just about right, eyeballing the T/S parameters, looks like they should both work in the enclosure, albeit possibly with a little modding to the crossover...the cast frame version of the MCM gets pretty good reviews from Zaph's website...just not sure how well the siver cone will look in these...of course, nothing a sharpie or sparing use of satin black paint can't fix....

unless anyone has some spare M5/M6 5" midwoofs lying around...

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OK, after 1/2 a day of listening, I'm quite impressed...they're in the corner of my 12x12 office, against the wall, and I'm between them, about 3-4' back, so I'm quite a ways off axis, tweeters inboard....

it sounds like I'm wearing headphones, like the sound is inside my head. there's a little boom to the bass, I might try bringing them closer to my desk (would be about 1.5' from the corner then) and see if that helps. even without the correct midwoofs, they're very clear and airy, much more so than my home-brews that use AR holographic imaging M1/M4 midwoofs and vifa tweets, which in the midrange/upper end detail almost the same amount better than my smaller advents. the M5's kick as good as the SA, maybe a little boomier. I think I'll keep them a while. there's some cosmetic issues that need to be addressed, and I'm debating repainting the bases vs. wrapping in real veneer or a woodgrain vinyl from parts-express...

I'd love to hear the M5's with the proper midwoofers, or ones that would fit better than the 4.5"ers in them now...I had to get creative with some weatherstripping to seal them to the woofer opening...I'm looking at some newer AR "the edge" poly woofers on fleabay that look like they'll fit quite nice, or these woofers:

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=295-330

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/55-1870&green=96197974-E8E6-5B3B-A56A-0AFB2D12C1CF&utm_campaign=MyBuys&utm_medium=Recommendation&utm_source=prod&utm_term=55-1870

size wize will both fit just about right, eyeballing the T/S parameters, looks like they should both work in the enclosure, albeit possibly with a little modding to the crossover...the cast frame version of the MCM gets pretty good reviews from Zaph's website...just not sure how well the siver cone will look in these...of course, nothing a sharpie or sparing use of satin black paint can't fix....

unless anyone has some spare M5/M6 5" midwoofs lying around...

What are you powering them with ?

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What are you powering them with ?

a marantz 2230. I moved them inboard to right next to my desk, so they're up against the back wall of the office, about 6.5-7' apart, and about 1.5' or so from the side wall. seemed to help a bit with the perceived boominess, what helped more was to take a little bit of polyfill (about the size of a large grapefruit) and stuff the top port, to make it more like an aperiodic vent on top. this is my first experience with AR titanium dome tweets, and I gotta admit, they're pretty nice sounding--clear, detailed, but not harsh like I've heard others complain about metal domes.

one thing I forgot to mention was my initial impression when my parents brought them out and unloaded from my van....I knew their dimensions, reading the brochure on this site, but I was still taken aback a bit by how small these are...they're about 7" wide, 10" deep, and probably ~36" tall...tweets are at elbow level for my sitting position

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  • 5 months later...

Thanks for tip on poly fill for M5's mid-bass resonance.

Something else that seemed to help was the bass management on my SR7200 Marantz. When in surround mode (subwoofer on), bass below 100hz is diverted to the AR 112PS powered subwoofer. This seems to mitigate the problem almost entirely.

I do notice a moderately medium bass resonance coming out of the M5's when in two-channel mode.

On a somewhat related note, I serendipitously got steered away from the MC-1 Holographic Imaging center channel I bought.

I think that there was not an appreciation of the importance of full-range reproduction from the center channel that we have now vs. when center channel speakers first came out.

I had purchased an AR PSC25 center channel for a system I am putting together for my brother. It has a 1-inch silk dome tweeter flanked by two 5.25-inch poly-mica mid-woofers.

Out of curiosity I replaced my MC1 with this speaker to hear how it sounded. The added low-end and increased power handling of the 5.25's really warmed up the overall system response in favor of neutrality vs. the previously more lean and analytical sound of the MC1's.

I liked it so much I acquired an AR SC2 center channel from the HO series for myself. In addition to the more even front array frequency response and increased dynamic range, I am enjoying a much deeper front-to-back perspective.

On Norah Jones CD as well as Feist's "The Reminder", and the soundtrack to "The Straight Story" DVD, the realism and depth of imaging was truly Holographic and natural sounding.

Now I see why the AR 2C with it's 6.5-inch subwoofer gets such rave reviews and sales at $600. Check out the reviews on the Audioreview website for this speaker. Now I'll lie in wait for a chance at one of those at an affordable price.

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BTW, I otherwise acquired a set of Small Advents for my brother and am looking into Prodigy Towers to go with the AR PSC25 since he seems to like a more traditional imaging and looking speaker than the Holographic Imaging series.

It will all be running through a Marantz SR5400 receiver I got for him on E-Bay.

It is currently running through some inexpensive and boomy JVC 12-inchers up front that my sister had lying around. They are barely serviceable in terms of sound quality!

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  • 5 months later...

Don't know if anyone is going to look at this thread after all this time, but here goes;

I have owned a pair of AR m5 "holographic imaging" speakers from new since around 1995/6.

They still sound pretty good, but compared to the Energy Connoseur Centre and surrounds I bought 3-5 years ago they don't seem have the same "body" or "fullness" of sound. Wondering if maybe something has gone amiss inside them. I am no tinkerer or handyman, and know next to nothing about electronics.

The other thing that really upsets me is I tried wiping the cabinets once and now they have these shiny areas instead of smooth very matt black. Strange material. Anyone with a lot of experience of the M5 or M6??

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the foam surrounds on the 8" woofer in the base might be falling apart, hurting bass output. I re-foamed mine earlier this year, was a pretty simple job. take the feet off, the terminal cup off, and then 8 scews on the bottom, and the board the woofer is on slides right out. this is the foam I used

http://meniscusaudio.com/8-foam-p-1236.html

I cleaned off the old crumbling surround, and glued it to the cone. the next day, I glued the surround to the basket, while using a 30hz test tone to center the voice coil as the glue is drying, and using spring loaded clothespins to clamp it once I got it centered the way I wanted.

worked good. in the top nacelle, there is only 1 capacitor, and it's a poly film one. there's a big NPE in the base used as a high pass to the top nacelle, I haven't replaced mine, but I sppose if it drifts to the low side, that could reduce the amount of upper bass range handled by the 5" woofer up top.

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  • 2 years later...

Sorry to reseurrect this post.

I have recently purchased a pair of the M5.

None of the fixing screws/studs between the head unit and the bottom woofer box survived.

Would someone kindly take some pictures of them with some measurements?

I know there is no chance in finding replacement.

Just want to see if I can make something up.

Best regards,

David.

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