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Morel
Spiro Home-Theater Speaker System
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Description Model:
SoundSpot SI-2 speakers
Dimensions: 5.4" diameter
Weight: 2.6 pounds each
Model: SoundCenter C-5 center-channel
Dimensions: 19.9"W x 6.3"H x 6.3"D
Weight: 10 pounds
Model: SoundSub IS-9A subwoofer
Dimensions: 23.6"W x 15.7"H x 8.7"D
Weight: 44 pounds
System Price: $1950 USD
Warranty: Five years parts and labor |
Features (cont'd)
- 5" drawn-steel spherical enclosure (SoundSpot)
- 4" neodymium magnet woofer (SoundSpot)
- 1.125" soft-dome tweeter (SoundSpot, SoundCenter)
- 5.25" magnetically shielded woofers (SoundCenter)
- Aluminum Hexatech voice coil (SoundSpot, SoundCenter,
SoundSub)
- Integrated swiveling base (SoundSpot)
- Optional stands (SoundSpot)
- Two 9" flat-profile woofers (SoundSub)
- 120W amplifier (SoundSub)
- Automatic on/off (SoundSub)
- Variable Volume, crossover, and phase control (SoundSub)
- Available finishes: silver, white, and black (SoundSpot);
gray and piano black (SoundSub)
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Description
The Morel Spiro is an extremely small satellite/subwoofer
system consisting of four identical 5.4"-diameter spherical satellites with coaxial
drivers, a small conventional-looking center-channel, and an unusually long and flat
subwoofer that should tuck nicely behind most couches or behind a chair in a corner.
 The system starts with four SoundSpot
SI-2 satellites, which are simple looking, unobtrusive, battleship-gray drawn-steel globes
with a 4" woofer/midrange and a coaxially mounted 1.125" soft-dome tweeter.
According to Morel, this arrangement effectively creates a point source for sound produced
by the satellites. Additionally, Morel claims, the enclosure shape eliminates internal
standing waves and diffraction effects, unlike the edges of a conventional box speaker.
There is a single pair of binding posts on the back of each satellite that will accept
spades, pins, or bare wire, but not bananas. The SoundSpots each come with a small,
pivoting metal base attached that can be used to set the speakers on flat surfaces or
mount them on a wall. Even the wall anchor and screw are supplied. Optionally, specially
designed stands can be purchased from Morel.
The SoundCenter C-5 center-channel appears to be a more
conventional design consisting of a 1.125" tweeter sandwiched between two 5.25"
woofers in a small rectangular enclosure with a slight bevel on the last few inches of the
cabinet face. The enclosure itself is wrapped in a black grille-cloth "sock"
that encompasses the entire body of the speaker with the exception of two gray end caps.
While I suppose it’s theoretically possible to remove the cloth, it would be
difficult, and Morel obviously expects it will be left alone. Consequently, I did all my
listening with the grille cloth in place. The center-channel comes equipped with binding
posts that will accept bananas, in addition to spades, bare wire, or pins.
The SoundSub IS-9A is a 120W powered subwoofer that matches
the SoundCenter in styling, with an integral black grille cloth, gray end caps, and bevels
on the sides of the cabinet front. At only eight inches deep, this has to be one of the
most compact subs that I’ve ever seen. For scale, imagine an overstuffed, squared-off
bed pillow, and you’ll just about have it. Morel has managed to cram two flat-profile
9" woofers (in an isobaric configuration), a rear port, and an amplifier into this
ultra-compact space. Controls include auto on/off, volume, crossover frequency, and
variable phase controls as well as low- and high-level inputs and outputs with a 100Hz
(6dB per octave) crossover on the high-level outputs. As you can see from the description,
while there are some aspects of the Spiro system that are conventional, the overall design
is anything but.
Setup
The SoundSpot satellites are exceptionally easy to place as
they only take up a few square inches of wall or shelf space. I started out with the front
speakers perched atop a pair of small towers I had in for review, and moved them around as
required depending on what else I had in the room at the time. While they can be placed on
a shelf in an entertainment center, this is not ideal since you’ll create reflections
from the furniture. So, while you can tuck them into a bookcase where they will largely
disappear, I don’t recommend it. The surround channels ended up on top of two pieces
of furniture in the back corners of the room where they went largely unnoticed for the
remainder of the review. Trust me, a conventionally sized speaker could never have pulled
that off.
The SoundCenter center-channel is somewhat less placement
flexible and landed in its normal position on a shelf directly above the TV. Morel
strongly suggests in the owner’s manual that the SoundSub be placed along the front
wall between the speakers. I eventually found this to be good advice, although there were
many locations in my room where it could have gone. The real beauty of this design is that
the shallow box, at eight inches, can be placed in many spots that would normally be
off-limits to a more conventionally shaped and sized sub.
With everything in place, all that’s left to do is aim
the satellites toward the primary listening position and balance the channels. It was
during the initial channel-balancing adjustments with white noise from the receiver that I
noticed the center-channel was brighter sounding than the satellites. Many people will
tell you that it’s imperative that all five (or seven) channels in a surround system
be voiced identically, and some will even go so far as to say that they must all be
exactly the same. I don’t subscribe to this theory fully, mainly due to the fact that
room placement will make even identical speakers sound different in each location, but I
will agree that a closely matched system does generally sound better integrated and more
coherent. The degree of difference between the satellites and center-channel wasn’t
exactly a cause for concern, but it was something I decided I should listen for.
During the course of this review I purchased a Sony
DVP-NS755V DVD player, which utilizes a higher crossover frequency and lower slope for
SACD bass management than my Onkyo receiver. It was only after this purchase that I
realized my original subwoofer placement along a side wall might be problematic. With SACD
music and the higher crossover of the Sony player, the sub quickly became localizable in
the system. Even with a relatively small conventional sub, placement along the front wall
of the room closer to the main speakers would have been difficult, if not impossible. I
was able to put the unusual size and shape of the SoundSub to great use by placing it
directly behind the left speaker, eliminating the integration problem with the SACD
bass-management system in my DVD player, while still avoiding the corner placement that
I’ve found to work poorly in this room. Try doing that with a full-sized conventional
sub in a small space and I’ll wager you’ll run into problems.
Movies
In We Were Soldiers, the ambiance and echoes of the
hanger in chapter 2, during Hal Moore’s (Mel Gibson) introduction to his troops, were
flawlessly rendered producing the sense of space required for the scene. The first few
blasts of the artillery bombardment in chapter 7 startled me with their intensity.
Frankly, I wasn’t expecting either the dynamic capability or the transient response
of the Spiro system to be so good. I’ve heard few speaker systems that were able to
do this, and certainly none in this size and price range.
I recently watched Cast Away with an Onkyo receiver
driving the Morel Spiro system. In the underwater scenes in "The Crash," you can
hear and almost sense the bubbles and water around you. This is where system coherency,
detail, and pinpoint imaging combine to improve overall believability. The noise of the
bubbles in the water is coming from specific points but, at the same time, enveloping you,
and the Morel system creates this effect almost as well as anything I’ve had
in-house.
During The Bourne Identity, it once again became
apparent that the name of the game with this system is transient response and soundfield
coherency. From the rain in "Dead Man," to the echo of the train station in
"To Switzerland," the soundfield was always coherent and enveloping. This was
also noticeable as smooth pans from the left of the screen all the way into the right
surround. The sound of cars passing by in "My Name Is Jason Bourne," just before
Bourne goes into the bank, was reproduced with consistent sound from front to rear.
When it comes to clarity, the little Morel Spiro system
certainly made a believer out of me. During chapter 6 of The Bourne Identity, a
phone can be heard ringing in the background throughout part of the scene. I muted the
sound no fewer than three times to make sure it wasn’t my own phone ringing! And if
you don’t believe my ears, maybe you’ll believe my dog’s. Every time a
doorbell rang in a movie, with this system playing, the dog would go nuts. She’s done
this from time to time in the past, but never so consistently as with the Morels sounding
the bell.
Music
The first thing I listened to was the Miles Davis Kind
of Blue SACD [Columbia 64935]. I was already familiar with this recording in standard
Red Book CD format, so I wanted to listen in two-channel mode with the SACD to see what
differences I could hear. This new version is a little cleaner than the older one,
particularly in the upper frequencies. The horns on "Freddie Freeloader" are
more articulate and vibrant than I’ve heard before, and the Morels were up to the
task of presenting the subtle differences in shading between the Red Book and SACD
versions. Multichannel music is where the Morel system really stood out. With the
bulk of the sound coming from four identical satellites, soundfield coherency was nearly
perfect, only slightly marred by the marginally brighter center-channel. On "Freddie
Freeloader," the surrounds are used entirely to backfill ambient information and
therefore should completely disappear into the background. That’s exactly what they
did, and if I hadn’t known they were there I would have wondered how this little
"stereo" system was throwing such an immense soundstage.
Mary Chapin Carpenter’s Time* Sex* Love* SACD
[Columbia 85176] certainly takes full advantage of the surrounds. At the opening of
"King of Love," the background percussion pans almost seamlessly from the left
front into the right surround. There’s a slight shift in timbre in the center-channel
during the transition that’s noticeable, though not to the level of distraction. On
"This is Me Leaving You," the SoundSub does an outstanding job reproducing the
tight, quick bass drum that serves as the backbeat for this track. The backup vocals are
suspended in space at points in front and to the sides of the listener with impressive
believability. While I’m not normally a big fan of this kind of surround for music,
it seems to work in this case, and the pinpoint imaging of the Morel satellites help make
it happen.
Comparison
The Morel Spiro system came in on the heels of a pair of
Paradigm Esprit v.3 speakers, complete with a CC-270 v.3 center-channel, PDR-12 subwoofer,
and ADP-170 v.3 surrounds. The Paradigm system is several hundred dollars less expensive
than the Morel Spiro, so that should be taken into consideration when comparing the two.
The Morel SoundSpot satellites are a little more laid-back
in the high-frequency extremes than the Paradigms, but make up for it with better detail
and transient response in the midrange. Imaging is definitely a strongpoint for the
SoundSpots, which helped delineate the exact location of sounds in front-to-back pans,
though the dipole rear surrounds in the Paradigm system made them harder to localize in a
small space.
 The fact that the four Morel
satellites are all identical is one reason the overall soundfield is extremely coherent.
In comparison, the less-expensive Paradigm system just missed the mark. The satellites in
the Morel Spiro system don’t play very low so they have to rely heavily on the sub to
fill in the last couple of octaves. Luckily, the SoundSub is the star performer in this
system, always providing tight, clean emphasis of the lowest octaves with nary a
complaint. This is one area where the Paradigm sub simply couldn’t keep up. While the
PDR-12 will certainly play louder than the more costly SoundSub, it was also a little
boomy in comparison. With or without the rest of the system, the SoundSub is a winner.
Conclusion
The Morel Spiro’s strengths with movies or music are
surround coherency and clarity. The SoundSpots lack that last bit of high-frequency
transparency at low-to-medium volume levels but more than make up for it with stunning
transient response. I can’t even begin to count the number of times I was startled by
some unexpected sound while I had the Spiros in my system. To me, that’s as good a
measure of realism as any. To get all this in a reasonably priced package that can be
successfully installed in nearly any room is quite an accomplishment.
Besides the obvious high level of performance, I can
imagine a number of special cases where the Morel Spiro system might quickly become a
first choice. Whether it’s to have the speakers hidden away in the décor somewhere,
to wall-mount the satellites away from the curious hands of small children, or to satisfy
the requirements of a small apartment or bedroom system, the Morel Spiro home-theater
speaker system is a sure winner.
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System |
| Receiver - Linn Classik Movie System,
Onkyo TX-DS696 |
| Sources
- Sony DVP-NS755V DVD player, Toshiba SD-1800 DVD player, Toshiba W522 VHS VCR, RCA
DirecTV receiver |
| Cables - Monster Cable, Radio Shack |
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