Hmmm...well.. as I own Q3, I love my Magico and have not heard anything near its price range that I love better. For what's its worth, I heard Vandersteen 7 under show condition and in a dealer showroom (where I heard Magico V3 many times) and thought that V7 was nice but if I have the budget now, I would not replace Q3 with it. Recently, another friend auditioned Q3, Sonus Faber Amati Futura, Rockport Avior extensively in his home. I heard Futura there briefly and thought that it beautified everything and really put its sonic signature forward strongly. Some friends like that but I was not one of them. At the end, my friend also chose Q3. Unfortunately I did not hear Avior there but heard it in a different room later.
I never heard a system under show environment that let me hear the full potential and when I come home, I always feel very good listening to my system right after hearing those big Wilson, Avalon, Scaena, YG. So I would not judge Magico or anything for that matter under those condition. |
Magico bass is going to be one of those love it or hate it for most people I suppose. Generally with 200-300 watts amp, at least with Q3,Q5, you will get extremely clean and detail bass but you definitely not get the quantity of bass that ported speakers like Usher Be-20, Wilson, Rockport will put out. So it will not rock like those speakers mentioned above.
However, listening to piano music which can extend down to about 30Hz in fundamentals, or double bass or cellos, I found Magico to be most natural. It is not perfect but it came the closest to live piano sound that I hear almost on daily basis when I practice on my grand piano just about every day. Big Maggie and ML CLX comes close except that they lack a bit of weight and growl that a good size grand piano possesses.
However, if you throw enough good wattage at it like a friend of mine who uses Karan new 2000w monoblocks, Q5 can definitely rock and boogie with the best speakers out there
while not overly exaggerates the bass like some other speakers. |
Ebm, my room is rather large about I heard Q3 works wonder
in smallish room, about 4.5x6.. M room as well. My local dealer mentioned one customer who has Q3 in a roughly 4x5m room or something a bit smaller even with no problem at all. Seems that Magico is quite forgiving as far as speaker placement and avoiding boomy bass is concerned and is not very difficult to at least get a decent sound from all sort of placements but certainly if you find the right spot, I have not heard anything better near its price point at least as far as my taste is concerned.
I heard that Q5 was measured closer to 83 dB tahn 86dB somewhere. Not sure about Q3's 90 dB. My amp seems to have a bit easier time driving Usher Be-20 (90dB/1 watt/8ohms)
louder than Q3 90 dB/1 watt/5ohms.
My friend with Q5 was asking if I might be interested in his Q5 as he is considering Q7. Unfortunately I think that in my rather large room (6.8x8.2m with large opening on one wall) my Lamm will not be able to drive Q5 adequately so I have to sadly decline!
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I just heard Q7 at my local dealer. Mind you the speakers were just unpacked 2 days ago, still on rollers and have not yet been set up properly so I am sure they can do much more than what I heard. My first impression on vocal music was that the tonal balance, as expected were along the same line as Q5, Q3 but bigger, more detail. I thought big deal, at more than three times the price of my Q3, no thanks. However, I ran Q7 through big symphonic pieces, vocal music, pop etc and Q7 became rather addictive in its effortlessness. There was nothing forced, no strain, music was just produced naturally, nothing mechanical at all. The room I heard was about 5x8m. Q7 was driven by Soulution big monoblocks/pre, TW Acoustic/Reed/Miyajima and Rega top CD player. I'll wait a week or so then I will give it another listen. Luckily, it is way out of my budget so I don't have to think much about it. For what it's worth, Q7 impressed me a lot more than the big YG that I heard on 2 separate occasions. While it is not quite as exciting and attention grabbing as when I heard the big Scaena (the one with 2 double subwoofer, around $120,000 pricetag, I think), Q7 really grows on me very quickly and it would be the speakers I would own if bank account and the floor in my apartment would accommodate! |
People who like Sonus Faber sound is unlikely to like Magico as they have very different sound and there is nothing wrong with that. Personally, I would take Q7 over Aida any day (if I have the money and yes, I heard both and also the limited edition the Sonus Faber and I would take Q7 over that as well). For what it's worth, another friend had extended audition of Q3 and Sonus Faber Amati Futura (I think, in the US it is a bit cheaper than Q3 but over here they are pretty much the same price) in his home and went with Q3. |
Hmmmm....live music, as far as Jazz is concerned, I guess not. Let see, I went to an opera last night, will attend a piano recital this coming Thursday and a chamber concert next weekend. Does that count as live music? Oh, I also practice on my grand piano pretty much daily. Surely it can't be live music. How else could I also enjoy listening to my Q3 so much?
Anyhow, there will never be a single speaker brand that is universally love. At least I don't patronize people who enjoy speakers that I don't like. |
Yes, Q5 is quite demanding but Q3? OK, Lamm M2.2 in low impedance mode with 220 watts into 4 ohms have absolutely no problem driving it (ok it is a hybrid). My local dealer tried Rogue monoblocks (120w, 150w? I can't remember exactly, into 8 ohms)and it also drives Q3 beautifully. My friend also tried Air Tight 90 watts monoblock with Q3 and it works like a charm. Personally I doubt the 10-20 watts SET would be able to handle Q3 well but good 100 watts tube amps are not out of the question for sure. Q7 is definitely easier to drive than Q3/Q5. I have not heard them with tube amps yet but with Soulution monoblocks, the volume was set quite a bit lower than Q3 ( abotu 40 vs almost 60 on volume dial). Plinius SA Reference in class A mode (100 watts) also work extremely well with Q3. I was the first person in my group to get Magico and now, I have 2 other friends with Q3 and one with Q5 so I definitely get to hear them with several different amps. Q5 is definitely harder to drive but with Q3 and now Q7, Magico does not automatically require super amps anymore. In fact my Lamm M2.2 have more difficult time driving Usher Be-20 than Q3 in my room. |
I think this is going to be a smaller S series speakers that will replace V2 if I am not mistaken... S3 or S2, I guess. |
Sonus, Wilson Benesch, Dynaudio are all very nice speakers.
Haven't heard all of their speakers, but I heard ACT, C4, Amati Futura. I would not trade my Q3 for any of those. C1 I heard briefly and I am quite familiar with Q1 sound, again, no contest. Some people may like C1 better and that's fine but if money is no issue, I don't think it is a financial blunder to go for Q1.
Who is going to decide if the improvement by a certain speaker over another comes with a $10,000-20,000 extra in price tag is worthwhile? That's very personal decision.
Audiofreak, you made your preference's very clear, that's fine, let's move on. There is not need to keep hammering your bias into everyone's brain until they are willing to submit out of pure boredom so that you would go away.
Personally, one speakers that I would consider over Q1 at similar cost would be Nola Metro Grand Reference but I don't think that it is quite a Q3 killer just yet. However, it probably would be better to compare Metro Grand to S5 which I have not heard yet.
and if I have money, I may consider Concert Grand Reference instead of Q7 just because given time, most likely Q7 would go through the floor of my apartment into my downstair neighbor's apartment. |
I think that Q7 have this midrange/tweeter arrangement mainly
because of the height of the speakers. With this arrangement, the tweeter would be much closer to ear level at sitting position. I would need to be almost standing up straight to listen to Q7 unless Magico tilt down the tweeter axis quite a bit and may be that would cause more problem than their current arrangement? |
Audiofreak, you are arguing in circle here. You kept saying that Magico is way over price. So I mentioned some speakers from company that you like such as Wilson Benesch, Dynaudio which are roughly half the price of my Q3. If Q3 is truely overprice, I would expect both of these speakers to be competitive or at least give Q3 a good run for the money. Sorry, they are not even close. They are certainly excellent at their price point but in no way are they a $40,000 speaker killer! The performance of Q3 certainly justified the difference in price here.
Sonus that I mentioned cost a few thousands less than Q3 and certainly anybody who consider Q3 should take a listen to Sonus as well. So yes, I compare apple to apple as well as trying to prove your ridiculous claim as well.
Believe it or not, sometimes people with money also have ears, have brain and can actually make a logical and reasonable choice just as well as people with less money.
Again, if you prefer those speakers, that's fine but no need for a snide comment for people who can afford and choose whatever they like that are out of your range. |
A good thing I don't have BMW. God forbid I should become an audio yuppie! |
At least by one definition, all stereo equipments would be luxury good since none of them would be considered neccessity good. Magico just happened to be more luxurious than many others, I suppose :)
As far as status symbol, hmmm... most of my colleagues would say Magico what? (insert Wilson, Avalon, Rockport, Totem, Sonus, Quad whatever you like, instead of Magico, you will pretty much the same effect here!)
Back to Q7, still have not returned to the local dealer to listen to it some more. I am just too afraid I might like it too much although the local dealer is setting up a new Bergmann turntable that I would love to hear. |
