Magico A3

Congrats. In the last 2 years, I also had a kid, a new job (work from home) and I just moved into a new home last month. Since I work from home I am looking for a speaker to fit my small home office. I was checking out the A3 before I knew the room dimensions of my new space.

I have been guided by the wisdom of A’gon users to the following (I have a thread on small room speakers):

1) Harbeth SHL5+ (considering this because it is totally different from MY sound and good for long hours of listening)

2) TAD ME1 (2 dealers who carry both KEF REF1 and TAD ME1 say this is better, also good for long hours of listening)

I am going to demo these 2 next month and likely buy one of these so I can focus on music and work and not audio shopping.

One of the things I need is a system that will sound good at low volumes because I listen and work at odd hours when the baby is sleeping. The Magico A3 does this well, especially with Mark Levinson integrated.  I am not sure if low volume goodness is a function of the speaker or the amp. This is a huge issue for me when I demo the 2 speakers I mentioned above. I cannot enjoy headphones as much as speakers and it is hard to hear the baby with phones on.

I auditioned the A3’s at my local dealer last week. Maybe I was expecting to much, but I didn’t fall in love with them. It's was to bad because I was ready to buy.  The soundstage, imaging, and placement of instruments were excellent. Unfortunately, the more I listened, I found the mids and highs a little harsh/edgy at times. The A3’s were connected to a Dan D’Agostino Progression amp which has 600w into 4 ohms, so plenty of power. We streamed Tidal through Roon using a Chord DAC (I didn’t catch the model) and the new Chord Hugo M Scaler. After listening to the A3’s we swapped them for the S1 MKII’s and they were much more refined and smooth. The S1’s MKII’s were excellent, but lacked the bass of the A3’s which is expected. The S1’s MKII’s were tempting but I knew I would end up missing the bass and I don’t want to add the sub. I also had a chance to listen to a pair of TAD E1’s and they were impressive, now discontinued so I could score an amazing deal. In the end I purchased the Sopra 2's.

Interesting, I think that the Sopra tweeters are much coarser then the A3.
Did you listen to the Sopra on the same equipment? Roon always sound harsh and glossy to me. With such a transparent speaker like the A3 you would hear it clearly. I agree the S1 Mk2 are tempting...

Unfortunately, I couldn’t audition the Sopra’s on the same equipment in the same room and we know that can make a difference. However, I use Tidal and Roon almost daily and we played tracks I’m very familiar with. Don’t get me wrong, the A3’s were good, they just didn’t win me over. I was ready to buy just based I what I had read. If I had 20K to spend I think I would have a tougher decision between the S3 MKII’s and Sopra 3’s.  I will say they looked a lot better in person than they do online.

I listened to them recently for about an hour at Rhapsody in NYC with an experienced audiophile friend who also does online reviews. Neither of us noted any harshness or edginess in the least. In fact we thought it to be one the smoothest, most transparent speakers we've heard in a long time. What makes them special is that they are able to impart an amazing amount of detail and clarity and sound smooth and extended. A very sophisticated sound.  I'm very seriously considering them for my next speaker.