I heard M5 awhile ago, was a big fan of V3 and almost bought one. Now I have Q3 and could not be happier. First, I think Magico is very transparent and upstream electronics will be very important. I heard various Magicos with Spectral, Soulution,Krell, Air Tight, Lamm, Burmester, Plinius, Karan, ASR, Aesthetix among others, whether the tonal balance is lean, dark, rich, fast, fat, bright, brittle, I think that is really depends on the upper stream equipments and cables. They all share similar traits as far as the ability to disappear, absence of cabinet sound (may be lack of wooden enclosure might be a better word). Bass may not be as big or powerful as Wilson but tight, clean, lots of detail and fast.
I heard M5 in a relatively small room, I think around 4.5x6-6.5m at most with Krell Evo 1. The sound was well extended, treble was clean, clear. Bass was powerful. At the time I thought both M5 and V3 was already very low in the boxiness coloration and only ML CLX and Maggie would better Magico M5/V3 but at the expense of bottom end weight and authority. Q5 and Q3 however up the ante in term of absence of boxiness and pulling a disappearing act with weight and authority.
Personally, I would go with Q3 as I think it still has a slight edge over M5 in the midrange and high frequency. Cymbal had a bit of a whitish coloration but that might be Krell electronic talking. Unfortunately I never heard M5 with other electronics to be really sure. Q3 will play loud and is not all that difficult to drive. A friend was using his with Air Tight ATM-3 monoblock (90 watts, I think) in a rouhgly 5x8m room with plenty of loudness. Now he is using CJ ART which really rocks. Beside an all Spectral system, I think Magico benefit from a bit of tubes rather than an all solid state equipments. Again, this is more likely my preference but also shared with 3 other friends, (3 Q3 and 1 Q5). A couple of friends use ARC pre with either Plinius or Karan and the sound is anything bit thin or brittle. When I was breaking Q3, it did benefit from using my Lamm M2.2 in 8 ohms mode which delivered 440 watts in 4 ohms. However, once the speakers broke in, I prefer the 4 ohms mode which give 220 watts with more bias into class A operation.
In current Magico line, I think Q3 is the sweet spot. Q5 is has more extension, a touch cleaner but a lot less choices for suitable amplification, often more costly choice. You can get more quality and quantity bass with Q5 with the right amp but it is easier to achieve excellent bass and dynamic with Q3. Q7 would be the next upgrade I would buy if I could afford it over many other super speakers that I heard. S5 has a bigger, more powerful bass but midrange and treble is still not quite up to Q3 class.
Before I bought Q3, I heard Rockport, Sonus Faber, Wilson, Lumen White, Marten, Dynaudio, Usher, Focus, ML among others and living with Q3 for awhile now, I would still make the same choice as I did 2 years ago. However, this is for my own personal taste though.
Magico Mini I/II are the only 2 Magico speakers I only saw but never had a chance to listen to which is a pity.
I heard M5 in a relatively small room, I think around 4.5x6-6.5m at most with Krell Evo 1. The sound was well extended, treble was clean, clear. Bass was powerful. At the time I thought both M5 and V3 was already very low in the boxiness coloration and only ML CLX and Maggie would better Magico M5/V3 but at the expense of bottom end weight and authority. Q5 and Q3 however up the ante in term of absence of boxiness and pulling a disappearing act with weight and authority.
Personally, I would go with Q3 as I think it still has a slight edge over M5 in the midrange and high frequency. Cymbal had a bit of a whitish coloration but that might be Krell electronic talking. Unfortunately I never heard M5 with other electronics to be really sure. Q3 will play loud and is not all that difficult to drive. A friend was using his with Air Tight ATM-3 monoblock (90 watts, I think) in a rouhgly 5x8m room with plenty of loudness. Now he is using CJ ART which really rocks. Beside an all Spectral system, I think Magico benefit from a bit of tubes rather than an all solid state equipments. Again, this is more likely my preference but also shared with 3 other friends, (3 Q3 and 1 Q5). A couple of friends use ARC pre with either Plinius or Karan and the sound is anything bit thin or brittle. When I was breaking Q3, it did benefit from using my Lamm M2.2 in 8 ohms mode which delivered 440 watts in 4 ohms. However, once the speakers broke in, I prefer the 4 ohms mode which give 220 watts with more bias into class A operation.
In current Magico line, I think Q3 is the sweet spot. Q5 is has more extension, a touch cleaner but a lot less choices for suitable amplification, often more costly choice. You can get more quality and quantity bass with Q5 with the right amp but it is easier to achieve excellent bass and dynamic with Q3. Q7 would be the next upgrade I would buy if I could afford it over many other super speakers that I heard. S5 has a bigger, more powerful bass but midrange and treble is still not quite up to Q3 class.
Before I bought Q3, I heard Rockport, Sonus Faber, Wilson, Lumen White, Marten, Dynaudio, Usher, Focus, ML among others and living with Q3 for awhile now, I would still make the same choice as I did 2 years ago. However, this is for my own personal taste though.
Magico Mini I/II are the only 2 Magico speakers I only saw but never had a chance to listen to which is a pity.