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Magico S5 review

I've been auditioning the Magico S5's on loan from my dealer Scott Walker Audio of Anaheim for several weeks now.
The S5's are an all aluminum cabinet, a trickle down version of the Q series. They are 90 DB, 22HZ-50KHZ, 190#,and sell for $28,600. After some considerable work by Scott he got the speakers locked in perfectly.

My current system consists of Focal Nova Utopia BE speakers
($45,000), An Ayon CD-5 cd player, An Ayon Triton 2 amp,Grand Prix Monaco racks,and a slew of Synergistic Research equipment: Tranquility bases,Migs, Hologram A,D, and AC Precision power cords, Element interconnects,an 11 piece Acoustic Art system, SR fuses and even the new Ayon BT KT-88 SX tubes made in the Czech Republic

I thought I had a pretty great system......Until the S5's came into the picture. The first thing you notice about these speakers is their sealed rather than ported bass. Oh my god! I am not a bass freak but the Magicos had incredible bass.....taut with a visceral punch to the stomach on the right tracks. And this with a tube amp.On certain bass heavy tracks it was like having two subwoofers in the room.

The tweeter was smooth and delicate and completely integrated with the midrange.....it was like one driver.

The midrange is where the Magico Magic comes in.....a strong center vocal image (I like female vocalists), not only more "there" than my Focals but violins had more sheen, cellos sound deeper and you could hear deeper into the subtleties and nuances of the human voice. The tonal characteristics were denser and more real.

The real surprise came when I put the Focals back in the system. I was disappointed. Very Disappointed. The Focals bass in comparison to the Magicos sounded flabby and weak,midrange presence was lessened along with the Magicos wonderful tone. It was easy to discern that the Magico S5's sounded more holographic, 3D, with a smoother yet more detailed mid and top end.

Things I particulary liked about the music reproduction of the S5's:

Dark Side of the Moon: Listen to the bells and the cash register on the song "Money" Stunning.

Warren Zevon, Life Will Kill You: Warren knew he was dying and wasn't in great shape vocally but when you hear the title track you can hear EVERY nuance in his voice....you can hear all his despair and humor.

Sarah McLachlan, Surfacing: I was amazed at how good this Cd sounded, absolutely gorgeous. I heard guitars, Synths, and faint almost out of hearing range background vocals by Sarah. I heard sounds on this Cd I have never heard before.

Melissa McClelland,Thumbelina's One Night Stand: A cd with country folk sensibilties but with a sort of Southern guitar crunch to it. Listening to this on the Magicos was like having Melissa in the room.....Holographic, real vocal tones, and absolutely haunting.

So after saying all this what's an audiophile to do?
My dealer Scott Walker is taking my Focals in on trade along with a check. I understand the S5's take two months to build and get here so Scott is loaning me his demo pair for the duration. That will certainly make waiting for the next two months a lot easier.

mreapoe100

Showing 4 responses by keithr

keithr
1,304 posts
 
Charles1dad- Magico is my favorite speaker outside of Zu
historically. I chose Def2s over demo pair of V3s even
albeit at much different pricing points.

I think for 30-35k, Magico M5s would be my choice IF they
could be driven by a 100 watt tube amp. However, that
doesn't appear to be the case. That's probably my dream
speaker.

Magico has so much resolution coming from blackness and a
very seamless presentation to me as opposed to my Wilsons of
old. I love the build quality and the technology. They are
more musical than Wilsons to me, without any loss of detail
if that makes sense. They are the Porsches of speakers to
me from an engineering perspective.

Magico/Vac is the combo to own btw, not the Soulution,
Spectral, or other SS amps commonly used.
keithr
1,304 posts
 
I think Kef Blades vs S5s would be an awesome demo. Sign me up in LA if possible. I heard both at THE Show and intrigued enough to hear a better demo.

I was at Scott Walker Audio yesterday for Magico day and Scott's a nice guy.
keithr
1,304 posts
 
Ebm- your statement is incorrect. If you hear Def4s, please let me know your opinion. For 12k they compete very favorably to the S5s. The Radian supertweet has really taken them quite a step up and the dynamics- most importantly micro dynamics is what xover speakers just can't do. I wouldn't trade my Def4s for S5s (or Sashas), despite my affinity for Magico.

If I went to a "super speaker", I'd choose Magico M5s most certainly if I could find a good amp solution.
keithr
1,304 posts
 
I think people's opinion of "driving" a speaker differs dramatically.

After hearing the S5s several times (including Vac 450s in a large room), the most successful pairing was on Constellation Centaur- which is 500w into 4ohms.
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