2. speakers
  3. 136873-45461

Auditioned Magico A3 - VERY DARK...

So today after waiting for months to try and listen to the Magico A3, I went to Scott Walker audio at Anaheim and listened to the Magico A3, connected to some VAC Tube amp, being fed from a Sony audio streamer, here are my impressions:

- They look fantastic, I wish they made them in silver too, but they are just great in brush black aluminum
- They're quite small and could fit everywhere
- Fit and finish is impecable
- The bass they generated was nothing but amazing for such a small cabinet, you could hear the drums, the down beats and incredible depth of bass at an amazing level
- Imaging was INSANE, you could literally place everyone and everything...
- Sound was VERY VERY DARK!!! This was a bit of a surprise, the top end lacked for my taste to a quite a degree
- I felt like the combo of the Tube amp and Magico lacked resolution, while bass and mid was great, the top end absolutely lacked resolution
- The sound was extremely laid back, again dark
- It does NEED POWER, like he had to crank the volume up, to get good sound out of this, so be aware of that

Overall, I "personally" did NOT like the sound, it lacked details and resolution at the top end, while it was great at the bottom end.  Now, the rep and I think this is mostly due to Tube amp, and connecting it to a solid state amp would bring back resolution, but we simply didn't have time to do that today.  I look forward to listen to these at another time with some decent solid-state amp, but as-is, I was NOT as impressed as I expected and wouldn't have purchased one and I strongly believe Tube and Magico A3 do NOT go well together! 

Anyone else with similar impressions?! Curious to know what others may think, or maybe there was something else in play?

Thoughts?
alexb76
ozzy62's avatar
ozzy62
2,826 posts
 
 
bache
118 posts
07-07-2018 8:46am
power is absolutely no important


You must be high to make such a statement...........

bache's avatar
bache
502 posts
 
  ozzy 574 post     Yes,  i make my statement , such  amount power is not  important to make sound bright . The same thing if you using some
amplifier and crank volume control from low to big, the  frequency response    shoud be on same  , but the human ears get different tone  sensitivity  . this is why
old fashion  amps get tone compensate volume control.


bache's avatar
bache
502 posts
 
ebm@ you right - different people - different taste. One say bright
another dark for same speakers
almarg's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
almarg
9,670 posts
 
Impedance curves I've seen in Stereophile's measurements of several other Magico speakers all show a peak of 9 to 12 ohms or so in the area of 2.5 kHz, followed by a rapid descent to 3 to 5 ohms throughout almost all of the treble region.

Currently produced VAC amps provide three output taps, designated as either 2, 4, and 8 ohms, or 1-2, 2-4, and 4-8 ohms.

Given the 4 ohm nominal impedance of the speaker my guess is that the dealer was not using the lowest of those three taps. And, assuming the A3 has an impedance variation that is similar to the other models I referred to, if he had been using the lowest of those three taps the darkness would have been significantly reduced.

Regards,
-- Al
erik_squires
15,629 posts
 
I can’t find any impedance curves for the A3’s, by the way.

As the salesman had to crank the volume up on the tube amp to get decent output, that tells me the A3’s were underpowered.

It could be:

  • Speakers are tuned to play loudly, so lack emphasis in treble for low volume listening
  • Low impedance in tweeter area depresses output for high impedance amps ( i.e. tubes)
Overall, 88 dB sensitivity, these speakers are not bad, certainly better than the S1 Mk II.

I do kind of agree with the statement that power doesn’t matter, but output (amplifier) impedance does. Often these go hand in hand. Really hard to find a 30 W amplifier with low output impedance.

I have said this elsewhere, that for the price, I expect the A3s to kill a lot of other speakers in the market, especially the Focals. They are also going to be much, much better value than the S1 Mk II. 
More to discover