Monitor Audio Platinum or Magico A3

Glad you got to hear them as there is actually no stocking dealer of the Reference K line in the US with the exception of the bookshelf K9.  Up to a three month wait for them to be built and shipped.  One dealer in the NE has a pair each of the 1's, 3's and 5's but they are for show only.  They seem to get rave reviews from every publication in the EU. After considering taking a chance of the Canton's I bought Verity instead. The D9's do also seem to be a great option.  I don't know about availability in NZ but Vandersteen Quatro CT might be an option.

No question, audiophiles do weird things, but you have to be out of your mind (I guess a typical audiophile;)) to sell a Magico S3 for any MA, which is a mid-fi speakers manufacture, better compared to Paradigm and such.
(Yes, yes, I am sure you think they sound MUCH better than blah blah blah...)

In any case, I will give some objective assessment on the MA (can’t do that on the A3, since I have not seen any measurements). This is taken from of SP review;

According to a Monitor Audio white paper on the design of the Platinum II series, AMT tweeters typically have a null in their frequency response at 40kHz, with a –3dB point at about 28kHz

But if you look at the measurements ( https://www.stereophile.com/content/monitor-audio-platinum-pl300-ii-loudspeaker-measurements ), you can see that much nastier nulls start much lower, around 10KHz ( JA can’t measure distortion, so we do not see the heft of this problem). That is a real trainwreck ( JA, always “soft on the brits” hardly mention that; what a fraud). Whatever they think they fixed, created an even a bigger problem.

Their First Platinum tweeter exhibit some of the worse THD measured results of any tweeter I have ever seen: (https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/measurements/speakers/monitor_audio_pl100/).
I am not sure the new one is any better. But as always, someone may like it ;)
I am ready for the flames, but only objective data will be worthy addressing. You all have the right to listen to whatever your mind fancy, it is your pocket.

We sell Monitor Audio Platinum for over 10 years of time. We sell them both in stereo and in surround systems. In the past we sold a lot of the Platinum series one.

In this years we sold the PL-200 II quite a lot. The PL-200 II is due to the size and internal port system a better loudspeaker compared to the PL-300 II. The PL-200 II is a much easier loudspeaker than the PL-300 II is regarding the acoustics. We sell stereo in most situations with a subwoofer. Due to the fact that we can bring a subwoofer in phase with the loudspeakers with our own S.A.P.-measurement.

It goes a lot further than that, we can bring the energy of the subwoofer tangible between the loudspeakers where it is on the recording.

When you compare the PL-300 II with a subwoofer vs the PL-200 II with the same subwoofer you will hear that the precision of the PL-200 II with the subwoofer is a lot better. In the Tru-Fi world each choice is made on the best result.

Before you choose a loudspeaker, you need to know the DNA of that loudspeaker. Based on the fact that each loudspeaker owns properties of sound. Even most loudspeakers are not able to reveal different properties of sound. The properties which are missing can never be revealed.

The PL-300 II can reveal all the different properties of sound. But.....you need an amp, source and even other tools which can reveal all the different properties. When you judge most audio brand and products on all the different properties of sound most will proof not to be able to let you hear all the different properties of sound. The Magico can also reveal all the properties of sound. The Dali is incomplete in properties of sound.

When you let people hear an audiosystem what can display all the details and properties of a recording it will have a much bigger influence on their emotion. And that is why it is so important to create audiosystems what can reveal all the different properties of sound.

When you do a blind shootout between a trial and error system what lacks different properties of sound vs a system what can reveal all the different properties of sound. Each single person will choose the system what can display all the different properties.

I would advice people overhere to read articles about how our emotion works regarding music and sound. It will give you a lot of information which you can use by selecting new audioproducts.

Magicos wont rust, and are likely not going to float well, although the internal air to weight ratio may come into play. Note that the designer likes "red book" spec music, and so do I (although I don't expect anybody to care about what I like, Alon Wolf...yeah man...).

Warning: Don't "over read" bo1972's posts as that can lead to utter confusion and perhaps a headache.

sceincecop's posts remind me of why many of us don't buy speakers strictly on measurements. ;-)