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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
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,233 posts
 
Hello Bruce,
Yes I'm aware of the Absolare power rating and the Magico S5 challenging load impedance, but hearing trumps nunbers on paper. If youn ever have the time , read the numerous show reports of that combination. Certainly the S5 would presumably do well with higher power amplifiers . I used this example as a real life demonstration of how specifications don't reveal the entire picture (though they are a good starting point guide).
The "quality" of transformers and power supply aren't reflected when reading specifications or purely judging by measurements. Another example, my friend Jwm has the Rockport Atairs. He has the Absolare amplifiers and his long time VAC Phi 300.1 mono blocks (excellent PP amplifiers). He found the Absolare clearly better than his Phi 300.1 in his opinion (I agree). Of course it's subjective (and always will be ). Audio is really a mixture of science/engineering and art.

Charles,
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Thanks Charles. FWIW, got this message from Magico,

"Hi [Bruce],

The S5 can be driven with any modern amp we know of, including all Arc models.

I wish you all the best - happy listening, Jon Baker Magico"

Btw Charles, I happen to agree with your comment that an audition is the only way to go. Also agree that audio is a fusion of science, art and engineering.

Time will tell.

P.S. -- Just a guess really, but my amp has 4 ohm taps. ARC and Stereophile test results indicate that my amp should be able to deliver 150 wpc when driving a 4 ohm load off the 4 ohms taps with low distortion. That might augur well with the S5s because its rated impedance is 3 to 4 ohms, by and large, in the "power range" of the speakers, say less than 500 Hz.
mike60
275 posts
 
I have heard a number of the high end older Focals and it put me off the brand completely for many years. The new Focals however are a completely different story. You need to listen to a lot of modern speakers to see how they excel by comparison. I did that. Focal is not to everyone's taste, but I voted with my wallet on them. From what I have heard, Magico is v good but has not appealed to my taste as much so far. That said, you have bought a great brand which suits your taste and budget. If you feel you achieved enough improvement for your money that's all that counts, and I believe you feel you have, so enjoy them!
mike60
275 posts
 
This thread is a older than I realised so read my post in that context.
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Mike your comment is actually quite timely. I was musing the other day about the "decreasing sonic returns" issue with a well known audio reviewer with whom I trade e mails from time to time.

I drive Paradigm Signature 8s (v3) with ARC gear. The S8s share a number of similar build characteristics with the Revel Ultima 2 speaker line, e.g., Be tweeters, bass reflex system, high-order acoustic x-overs, and so forth. Not saying that one brand excels over the other because I've never listened to the Revels.

Funny thing is that my S8s sound pretty good to me. I also use a sub woofer to x-over at 35 Hz, which covers the bottom octave very nicely without bloating the bass.

Yet, because I've read so many glowing reviews and comments about the Magico S5s, I've got an itch to try them. Problem is arranging an audition is difficult. Also, the cost delta to get into the Magicos is quite large and I wonder out loud whether diminishing returns will kick in???

I've heard it said that if one gets used to listening to sonic swill long enough, one gets to like the sound of swill. But to be fair, I'm being extremely unfair to my S8s. They really do sound pretty good to me and I enjoy them very much. My ARC amp does a great job driving them.

I also suspect that I could achieve a more cost efficient sonic improvement by buying better grades of redbook CD and picking up more good quality vinyl. Waiting for a hi-rez CD reissue of a Dave Brubeck classic LP to be delivered. That should be great.

Maybe one day, I'll get a chance to arrange for a "fair" (apples to apples) audition of the Magicos. In the meantime, I'll slurp the swill. :)

Cheers
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