Magico speakers too clinical and fatiguing?

A lot of people would love to have them so apparently they are not too shabby. 

Some people would love to have them just because they’re expensive. Personally, I think they are some of the best made speakers. With the exception of the M6s,  their built quality doesn’t translate into me liking any of the Magicos that I’ve listened to (S3s, S5s, S7s, M3s). I really like the M6s.

I've had A5s in my main system for about a year. PS Audio BHK 300 mono blocks for amplification. It's taken a lot of finicking to get them right but to me that's an appeal. I can get better sound with small adjustments in cables, placement etc. The biggest improvements for me have been new tubes in my amps and preamp and moving to a different room with better acoustics. They sound incredible and keep getting better as I refine the rig/room further. It's a journey for sure. 

It is now February 2026, and about 15 months since anyone has posted on this particular topic. I have owned Magico A5s for almost a year. About eight months ago, I moved into a new house in which my dedicated media room is a sonic nightmare. Trying to convert this room into my “dream” has been a journey through which I have learned a lot about the Magico A5.

At this point, let me jump to what I have discovered. The A5 is not clinical or analytical or cold despite what many claim. Fundamentally, it is an amazing loudspeaker that projects into a room as closely as possible the amplified signal it receives. What a person hears from a pair of A5s is a combination of the sound emanating from the loudspeakers themselves plus how the room environment impacts that sound.

There are three points I wish to make regarding how a loudspeaker may sound.

1. A great number of speaker manufacturers, I believe, intentionally modify the linearity of their speakers’ frequency responses in the range of 2 kHz to 4 kHz by reducing the volume within this specific range by about 4 dB. Called the “Gundry Dip”, it is done to reduce the harshness many people sense – especially at higher volume levels, which is fatiguing, and, consequently, they describe such speakers as “musical”. For example, Wilson Audio’s Sasha V (according to that speaker’s measurements as presented in the October 2023 issue of HiFi News) has a near 5dB dip between around 1.25kHz and 4kHz. [One can read about the Gundry Dip at  https://hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?topic=75195.0.] Magico does not indulge in this practice. In the June 2021 Stereophile review of the A5, the speaker’s frequency response between 500Hz and 10kHz is described as “remarkably flat”. Consequently, the A5 far more accurately reproduces the audio signal it receives than do speakers that employ the Gundry Dip. Of course, whether one considers this non-adjustable speaker response modification a benefit is up to the user. Personally, I want to hear, as closely as possible, what is on the actual recording.

2. It is not the role of a loudspeaker to improve sound or, perhaps more accurately, correct the deficiencies of equipment between the recording and that speaker. I am fortunate to be able to own truly excellent analog and digital source components, cables, and power conditioning. I am not looking to my speakers addressing any shortfall stemming from another aspect of my system. Consequently, the linear frequency response of the Magico A5 serves me well. In contrast for example, the B&W 801D4 intentionally boosts that speaker’s frequency response repeatedly between 1kHz and 10KHz, as disclosed in the February 2024 issue of Stereophile to be “on the bright side of neutral”. This lift will certainly bring a certain liveliness to the sound of recordings, but, again, that modification will impact every recording, including ones with which such a boost will be a negative. In essence, an important question is whether a loudspeaker should manifest one – or more – built-in fixed tone controls. I certainly don’t think that is a good idea.

3. I cannot overemphasize the importance of the condition of the room in which a person has his/her audio system. Mine is 20’ x 20’ x 10’, which is a catastrophe for sonics from 100Hz to 20Hz. It also has windows and flat walls and, being both a music room and a home theater with fixed seating, my ability to position speakers is quite limited. Frankly, when I first set up my A5s (along with a couple of good subwoofers), I was hugely disappointed – and worried. Conventional acoustic treatments were okay for echoes, etc., but were inadequate for my bass problems. I purchased a third subwoofer, but its addition provided only a minimal benefit. I next acquired the REW room acoustic measurement software so that I could see just how bad things were – and were they ever, all the way up to 5kHz! Fortunately, my preamplifier came with Dirac Live, one of the premier room correction software packages. Within half a day, my room became a very decent space, with a fundamental frequency response that has a modest boost between 20Hz and 50Hz and then reasonably flat to about 7kHz, where it begins to slowly taper down by about 10dB at 15kHz. Consequently, my audio is terrific. The A5s produce a superb, highly listenable sound, with great clarity and precise imaging. The soundstage, when intended, extends far beyond those speakers, can be high, and is amazingly deep. Voices and instruments sound “right”. In fact, at times, the sonics are so lifelike that they feel downright spooky. There isn’t any “listener fatigue”, and one could only acknowledge that what is produced out of the A5s is truly -- and not artificially -- musical.

What is clear to me is that loudspeakers are just an important part of an audio system comprised of both equipment and room. Before my media room was “fixed” by Dirac Live, the sound was far from ideal. In such cases, the most common reaction is to blame a speaker’s shortcomings ahead of anything else. Now, I know it was the room; the A5s are great. I will not dispute that, sometimes, it would be nice to be able to “tone down” the upper midrange, but, in fact, all I would be doing is dulling the sound a bit, and that should be at my choice alone.

In conclusion, let me specifically answer the question, “Magico speakers too clinical and fatiguing?” Clearly, the answer is no. If an A5 owner finds listening to music to be draining, its cause lies elsewhere – either with equipment or, more likely, the room.