Any company that uses shock value to sell or market a HEA product is best avoided!
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- 41 posts total
@thecarpathian - thanks for the tip! That will come in handy the next time I'm corresponding with anybody in Norway; haven't met one yet, hence my ignorance! So many combinations to make so many characters.... |
I bought Icon 12’s back in July and have been absolutely thrilled with them! I was a longtime (15+ years) Magnepan owner - 3.6’s, 3.7’s, and finally 3.7i’s. As anyone who has owned Maggies knows, there are things they do well (scale, speed, transparency) which make them a hard habit to break. There are also things they don’t do (deep bass, dynamics, small sweet spot, physical size) which finally got me looking for something to replace them. My new dealer carries Wilson, Sonus Faber, and Dynaudio - none of which impressed me. They had also recently picked up Fyne which was fortunate for me, because I loved the F703SP’s at Axpona in 2024! The F703SP’s were one of the few somewhat reasonably priced box speakers that gave me the sense of scale that the Magnepans did but addressed most of their weaknesses. I told my dealer I was planning to order a pair of the Fynes after Axpona in 2025 - just in case anything unexpected popped up. Needless to say the Ø Audio room was unexpected for sure. I walked in to the Icon 12’s playing Ratchets from Hedegaard, which certainly had "shock value"! They put on a few other tracks and I liked what I heard with those as well. Over the course of the next couple of days I went back to the room three more times, and they were willing to play whatever I asked them to - which was a huge selling point for me! So many rooms at Axpona have their curated BS list of typical audiophile test tracks... Confidence in your product is letting a potential customer play whatever they want. My dealer was so impressed with what they heard from the Icons and Friggs at the show that they basically picked up the line on the spot. Fast forward to June of last year where a buddy and I spent about three hours at our dealer comparing the Icon 12’s to the F703SP’s. I went into the comparison thinking the Fynes would probably be the choice I’d make because I thought they’d probably be easier to live with in the long run, but the more we switched back and forth the more impressed I was with the Icons. Both of them throw an impressively large soundstage, but we just found the Icons more "fun" to listen to. The F703SP’s still are a wonderful speaker and a bit more "polite", but if you have a diverse taste in music then the Icon 12’s will probably be a better fit for most listeners. For the listening at my dealer we did use the same Boulder 1162 amp that they also used at Axpona, but I brought in my Eversolo DMP-A8 streamer/DAC/pre to feed the Boulder (instead of the dCS gear). As for my system, it’s much more pedestrian by comparison... I have fully upgraded Odyssey Kismet mono amps and just upgraded the Eversolo A8 to the Eversolo T8 and Z10 combo last weekend. That being said, the Icons sound fantastic in my room - despite my gear costing a fraction of the Boulder/dCS stuff. A little background on me, I am a second generation audiophile and picked up the hobby from my father at a young age. Before moving to Magnepans I had box speakers... Started out with my dad’s IMF Super Compact II’s and then moved up to Thiel 3.6’s. I loved the Thiel’s, but knew I wanted to move to the Magnepan 3.6’s when I had the space for them. Like i said, I was Magnepan for 15+ years but the Icons changed that - and I have absolutely no regrets with my purchase! One more thing... I have been super impressed with Jonathan Magnus Cook and Sveinung Mala from Ø Audio. Yes Jonathan’s ax is definitely an interesting conversation piece but both of them are very friendly and, if anything, soft spoken compared to some people I’ve met in the industry. I met them first at Axpona last April, and again in September when they flew in for a customer appreciation event at my dealer. Shows like Axpona are a tough place to talk with people, but they were always super accommodating and friendly - which was another reason I decided to spend some money with them |
I was quite smitten when listening to them render piano absolutely tone rich, timbre right, essentially flawless, and with giant stage as well, at House of Stereo room at Florida Expo. I am seriously thinking about these for my home. Agree they can go toe to toe with many much more expensive loudspeakers. |
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