Am I no longer allowed to consider myself an Audiophile?

Yamaha's unique, their ns5000 and a couple of other speakers are tuned to sound like their instruments. It takes a certain kind of know-how that others don't have.

Magicos, Wilsons, whatever don't sound like instruments. They have some other sound, its fake as with most hifi speakers

Isn't it strange that as the price goes up above a couple 100k, the conditions get real stringent and it may only sound good 2 minutes before midnight on a bluemoon night? The emperors with no clothes need to spin it somehow for CYA and acting prestigious/sophisticated.

If your psychology is such that you can't be satisfied until you drop a couple 100k, get the Mark Levinson/Daniel Hertz M1 system (not just a speaker) or the anton system. You can put it in a regular retired old man's room, no restrictions, play youtube music.. everything will sound great.

https://youtu.be/P7anRbl3mpI?si=O2kUWbj3uFMVv3NN

Get the ns5000 as well and a couple of subs, it is its own tier of sound, a benchmark and costs nothing to own. Keep 2 rigs.

@french_fries  wrote

the unmatched transparency of the Magico M9 loudspeakers. But at the same time I have been admiring the new Yamaha NS-5000 speakers (about $15K) which are considered quite awesome sounding in their own right. 

@dayglow If you read the OP’s first post you will see he/she is thinking out loud about the Magico M9 (not A5) and the NS5000. I have heard many Magicos (over $100k) and liked them but not loved them. I was thinking of getting the A3 at one time until I heard the NS5000 in the worse possible room and realized the NS5000 was way more coherent than the A3. The other choice was Vivid which I also liked more than Magico.

My comment to the OP was my user experience with the NS5000 and how to make them sing. I am not using a lot of cash to do so. If the roles were reversed and I was considering the NS5000, I would find that info useful.

I am not saying the CODA #16 or #11 are the best amps in the world, but they are great with the NS5000 and do not break the bank (my #11 cost me $2400). I have heard a better amp, a $100k CH Precision but I am OK not having that extra little bit of goodness. I have also heard what I think is the best preamp in the world at my home, the Allnic ???? OTL/OCL costing $33k on the NS5000 but I think what I posted above is even better. This info can be useful to someone looking at the NS5000 as the OP.

I have a prejudice against Magico, mainly for the price/performance. I have not heard the A5. The post above about what sounds like a musical instrument is right on the money for me too.

BTW - I was considering the Daniel Hertz system and was considering flying up to Oregon to hear it. This was because I think I had a poor man's version of something similar and it was great but lacked power.

@yyzsantabarbara    Appreciate the non-combative reply, no malice was intended. You are correct regarding the Magico A3, hopefully an A series update is in the near future which could place all 3 models as true class leaders!

I had not thought about it before, but @french_fries  got me thinking. I have a nice revealing system now that can sound great at times depending on recording quality, but yeah I may have enjoyed my 1st decent much less expensive system more in some ways. Nice Carver pre amp and cube amp, low end Sony tt and Ortofon cart and Genesis 3 way 10" box speakers. It played loud, I could eq bass up from the pre amp the sonic holography was cool and I didnt critique sound quality like now. I liked to rock.

Id say my state of mind was much different then. Teenager, little worries and had the best stereo of any of my friends.

So as a nonaudiophile then, music was different in my head.

A good post and sincere. In fact it was the responses that I knew would follow that I really enjoy.

First I knew that some member would chime in exposing some subjective view of consumerism and the evils of these types of indulgences. To which I always reply keep your views to yourself. You either have made a personal choice not to spend too much money or you dont have it to begin with. In any case make your own choices and leave others alone  

True some speakers are easier to place than others, but the cost of a speaker has nothing to do with the complexity of set up. Better associated equipment is needed simply because the speaker is more transparent and revealing. A better speaker is still better than a more modest speaker with the same equipment. The warts are simply more apparent. 

One of the members mentioned something to the effect that Yamaha tuned the speakers to sound more like their instruments. A bit of thought should quickly reveal the absurdity of such an assertion. Essentially what they are doing, at best, is designing the speaker with some coloration that some find pleasant. Kind of like the belief in the effectiveness of thin walled speaker cabinets and energy dissipation. You may not like the sound of a inert cabinet speaker like a Magico, but it is a better way to design a speaker whose goal is accuracy. It can be no other way. Oh and it is elimination of many colorations that make the speaker better but also is the reason many think the speaker is cold and uninvolving.

Unless buying used you should always audition any speaker at any price. When auditioning use music that is familiar and also try to duplicate not only the type of component used (S.S. or tubes) but also insist the upstream components are of similar price.

What you like the best is what you should buy even if you end up with a "tuned" speaker. Buy what you like and pay little attention to the reviewers. I put more credence in the opinion of members on this forum than with the reviewers. I think you will find some of the newer speaker significantly better than your ADS, but with this improvement comes the problem that Ozzy Osborne doesnt sound as similar to Donald Fagen any longer.

If you buy correctly, it will increase your enjoyment of music significantly. It may also mean that you may enjoy poorly recorded music less. This has not been the case for me, but many start to limit their software to better recordings which really after system improvements.