Listened to the Magico V2 & V3 speakers.

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bombaywalla
Stammgast

#1 erstellt: 02. Jun 2010, 14:50

As some of you might know/remember, my brother was visiting from Bangalore this past couple of weeks. Credit goes to him for discovering a (actually the) Magico speakers dealer here in the city I live in. so, we made an appt. w/ the dealer (who turned out to be a really nice person) & went over to his house/dealership to listen to the V2 & V3 speakers.
The V3 is a 3-way 4-driver speaker priced at $27K. The front-end was the Bryston BCD-1 CDP, the preamp was a 2-chassis Krell & the power amp was a Krell Evolution monster of an amp that had a 450W/ch in 8 Ohm output. We were told that the V3 demanded high-current amplifiers hence the dealer's particular choice. The speaker cables were Analysis Plus & the interconnects were Transparent Audio (didn't ask which model).
The V2 is a 2-way 3-driver speaker priced at $18K. This speaker was setup in his HT room so there was a huge (I would 100" atleast) screen in that room. The front-end - I forgot!!

The preamp was a Krell HT pre-processor & the amps were Bryston 7BSST mono blocks capable of 600W/ch into 8 ohms. Once again, the dealer informed us that hig-current amps were a must for the V2. The speaker cables were MIT Shotgun S3 & all the interconnects were also MIT.
Both the V2, V3 use the Scanspeak ring tweeter but the other drivers seem to be made specially for Magico by a 3rd party manuf.
The Magico V2 & V3 have superbly built cabinets - both were sealed boxes. On the rear of the V2 speaker there are 4 large knobs that connect to trusses inside. These knobs have to be turned a quarter turn every 3-6 months to tighten the trusses inside to maintain the cabinet rigidity.
I believe that all Magico use Mundorf capacitors & silver hook-up wire. The dealer did not know anything more about the x-over circuit.
Re. the sound: the executive summary is that the sound of both speakers was a great disappointment unfortunately.

Overall, I can say that the speakers produced average to good sound but did not produce any/much music. The V3s were too big for the room - this was told to us time & again. So, I discounted this fact during my listening & during my post-listening analysis. The V2 speaker was in a bigger room & was more musical than the V3 + it overloaded the room much less hence was more listenable.
The sleeper in the 2 systems were the Bryston components. I'm not a Bryston fan but the BCD-1 & the Mono-blocks were good sounding IMO - they really surprised me. The CD tray in the BCD-1 was very crude/unrefined as it closed with much noise & it's open/close movements reminded me of a bull in a china shop!

One could easily live w/ this cosmetic flaw because the sound was quite good.
So, this was our visit to the Magico dealer - really nice person. The Magicos did not live up to the immense hype - they did not even come close.

Of course, just my opinion & listening impressions.

milpai
Ist häufiger hier

#2 erstellt: 04. Jun 2010, 02:55

I am not surprised to hear that. A couple of friends mentioned that they did not like them at the shows either.

bhagwan69
Inventar

#3 erstellt: 04. Jun 2010, 05:13

milpai schrieb:

I am not surprised to hear that. A couple of friends mentioned that they did not like them at the shows either.

Sir,

Why the surprise ?

I have heard them @ Shows & in Audio Showrooms.

I have had mixed results.

At a Show it has been an appalling experience ;
On several occasions.

However, under show room conditions, the sound has been good in HK & bad in Singapore. So I am lost. I do not have an opinion on Alon Wolf's designs.

YG to me has been the biggest 'let down' !
Hyped to no end & each time I have heard it in Y.G.'s presence & it has sounded so bad - I cannot begin to describe it.
Luckily no one sells it in India, hence my comments can flow.
I have heard it with dCS Scarlatti & German Integrated Amplifier - ASR & Argento Cables.

Arj
Inventar

#4 erstellt: 04. Jun 2010, 08:15

Interesting. since it is such a , seemingly,scientifically engineered product i thought some anmout of focus was given on its voicing !.
I always thought it was difficult to setup and not setup well in most places..

i guess the economics of the market with High Margins, High visibility/Brand and a disregard for sound is too powerful to ignore

[Beitrag von Arj am 04. Jun 2010, 09:04 bearbeitet]

bhagwan69
Inventar

#5 erstellt: 04. Jun 2010, 08:29

Maybe, I just listen to things differently....
God knows...

Both the products are too 'hyped' [Magico & YG] & seem to
be the 'flavour of the month' !!

Amp_Nut
Inventar

#6 erstellt: 04. Jun 2010, 10:26

Maybe, I just listen to things differently....
God knows...

I agree with you.

I have realised that Audiophiles listen & appreciate VERY DIFFERENTLY from each other. That is probably the only explanation why there is equipment I would not pay 20% of its asking price, but the company is still in business, so clearly there ARE people putting down good money for that sound.

It seems to me that REALISM is clearly perceived differently by different folks !
i. Does each of us HEAR the same Live sound differently ?
Or
ii. Does each of us APPRECIATE it differently ?

Care to discuss ?

Arj
Inventar

#7 erstellt: 04. Jun 2010, 12:15

It seems to me that REALISM is clearly perceived differently by different folks !
i. Does each of us HEAR the same Live sound differently ?
Or
ii. Does each of us APPRECIATE it differently ?

AN, i will concur with you that we all expect to hear it differently..from all the Audiophiles I have met each looks for a different sound and sometimes quite diametrically different !

Also since every ear has a different response curve which converts sound waves to signals to our brain the exact same sound to different folks will be interpreted differently.

So even from a Sound point of view, Both our expectation from Sound as well as the Actual music we hear are different.

Boy is this subjective !

BUT. for a 35K+ product, i would expect it should satisfy everybody !

. These are supposed to be No Compromise Products after all

[Beitrag von Arj am 04. Jun 2010, 12:17 bearbeitet]

goolimangala
Hat sich gelöscht

#8 erstellt: 04. Jun 2010, 14:41

Guys, don't underestimate the room acoustics. I experienced it once again this year on two different hifi shows. In February on a fair in Hamburg I listened to the ACapella Harlekin speaker which was driven by a Exposure CDP/Integarted Amp combo which was tuned by Lorenz Martensen. The system was playing ok but nothing really special or even mind blowing. Exactly the same system I audition in May in Munich and the sound this time really knocked me out. It was just amazing what came out of these speakers. And I couldn't believe it what I had heard earlier in this other room. And believe it or not in both the rooms ACapella did not do any room treatment. So only the room acoustics and perhaps positioning of the speakers did the magic.

Regards,
Jochen

bhagwan69
Inventar

#9 erstellt: 04. Jun 2010, 16:33

Yes 'J'
You are correct;
However, in a Show, the parent company is present.
The chief designer is present. Alon Wolf & YG are both present in Munich, yet the sound is 'disgusting' in 2 out of 3 rooms.
How is that possible ?
All the exhibitors have the same or almost the same room on the 1st floor. Hence the acoustics are common to all. Yet the Kharma sounded 'poor' & the Tidal Sunray sounded brilliant...
I find this rather strange...
Comments ?

bombaywalla
Stammgast

#10 erstellt: 04. Jun 2010, 19:19

Hey guys, I am glad/happy/satisfied to read that almost all of you have similar opinions as I do re. the Magicos - and some of you who have commented -w-a-y- more experience than I do listening & attending shows. So, your resp. comments tow a very similar (if not exact) line. Good to see this consistency.

bombaywalla
Stammgast

#11 erstellt: 04. Jun 2010, 19:28

Amp_Nut schrieb:

Maybe, I just listen to things differently....
God knows...

Amp_Nut,
what my empirical data seems to show is that critical listening (i.e. listening to a 2-ch system to determine whether or not it's reproduced sound is trending towards realism or not) is a skill that is developed over a long time and with a great deal of personal effort. It is *NOT* something that can be acquired/developed in a hurry.
Thus, what I seem to have discovered is that most of the people, who call themselves audiophiles, really do not know how to listen. By this I mean that they do not know precisely what the instrument or vocal tonality should be in that particular track, whether or not the musican(s) missed a beat during that particular track, whether the musican(s) played any note(s) beyond the point in time where their contribution was supposed to end, whether or not the instruments &/or vocals shifted locations during that particular track.
All the above points take a very keen ear to detect - to some degree one has to almost be a musician to perceive these abnormalities (because when pro musicians make an error the layman can rarely make out UNLESS one has a superbly tuned ear).
Lack of the above knowledge & perceptions creates all this subjectivity & that's one of the reasons why people say that "all of us hear differently".
Of course, just my opinion FWIW.

goolimangala
Hat sich gelöscht

#12 erstellt: 05. Jun 2010, 01:49

bhagwan69 schrieb:

These bisonboard-rooms in Munich are a real disaster. I just don't understand why companies still exhibit there. But still some get quite a decend sound there. That's a bit of a mirical for me. But ACapella was on the HiFi deLuxe show at Hotel Meriden. I went to five rooms there (ACapella, Air Tight, Einstein/Blumenhofer, Laptek/Grandinote/Blumenhofer, MalValve) and except of AirTight I found the sound in these rooms very good.

Jochen

square_wave
Inventar

#13 erstellt: 05. Jun 2010, 18:30

I have seen some fierce battles on the audiogon forums whenever the word "magico" comes up. I knew something was amiss !

deaf
Stammgast

#14 erstellt: 13. Jul 2010, 10:28

Well honestly I have heard them sound good, bad and ugly. Sincerely down to the ability to setup in a given room I would say. Honestly crazy prices catering to a completely different mindset from our local markets, hence any comments would be quite out of context I guess.
Deaf

bhagwan69
Inventar

#15 erstellt: 13. Jul 2010, 14:20

deaf schrieb:

Honestly crazy prices catering to a completely different mindset from our local markets, hence any comments would be quite out of context I guess.
Deaf

Are the prices that 'crazy' ?
The product is very well built.
Holds value [in the 2nd hand market]
Compare it to the others - YG / Wilson etc. and is it still that expensive ??

I always wanted to buy a Magico M1 [The older book shelf]...

I too have heard Magico's several times & they have sounded [as you put it] good / bad / ugly.
Bad & Ugly @ shows when Alon Wolf set them up & good when different dealers set them up in different countries...

I should get a chance to audition them again - next month...

deaf
Stammgast

#16 erstellt: 13. Jul 2010, 16:47

Dear Bhagwan I mean all these products are crazy priced in the context of our market. Sure there are buyers for crazy products but not enough to constitute a large stereo buying audience for crazy gear, hence most forum members will always question these outlandish prices.

Deaf