Auditioned Magico A3 - VERY DARK...

erik,

Having auditioned the A3s I agree they have at least the potential from what I heard to be class leading in their price and something of a giant killer.

Though it feels a bit odd to see myself write that insofar as they didn’t actually turn my crank at all. I much prefer, for instance, the Joseph Audio or Devore O series speakers I’ve just been auditioning. For instance, all the same drum tracks on the Devore speakers sounded significantly more "like drums" in terms of tone and character than through the A3s.  And the Joseph speakers had a similar sense of clarity, lack of grain (actually better than the A3s in that regard) and transient precision (though smaller sound), yet voices had an incredibly authentic sounding warmth of timbre, making voices sound "real" in a way that I never heard once through the A3s.(I'm always comparing real to reproduced.  


For instance a recording I often play for evaluating male voice is The Beast In Me from Johnny Cash's american recordings.  It's an amazing, bare recording of his voice with super soft guitar, that can sound startlingly real and in the room on the right system.  When I play it auditioning speakers it's often with someone else in the room, usually a salesman who I might talk with.  And when the recording is playing I listen carefully to the qualities of the "real" male voice vs the reproduce male voice - does the voice coming through the speaker have that same warm, damped, organic human quality and timbre I'm hearing from the real voice?  Johnny cash through the JA speakers were seemingly bang on.  About as close as I've ever heard.   As I said, I never got that from the A3s for whatever reason.

Also, whenever I audition speakers I investigate the sound from many angles and distances, to see where they integrate, sound most lively, or most rich, to move in or out of room nodes, etc.

I did find the A3s (driven by a solid state amp I can no longer remember) could sound a tad "dark" from a number of positions, not quite having the sense of "air" of some other speakers (which could just be in their frequency variations of course). Though in some other positions the tone sounded less dark and more natural to me (actually moving further or closer did this, in my audition).

As I mentioned in my thread where I reported on listening to various speakers:  I listened to the A3s in a very large basement area that, at least on looks, should have provided very little issues in bass, and the proprietor said his room measures really well for bass (he demos Magico there all the time).   Yet I found the A3's bass on the tubby, uncontrolled side for quite a number of cuts that are not that way on my system, or many other systems I've demoed.   Just another anecdotal data point, there....

Seeing this thread title bumped up reminded me:  I recently had a chance to listen again to a pair of Magicos (M3 I believe) in a very nice listening room at a dealer, hooked up to massive Mcintosh amps.

A variety of music was played, starting with some solo violin, other string stuff, jazz, etc.   First impression as always with Magico:  pretty vivid, detailed sound, floating free of the speaker.  But tonally...I did my usual eyes closed test and asked "could I believe this is real, and if not, how does it depart?"  Pertinent to the thread title: My overriding impression was that the tone was just darker than life.  This was the case with everything played through them.  I can imagine someone being blown away by the realism of the sound in terms of sheer detail and texture though.  And the muted bell of a trumpet was fantastically portrayed, a real sense of metallic solidity.  But like the A3 I heard, at least to me, the tone just didn't have an "it" factor that grabbed me either in "I want to keep listening" terms or "compared to reality."

None of that is to actually conclude "Magico's are dark."  Obviously it could be just bad luck in that both places I auditioned them, with proprietors who are very experienced with Magico, just didn't pair them with the right amps.  I dunno.

But in these and previous encounters I've had with Magico my personal reaction is respect and not love.  They check lots of the audiophile boxes, but I have yet to hear a Magico that didn't seem sort of dry, buttoned up and sort of clinical.  The music happens "over there" behind the speakers but doesn't seem to reach out and boogie.

Again...not a pronouncement on the whole line at all, just how the ones I've heard sounded.  


But if the Magico sound appeals (and I wish it did to me as I was prepared to buy A3s), I'd think an owner would be in heaven, as they are mighty impressive in what they can do.