I ordered a pair of A3's last week. I heard a pair last year and it was as if I'd never heard good sound before! I asked how many speakers are we listening to? Two. Is that a tube amp? Nope SS. Is there a sub woofer hooked up? Nope. They were hooked up to a Hegel amp but I don't remember the model. I'm hoping my Yamaha A-S3000 will be enough amp for them. I have a small listening room. The Yamaha is rated at 150Wpc + 150Wpc @ 4 ohms. The A3's power rating is 50 RMS to 300 RMS. So it would seem that the Yamaha is within the range? I love the looks of the Yamaha I'd hate to part with it. I don't know what I would go to? Perhaps an integrated by Dan D'Agostino?
Auditioned Magico A3 - VERY DARK...
So today after waiting for months to try and listen to the Magico A3, I went to Scott Walker audio at Anaheim and listened to the Magico A3, connected to some VAC Tube amp, being fed from a Sony audio streamer, here are my impressions:
- They look fantastic, I wish they made them in silver too, but they are just great in brush black aluminum
- They're quite small and could fit everywhere
- Fit and finish is impecable
- The bass they generated was nothing but amazing for such a small cabinet, you could hear the drums, the down beats and incredible depth of bass at an amazing level
- Imaging was INSANE, you could literally place everyone and everything...
- Sound was VERY VERY DARK!!! This was a bit of a surprise, the top end lacked for my taste to a quite a degree
- I felt like the combo of the Tube amp and Magico lacked resolution, while bass and mid was great, the top end absolutely lacked resolution
- The sound was extremely laid back, again dark
- It does NEED POWER, like he had to crank the volume up, to get good sound out of this, so be aware of that
Overall, I "personally" did NOT like the sound, it lacked details and resolution at the top end, while it was great at the bottom end. Now, the rep and I think this is mostly due to Tube amp, and connecting it to a solid state amp would bring back resolution, but we simply didn't have time to do that today. I look forward to listen to these at another time with some decent solid-state amp, but as-is, I was NOT as impressed as I expected and wouldn't have purchased one and I strongly believe Tube and Magico A3 do NOT go well together!
Anyone else with similar impressions?! Curious to know what others may think, or maybe there was something else in play?
Thoughts?
- They look fantastic, I wish they made them in silver too, but they are just great in brush black aluminum
- They're quite small and could fit everywhere
- Fit and finish is impecable
- The bass they generated was nothing but amazing for such a small cabinet, you could hear the drums, the down beats and incredible depth of bass at an amazing level
- Imaging was INSANE, you could literally place everyone and everything...
- Sound was VERY VERY DARK!!! This was a bit of a surprise, the top end lacked for my taste to a quite a degree
- I felt like the combo of the Tube amp and Magico lacked resolution, while bass and mid was great, the top end absolutely lacked resolution
- The sound was extremely laid back, again dark
- It does NEED POWER, like he had to crank the volume up, to get good sound out of this, so be aware of that
Overall, I "personally" did NOT like the sound, it lacked details and resolution at the top end, while it was great at the bottom end. Now, the rep and I think this is mostly due to Tube amp, and connecting it to a solid state amp would bring back resolution, but we simply didn't have time to do that today. I look forward to listen to these at another time with some decent solid-state amp, but as-is, I was NOT as impressed as I expected and wouldn't have purchased one and I strongly believe Tube and Magico A3 do NOT go well together!
Anyone else with similar impressions?! Curious to know what others may think, or maybe there was something else in play?
Thoughts?