Auditioned Magico A3 - VERY DARK...

Wow lets bad rap MAGICO again dude!!

I'd like the Sim audio p8 W8 paired with the monitor audio Platinum 200 or 300 generation 2. Very three-dimensional wide and deep soundstage. Very natural sounding speaker. Human voice is very natural, instruments like piano string bass and violins all have that woodiness to them and the air and space between the different layers is incredible. Cymbals have a very natural brassy sound, not hard metallic edgey like with a beryllium dome tweeter.

The VAC amps will amplify the signal its fed and send it to the Magico A3 speakers, so if the sound is very dark sounding and lacking treble sparkle and extension, the first place to look at is the source. Magico speakers are incredibly accurate and transparent ....and will present a beautiful interpretation of the signal they’re sent. Similarly I understand that the VAC amps are pretty capable, so I would look at the Sony source for the missing air, transparency and sparkle. If its not present from the getgo the speakers and amp have no chance

One of the major benefits of all Magico speakers is their ability to reproduce the signal with amazing accuracy and transparency. Send them a perfectly accurate signal and they will produce a wonderfully 3 dimensional, Immersive, highly engaging, pure and totally convincing sound that represents exactly what’s in the recording. Play something like Mike Oldfields Tubular Bells 2003 and if your system is working really well, you’ll be blown away by the way the sound literally transforms your reality, lighting up the huge recorded ‘space’ with beautiful, luminous treble energy. Rhythms are massively engaging, practically bouncing you out of your listening chair, the humanness and expressiveness of Master of Ceremonies John Clees voice is a joy and the warmth and beauty of the guitars in Ambient Guitars will bring tears to your eyes. The system? A pair of Magico S1MkIIs driven by a pair of Devialet 440 CI Expert Pros with an Innuos Statement providing the source. Dark? The treble literally shimmers and sparkles with life, energy and air. . Nails on chalk? Not unless someone actually recorded exactly that, then it would be reproduced with all the edginess and discomfort the real sound requires. What’s on the recording it’s exactly what you get...without any overriding character other than your room.
Magico are not the only company to develop and manufacture great loudspeakers....but they are great loudspeakers, capable of generating huge, texurally detailed, highly cohesive soundscapes populated by musicians and instruments that sound uncannily real. If that’s not what you’re hearing, and it may very well not be, look elsewhere in the system, because the Magicos will faithfully reproduce whatever signal they’re fed, with no editorialising or artifice to makes a poor signal sound good and a great signal sound overly warm, congested, damped or whatever.
Walk into your listening room, select your track, switch off the lights, press play, close your eyes and Magicos will create an altogether different reality...a space that sounds completely different to your room, populated by highly focused 3 dimensional sounds that hang in the air and sound like they’re being made by real trumpets, trombones, drums, guitars, violins, cello, whatever. Instruments have vitality, vibrancy and life. They sound alive within energy.
That’s how Magicos can sound if fed a pristine signal, but they are equally capable of replaying a bad signal just as accurately.

In my experience, when a system is sounding musically nearly perfect it takes very little to upset its balance. I recently added a new Neotech JSSG360 DC cable to my network switch and even that small change is sufficient to rob the system of some of its magic, to the point its nothing like as much fun to listen to until the cable is burned in. When systems become highly accurate they are also highly revealing and even minor errors in set-up will have major impacts on the sound. You only need go to Audio shows to hear that.

Speaker designs from the 60’s nailed it...full sound, larger drivers and substantial crossovers.  That’s why I bought a pair of JBL 4429’s almost as a retro temporary fantasy ride (90 day trial period).  Surely I would have to return them after I realized it was just that, a fantasy.  Over a year later and they are my go to speaker for pure musical enjoyment!  Most high end speakers these days purposely design the life out of them...flat flat flat!!  Music is flowing, relaxed and powerful.  Music can be wild and full and impactful.  The JBL’s allow the music to flow unabated and without compression....I’m back in my parent’s basement!