Auditioned Magico A3 - VERY DARK...

alexb76 O
  Auditioned Magico A3 - VERY DARK...

It was mentioned to me at a show that the impedance of the A3 and V3 are very similar.
If you have a look at this impedance curve, it doesn't suit tube amps right though the bass and also at 4khz, unless they have a 2ohm transformer tap that still has at least/more than >50w from it.

https://www.stereophile.com/images/archivesart/508Magfig1.jpg

Cheers George

I'll keep my $449 pair of wharfedale 225's, thanks...my god 10k for a pair of speakers, I'd have a pretty tough time convincing wife on these. .not that I'm foolish enough to spend 10k on anything audio wise. Imo a huge waste of money. 

Audioguy85

why are you even here? Go somewhere else and enjoy your Timex and Bose mini system

Hi

I haven't had a chance to listen to A3s.
Has anyone had chance to compare A3s with S1 Mk2s ?

Recently I read review on SoundStage Ultra site where reviewer (hilariously) claimed that 9 of 10 listeners would choose A3s instead of S1 Mk2s. Can that be a true?

Vule,

I have actually done a back to back audition of those two speakers - both set up in the same room, both driven by the same Devialet 220. The room was small and not a proper listening room.

The two overwhelming impressions was that the S1 had much more pleasant treble. Less sharp, just clear, clean, and more relaxed.

The A3 however just felt like a much more complete product - which of course makes sense as it’s a full-range speaker. While the treble was a bit sharp for me, the mids were nicer in the A3, and the bass was outrageously strong (in that small room anyway). I was blown away.

While I was very impressed by the A3s but personally could never justify the expense of the s1 as I’d also need a sub. I just don’t understand the logic behind the pricing structure in this case. That extra bit of smoothness in the highs is not worth it IMO.

Side note - It was during that audition thought that made me realize how much I like the sound of ribbon tweeters. Im very very seriously considering purchasing the A3s - I sure did love the low-end punch the A3s offered. But there’s a nagging voice in the back of my head telling me maybe a beryllium dome tweeter won’t give me the kind of sound I’m after.

qwaszxxx,

Many thanks for Your post and thoughts.
It seems that A series will still need that diamond coating to reach smoothness of higher frequencies.
Compromises, always some compromises that killing softly.

OMG - Devialet on Magico is like nails on chalk - period! Had a buddy bring over his 400s and it was awful on my S3s and we both hated the combo. Ear bleedingly so. Blaming the speaker here for harsh top end is simply ludicrous with that pairing. I’ve had a wonderful experience with A3 on Gryphon Diablo/SR Level 4/Galileo system. No harshness whatsoever and had me questioning just how close the A3 gets to the S3Mk2. IMO challenging that speaker in easy room placement, coherence, dynamics and a visceral room lock on the low end (although not as powerful and extended bass). Of course the S3Mk2 is sweeter and more extended up top and fills the room more with its lifelike ability to scale in three dimensions.

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!

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?

Hegen amps have a very high damping factor to go with the power ratings and i had a pair of salon 1's that were balanced kinda dark with my parasound a21 that the h360 totally transformed, Knife cuts both ways tho and bright speakers will be unbearable with the hegel. 

If I had to do it over again Magico A3 definitely would be on my short list.  I don't even want to listen to the similar S series that goes for $60k lol! A3 struck me as so coherent with detail that isn't hard or bright. Wilson Sophia would be a comparo if you shopping in this range but A3 better. I only heard A3 with Hegel sounds promising. Magico is expensive but lives up to the hype not like Estelon. Instead of spending money on expensive cables and dacs put the money in a speaker like the A3 and treat your room. I can see amplification with say with class A amp or refined A/B with tube preamp or if you want to keep it simple Hegel all in one amp. Good luck!😊

I tend to agree with the slightly shaded, more reticent sound of the Magico’s.  I went with the 800 Diamonds instead....just so much there there!!

I had the A3’s for a few months before I had to get rid of them. I preferred the Audiovector SR3 and the Nola KO2 over the A3. The vocals sounded similar to the vocals on the Wharfedale Elysian....a little closed in and too controlled...like a boxer who won’t “let his hands fly”. 

Very sad as over 850 pairs sold you should have got ROCKPORTS or VIMBERG you made a big mistake.Im sure your speakers did not have at least 500 hours break in to sound there best or you had bad electronics and cables.HELLO!!

I’m not sure if ebm is talking to me, but my electronics are a Gryphon Diablo 300, Holo May DAC and also Audiomirror tubadour3 DAC. Also had a Krell Duo 300xd amp with Audio Research LS28 pre. Innuos Zenith3 streamer with Phoenix. Cables are Audioquest Hurricane power, Shunyata Alpha speaker cables and Audio Sensibilty speaker cables. It;s odd that the other 2 sets of speakers didn’t have any issues with my bad electronics and cables. The A3’s were fully broken in with over 1000 hours on them. 

Yeah, the broker I bought the A3's from said they need AT LEAST 300-400 hours of break in. That's a lot of albums! I typically listen to 1-3 albums at most in a sitting. Although with new speakers I suspect that number will go up! Now I'm thinking of adding the Modwright 9.0 phono preamp in order to have both of my TT's connected. That may add a touch of warmth with the tubes to clean SS power. Another consideration down the road if I need additional power would be to add the PS Audio BHK stereo power amp which delivers 500 Watts @ 4 ohms. If anyone has information on those two components please discuss your impressions. I'm getting excited, the A3's come tomorrow!

I've owned the A3's since December and believe that they're still breaking in, paired with the Yamaha A-S3000 integrated. I borrowed a Prima Luna Dialogue One integrated for three weeks and the sonics were much more natural even though they could have used more power. I added a DYNA PAS-3X tube preamplifier to the Yamaha and the sonics do sound much more natural that with just SS amplification. I think Prima Luna EVO 400 mono blocks and preamplifier would be a killer combination.

Sounds real audio I agree with you I listen to the A3 and I found the bright and edgy. They monitor audio Platinum 200 Gen 2 are much better speaker they sound more natural and that MPD tweeter is much much better than the dome Tweeter that magico uses.

And I highly doubt that these are the most transparent transducers in the world LOL

The A3's need to be paired with the right speakers in order to get all out of them. Anyone who doesn't think they're some of the very best speakers they've ever heard isn't listening with a proper pairing, period.

I upgraded my amp from a Yamaha A-3000 to Prima Luna EVO 400 power amplifier and the change couldn't have been more dramatic!

I had a buddy over yesterday who was moved to tears while hearing Beethoven Symphony no. 6 in F major with Bruno Walter conducting. Analogue Productions Basie Jam was also pretty spectacular sounding!

So we have to pair these speakers with speakers?

Sorry, the A3's need to be paired with the right amplifier. I was fortunate enough to listen to 5 amplifiers in the system. I preferred the tube amplifiers over the solid state amplifiers by a wide margin. To my ears and other people I had over, the Dynaco ST-70 was an amazing match with the A3's. The noise floor was higher than the Prima Luna and it also could have used more power. A mono block set up with ST-70's would probably been a good amount of power but the noise floor still would have been higher. I'm planning on rolling the two center 12au7's on the EVO 400 with vintage Great Britain Mullard tubes to see how that sounds but there is so much more separation between instruments and vocals with the Prima Luna than with the solid state amps I had in the system. The overall soundstage with the tube amps blew away all of the solid state amps. I also like the ultra linear/triode function on the Prima Luna.

Old thread I know, but i’m with the OP 100%. I truly want to like them, but they sound like someone threw a towel over them after listening to some of my preferred speakers. Admittedly my ideal sound is much more forward (ala Focal as one example) vs. this.

@mtbiker29,I suspect your amp could be a mismatch with the speaker? I have heard the Focal 1028 and know what you mean.

@milpai Yeah I guess I like a certain amp style also.  I use Luxman 509x but my demo was on an M900-u....about as good and neutral as you're going to get.  Went back to back with Kanta, Sopra, Persona and Magico A3....one of these was not like the other.  

The Magico a3  and 5 need current tubes not a good match