While I’ve posted to a discussion groups only about twice a year, I have to open my mouth here (and it can get big). First to state upfront; I'm a dealer for Magico and I’ve only recently received my first pair. As a dealer for Avalon, Kharma, Martin Design and Fried and previously JM lab Utopias and numerous others I think I can speak with some degree of authority as to their sound / production value.
For starters the Magico Mini is by far the best production value (cost of materials and labor) (I’ll get to their sound below) I've seen in any upper end speaker, say over $3,000, in terms of what it cost to make vs. the retail price. Jeff Rowland, who uses them for his reference, confirmed this extraordinary value when I asked him about their cost to manufacture. They should sell in excess of $30k based on production cost no if, and, or butts. It doesn't matter if it is in your price range or not or if you consider expensive speakers to be silly or you're ready to seriously consider one. They offer a better production value than any other hi-end speaker I know of.
Having said that, production value doesn’t mean much as to how something sounds. In the case of the Mini’s the sound is out of this world fantastic in every way possible and nothing currently in my store offers as good a sound. Note: I have other speakers in similar price ranges but do not currently have other brands that are more expensive so I can’t say these will be better than my other brands more expensive models. I can be most confident nothing will beat their value.
The Minis have perfect tonal balance, lots of authority, huge, huge, huge (did I mention huge?) soundstage – fantastic dynamics, resolution and everything else you can think of. These will be what I personally listen to for the foreseeable future. I like subs for some music with most any speaker and a $2,000 Velodyne sub works just fine when called upon (the Minis have plenty of output to 40hz and fade fast below that). For the person who wants a truly state of the art speaker in a most elegant package this is it.
Why did I become a Magico dealer? Because a terrific customer of mine, who I had sold a pair of JM lab Diva Utopia’s ($11500) later bought a pair of Magico’s and told me they made his Divas sound downright poor. He couldn’t stop raving about them over a period of months! Not to mention Jeff Rowland telling me over and over how special they are – and he’s heard a few speakers in his day.
I heard them in Denver RMAF and the room/setup wasn’t good enough for me to take the plunge (hey, these aren’t cheap!). So I had a trusted audio friend (who was also in Denver and not so impressed but totally impressed with the technology) and was about to travel to Oakland pay a visit to Magico to further investigate. Alon has been most gracious by the way in every contact with my friend and myself. This audio fanatic, super great ear’d friend came back and told me “these are the real things, buy them”. He said Denver did them no justice and he further thought they were unquestionably better than my current top 2 way at the same price. This friend who has owned JM lab Utiopia’s and Kharma’s knows what he’s talking about enough so I took his advice. He now wants a pair of Minis as well saying they are the best 2 way speaker made. I ordered, I heard, I believe.
So, say what you will, the proof is in the listening and when set up right the Minis will put all squabbles to rest in under 10 seconds. Visit me in S. California to hear for yourself whether or not you would ever spend for them doesn’t matter – it will be a pleasure to hear them and mine to demo them for you.
There, I’ve made my ‘post’ maybe even for the next 6 months.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Jay