Has anyone heard the Magico Mini?


I am very curious to hear the Magico Mini. It is getting great press in many areas and I am wandering if anyone has heard them. How do they compare to the Wilson Watt 8's or the Kharma's or the new Sonus Faber Guarneri's etc.
If I am not mistaken, they are priced about the same as the Watt/Pup 8's and more the Guarneri or Kharma 3.2.
daveyf

Showing 3 responses by stereotaipei

I heard a lot of the speakers you are mentioning (the Guarnieri, Stradivari, WP8, MAXX2, Schweikert VR9SE...) but not the Kharma. For my taste, the Mini beat them all (except for the visual aspect, for which the Sonus Faber cannot be beaten). In particular I loved their huge imaging (close your eyes and you think you are listening to a huge speaker set), their linearity and analytic side. If you have the right upstream components, you will feel like you are "there" Even if they don't go really below 40Hz, I preferred also the ported bass (much cleaner and tighter than all vented competitors). I listened to them driven by a ARC REF3-REF610, in a small room. Was a perfect combination. If your room is small, need to have enough absorbent on the walls as they radiate quite a lot of energy.
The Mini were originally not on my shopping list (was rather planning to buy a much bigger speaker) but I listened to them by chance and was so blown away that I ordered one pair

For the moment, I don't plan to use them with subwoofers (not much instruments playing below 40hz if you listen mainly to jazz and classical). Out of curiosity, Alexc, which subs were used in your listening session of the mini? (besides the Wilson Benesch Torus, I cannot imagine a sub fast enough to integrate properly with the woofer of the Mini)
PS: Current price is $22k. It goes up to $26,400 as of January 1st
PS2: the upper model in the Magico range (the Tower, for twice the price of the mini) will not be ready on time for CES
Alexc,
you say you heard the Mini with a pair of Torus: can you elaborate on the difference with the mini alone? does it justify the 19k additional investment?
thanks
Alon Wolf told me at CES that the change of woofer is further improving the sound of the mini: much stiffer membrane= lower resonance (I was said the new mini goes ~3dB lower)and less distortion
I was said also at CES that price has been set at $26k