Magico A3

This must be the speaker one of the TAS writers was alluding to as a new $10k speaker to watch out for and also  one he could not talk about yet.

I liked the Magico S3 MKII a lot. If the A3 is of the same pedigree then this is a speaker I will have to look at for my office.

erik_squires,

Room size is the key to any speaker. I am just exploring all options at the moment while I get ready to move to a house. The CA drought and fires may make my move happen faster than expected.

I have been looking at all types of speakers, passive, active, omni, dynamic. I want to go a little out of the box for the office system (experiment). The Magico S3 (which I like) are definitely not an office speaker that I think I could find room for. However the S1 would likely work room size wise. Although I have no interest in that speaker, too expensive for what it delivers. The A3 could be a viable alternative for a S1.

If the A3 is a smaller version of the S3 MKII then that would be a tremendous speaker.

@nitewulf ,

I sort of took your advice and bought the Audience 1+1 crossover less speaker for my office. It is being built now and should be shipped in a week or 2. Not much low end but supposed to sound great outside those frequencies. I have a 30 day trial. The reset of the system will be

Benchmark DAC3L
Benchmark AHB2 amp
Magnum Dynalab 102 Tuner
Audience AU24 SE speaker cables
Audience AU24 and AU24e interconnects
Audience 1+1 speaker

I am currently using the KEF LS50 while the 1+1 is being built and shipped. The system sounds great in my tiny office. The next office will be bigger so I was looking for a bigger sounding speaker.

No A3 for me, though I will be going to hear it sometime in the Spring at a local dealer.

@nitewulf 

The source is a PC running ROON  + TIDAL. Bits are delivered by USB-to-Ethernet, using a Sonare microRendu.I have 2 systems connected to this PC in 2 different rooms. I also use a PowerLine adapter for the room that I cannot get a direct Ethernet cable,

@james633  I think I remember your prior Thiel posts as James63 back in the day. Nice to see your posts again. I was into Thiel when you were shopping around for speakers back then, so I remember paying attention to your posts. 

I was about to buy the A3 this month however, I am running into some room issues (maybe too small). I demoed the A3 with Mark Levinson 585 integrated and it was a fantastic match. It sounded like a much more expensive speaker with great detail, large sound stage and the speakers really disappeared. They also sounded very good at ALL volume levels that I tested at, from very low to semi-loud. The demo room was rather perfect so maybe the speaker does not sound this good in not so perfect rooms.

To that end my dealer has allowed me to demo these speakers for a few days at my home. I will do so sometime in early 2019. I have a feeling the A3 is going to be a little big for that small room but I will not know until I try. 

If you have the space and the funds you may also want to check out the Magico S3MKII. In my opinion, it is better than the A3 but also bigger and more expensive. A KEF Blade (can get used at $15K) would be something I want to do over the A3 and S3MKII if I had even more space. I loved the Thiel CS 3.7 and like the Blade even more.

Congrats. In the last 2 years, I also had a kid, a new job (work from home) and I just moved into a new home last month. Since I work from home I am looking for a speaker to fit my small home office. I was checking out the A3 before I knew the room dimensions of my new space.

I have been guided by the wisdom of A’gon users to the following (I have a thread on small room speakers):

1) Harbeth SHL5+ (considering this because it is totally different from MY sound and good for long hours of listening)

2) TAD ME1 (2 dealers who carry both KEF REF1 and TAD ME1 say this is better, also good for long hours of listening)

I am going to demo these 2 next month and likely buy one of these so I can focus on music and work and not audio shopping.

One of the things I need is a system that will sound good at low volumes because I listen and work at odd hours when the baby is sleeping. The Magico A3 does this well, especially with Mark Levinson integrated.  I am not sure if low volume goodness is a function of the speaker or the amp. This is a huge issue for me when I demo the 2 speakers I mentioned above. I cannot enjoy headphones as much as speakers and it is hard to hear the baby with phones on.