Magico S5 or Rockport Atria


I have gone through a process to select new speakers.  I have come down to the Magico vs Rockport.  I do like both of them.  My goal is to find a speaker with a high level musicality over all other attributes.  My biggest concern with these two speakers is that I end up with listener fatigue after long listening sessions.  I really have no way to evaluate this during relatively short auditions.  Would love to hear from anyone who has experience with either of these speakers.

(Music I listen to most: rock, jazz and female vocals.  Amps Pass Labs XA 60.8, AR Ref 6 Pre, sources vinyl and streaming, largeish listening room).
chilli42

Showing 1 response by soix

I’ve heard both the Q7 and Aviors and both were excellent.  If I were to sum them up I’d say the Magico sound skews more neutral thought not cold sounding at all while Rockport skews more musical though still with great detail.  Given your preferences I’d go with Rockport, and as Andy Payor also uses Gryphon Class-A amps to voice his speakers I’d think they’d match very well with your Pass amp as well.

I have to say though that at this price level I’d take Joseph Audio Pearls over either as to me they combine the musicality and neutrality of both with even better imaging and 3D soundstage.  I also think the Pearl’s silk-dome Seas tweeter could potentially be a little less likely to induce fatigue over the beryllium tweets in the other two, but as they are also extremely refined it could be a non issue all around.  But that’s me and your two choices are both outstanding regardless, and I’m sure you’ll be thrilled with whatever you ultimately choose.  Hope this helps, and best of luck.