Magico speakers too clinical and fatiguing?


A while back I was very enthusiastic about these speakers. They look nice and supposedly supposed to sound very nice. I’ve heard them a few times and the level of precision and accuracy is very good. But is there too much science going on to create the speakers that makes them at times a little uncomfortable to listen to for more than a few minutes.

Are modern age speakers going nuts with all the science?

emergingsoul

@dayglow I think I am the opposite of obsessed with the price. I am saying it's not about the price...

@grislybutter 

You may like the sound of your system, and that’s a good thing.  But don’t fool yourself into believing it performs at a level of one consisting of high(er) quality components. I’m not saying $$ is always the answer, but most of the time you get what you pay for.

No, that is not the usual case, audio gear depends very much on the designer of your gear and your taste, some designers are just better than others.

A lot of the high end gear, you pay mostly for the box, not what is inside, especially big power amps weighing 30 kg up, it looks cool, but making a difference to the sound probably not.

I heard a pair driven by a pair of ARC Reference tube amps and a Ref 6 preamp. I thought they sounded very good. They are not as "clinical" as Wilson Alexx Vs sounded to my ears. 

I wouldn’t call them scientific, but they do have their own sound in my mind. One of the best "scientific" attributes of Magico is the power response. The extremely wide and even dispersion makes these speakers throw an excellent image to a wide listening area.

At the same time, this means they need more room around them.  Putting them in a cramped room is an absolute waste of money, IMHO, even for their smallest models.

From a tonal perspective, I find glass smooth but also a little cool on the top and (and I know everyone disagrees) I find them a little chesty. Female voices and piano registers to me have some extra resonance there.

Fatiguing though? Not when driven by excellent tube pres, which is the only way I’ve heard them.