My Long List of Amplifiers and My Personal Review of Each!

Yes you are right very expensive to repair. Especially Mágico $$$$$. No slack with that company. 

Jay, I can't find Fading Sun on Qobuz.

I find it fascinating that with all of the speakers Jay has owned, the Magico S7 has the best bass he’s heard in his room. Hard to believe that a medium size speaker beats those huge Wilsons. Alon Wolf should be commended for such a wonderful design.

Jay, your system has gone to a completely different level. Before, you could always easily tell you were listening to a microphone recording of a system playing. It is sounding so good now, this is no longer clear. Two thumbs way up.

@rbach - I have always found that bass response is the product of the speaker/room relationship more than the size.  In my room, I have had small standmounts produce a better, fuller bass response than larger floorstanders.  It's just the way the speaker interfaces with the room. IMO.

@charyo,

I agree with you to some extent, however we are talking about two completely different speaker designs.  The Wilson XLF @ 655lbs with (1) 15" and (1) 13" woofers and using its port to extend the bass should theoretically produce more, deeper bass than the Magico S7 @ 300lbs with (3) 10" woofers in a sealed cabinet with no help from a port and with less interaction from the room.  I have had many ported and sealed cabinet speakers.  It has been my experience that a larger ported design will produce more, deeper bass and also interact with the room more as opposed to a sealed cabinet design which I found to produce faster tighter bass and interact less with the room, but not produce more, deeper bass. 

 
Jay has reported the S7's to have the best, deepest, tightest bass he has had in his room.  That is why I said Alon Wolf should be commended for his design.

Actually, all things being equal, a sealed design will go deeper (12db vs.24 db roll-off on ported). 

In my room, no Wilson speaker went as deep as my S7 Magico.

I’ve said it before, to get most out of a ported speaker design, speaker placement is KEY. It is painful at times to find the perfect spot with ported speakers. It’s not easy get a balanced presentation where the bass doesn’t overpower the mids or highs and sometimes you gotta be willing to change your listening position if moving the speakers isn’t doing the magic.

That said, yes ported speakers hit deep DEEP, but they don’t exactly articulate bass frequencies as sealed cabinets do although I'm not saying they don't articulate bass frequencies. 

I think the bigger factor here is THE ROOM. Finding the right speaker design for your room is KEY. 

You are so right Jay finding the right speaker for YOUR ROOM is the key. I recently purchased the new pair Wilson Alexx Vs and tho my electronics are subpar for this speaker, they sound absolutely fantastic. They must of just coupled perfectly in my room. If I’m home they are playing continuously. I Love them, best speaker I’ve ever heard in my room. They just sound right. So glad you found the one for your room, isn’t it great to finally find the right one?  Good luck on you’re continuing journey it’s been enlightening and very entertaining for me. Thank you. 

My pleasure Carey

The room - the most overlooked component in an audio system. One variable that is so specific to our audio adventure. 

Agreed 

Hope everyone has a nice holiday with some music as well.

Really enjoying the latest content Jay. I am a sealed box devotee.

Thanks for all the work and thank you for your service.

@zprr 

Thank you

Jay,

Aside from bass, how does the S7 midrange/HF compare with your Focal?  Normally, if bass is accurate, so is the rest of the range.  

@viber6

The entire speaker is very coherent, but also more accurate.  The issue is with accuracy comes "THE TRUTH" and sometimes the truth isn't the easiest thing to accept. 

Folks, 

You are hearing it here first: I have just finished an interview with Greg Weaver. In case you do not know who he is, Greg has been reviewing equipment for the following publications:

1. The Absolute Sound
2. Soundstage
3. Stereo Times
4. Positive Feedback
5. TONEAudio

During this 90 minute interview (which will be broken out in 3 parts), I had the opportunity to ask an Audio Reviewer with over 40 years of experience questions that have never been answered before by a high-profile audio reviewer, but I was fortunate enough to ask. Here are a few of the questions I asked:

1. Why don't we ever see bad reviews published?
2. Should print publications have dedicated YouTube channels?
3. What does it take for a new brand to be reviewed by a magazine?
4.  How has the landscape changed for reviewers?
5. How long does a reviewer live with a product before it is reviewed?
6. What is the most important component in a system?
7. Do reviewers evaluate components with their stock powercords?
8. Should we re-position our speakers when we change a component?
9. Do you consider system synergy when evaluating components?
10. How should funds be allocated in a system?

You guys DO NOT want to miss this. I promise you, there is A LOT of great information and I am the FIRST CHANNEL to interview a well-known reviewer that has been doing this longer than I have been alive. More amazing things coming your way SOON!!

Jay

I have received many messages from people wanting for me to release the video above. I have moved up the time to 11AM E.T. time today. I hope you all enjoy this Part 1 of 3. I urge  you to relax, watch it in its entirety and hear from one of the most well-known reviewers today. This is NOT the video for you to skip through to locate answers. He took the time to open up and I believe It is important that we all listen to what he has to say. Again, this is part 1 of 3 so it should be clear that he won't be answering all questions on this particular video. 

Enjoy !

Ok folks,

Let's open up a discussion here about the first video. What are your early thoughts about the points he made?

Thanks Jay for bringing in Greg...what a cool guy with a wealth of knowledge.  It was refreshing to hear him speak of print and written articles / reviews and how important he thinks YouTube has become to compliment the writing he does.  Funny to hear him talk about reviewers that have little to no experience giving a product their highest recommendation when they have not heard similar products in the same price range or don't have the equipment to properly evaluate the gear. Same thing you've been preaching for years.   Looking forward to part two.

Great to listen to this old school gentleman. 50 years brings with it a wealth of knowledge and wisdom. Greg Sounds like a guy who genuinely loves music and has a gift in his ability to listen and articulate what he is hearing. He has seen so much over the years the advances as well as some of the decline in audio design. Thanks to Greg for sharing and come on to talk to us. Thank you Jay for having him.  Would be nice to know his system as well. 

Thank you everyone. More is coming and the next 2 parts will have a lot of the questions you've been waiting to get answers for. 

Greg Weaver's system is on this Page:

https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/greg-weaver-the-audio-analyst/

Hope it was OK to post this link.

jays_audio_lab

I enjoyed Part 1 video with Greg Weaver.

Happy Listening!

Things get serious today!

You should ask Greg why he think CS footers are more important than speaker upgrades

@keithr 

Did he say that somewhere?

He says the below in his PF review of the footers - not sure if that's what keithr meant?  Or, perhaps a different quote?

"It was as if my linestage, mono amps, and sources, even my loudspeakers, had all been replaced by components that were at least two to three times more expensive!"

Dave

Yes, and there was a huge WBF thread where I called him out on that review.

Interesting...hmmm. .. I’ll have to ask him next time I speak to him. You all know how I feel about footers...

or certain footers...

@keithr 

Do you own those footers?

Yes, I believe we all remember your thoughts on 'certain footers'.....wasn't it around that time that you were banned from WBF?  Hmmm

Lol yes it sure was 

@keithr +1000

The CS footers were a hot topic, as were some of the replies that Mr. Weaver gave to anyone who he deemed to ask any question he did not like!😏

Keith, question... you had the same honor of being banned from WBF? I thought I was the only one who was deemed worthy, darn it! 😃

Jay,

I hope you do a video comparison of the S7 and Focal speakers on at least 1 song so we can judge for ourselves.  Later, your opinion will be of interest.  I realize that both speakers are heavy, so this is not easy, but just hearing your findings is only one man's opinion.  Even if someone has the money to spend, he is not going to buy just based on any opinion, but will want to hear for himself.  I don't think any dealer can do as good a job as you in presenting the two speakers playing the same music with the best electronics, hopefully the same Boulder pair for both speakers.  A dealer may have a room dedicated to the S7 and another room for the Focal, but this is a far less meaningful comparison than you can do.  Rooms change everything.  At a famous NYC dealer years ago, I heard a Maggie in a small room like a closet.  The Maggie sounded lousy, not at all like when that dealer presented a similar Maggie years before in a much larger room.  He probably thought that the other much more expensive speakers deserved his best larger room, while the cheap Maggie could snooze in the closet.  Bad, unprofessional attitude on his part.  

Thanks.

Ok folks,

I hope you all enjoyed my 3 part video with Greg Weaver. He's been an awesome person with me so far and I'm quite happy I was able to share this content with you all. 

Now, I'm working on the comparison video of Focal & Magico. 

I managed to record 40 minutes so it will be 2 videos of 20 min each. Which speaker is for which buyer? Which speaker should you buy ? I will answer this soon. Stay tuned and thanks for the support!

Another A/B video on the Magico S3, S5, S7 would be interesting.  Obviously, the S7 has the deepest and most powerful bass, but the new midrange and tweeter drivers look identical the way they are described.  The midrange/HF performance of all these models is probably comparable.  In a smaller room, the S3 might be ideal.  Even in Jay's medium sized room, for music without lots of bass, either the S3 or S5 would be good, plus the attraction of saving lots of money.

Congrats Jay!  This setup sounds really good. Hopefully, you become totally immersed in the musical experience!