Quandry: Used Magico V2 vs. new S1

Melbguy, Pass Labs is another amplifier brand that sounds great with Magico.

Would you also consider a used Mini2? That would be my choice, but then I own a pair. My dealer described the S1 as sounding very close to the Q1. I have not heard the S1. The V2 is less tonally neutral and coherent than the mini2.

I would not put the S5 in the same "league" as the Q3. I've heard both at the same dealer, though with different equipment and in different rooms. I thought the Q3 was much more evenly balanced, more transparent and far more coherent. It just did not make me think about the equipment. The S5, on the other hand, did not disappear and sounded very mechanical with an emphasis on the lower frequencies. I did not hear the magic. But then they are at different price points.

The dealer did tell me that he thought the S1 was closer to the Q1 than the S5 is to the Q3.

To address the OP's original question, which will be preferred should be evident after you hear them in similar settings with familiar music.

I should have added, and I think this is critical to what I heard, that the set ups were not valued equally by the dealership. I heard the Q3 during that speaker's introduction/debut in New England. Alon Wolf was there and much effort was made to have them sound their best in from of an audience.

In the case of the S5, the set up was less serious. The previous day the S1 was in the room and I returned the following day to give it a listen. That morning the S1 was removed from the room and replaced by the S5. It did not seem to me that the same degree of care went into placing the speaker in the room. Perhaps this is why the imaging was not as impressive and the speaker did not disappear to the same extent. Of course, the associated equipment was also not of the same caliber, but more appropriate for the less expensive speaker.

I'm sure with more time and effort, the S5 could have been made to sound better in that demo. Perhaps your comment about the baffle width being bigger is important and clearly, the speaker is not built to the same level of excellence as the Q series. The cabinet is not as inert, the driver mounting method is different, the baffle is flat, not curved, etc. etc.

The Q3 is just an extremely refined and accomplished design which is only limited by its driver dimensions, IMO.

I chose a Mini II over the V2 and did not really like the S1 when I heard it. The S1 is the entry level speaker, has lower quality parts and sounds fairly thin to me. The Mini II was an all out effort for state of the art in small speaker designs. It is a much more refined and capable speaker than the S1, IMO.