Speakers that are very accurate sounding but don't produce an emotional connection.

Early model YG speakers, B&W Diamond speakers, Wilson Alexia, Crystal Arabesque mini come to mind..

To respond to a previous member's comments about the YG Carmel, the new Carmel Mk2 is a completely different proposition & sounds musically engaging to me. I didn't like the original Carmel, but I like this one. With that said, I think the Magico S1 Mk2 will have the wood on it.

I heard the Wilson Alexia’s in a treated room with top flight ARC tube gear & was underwhelmed. The bass was slow and flabby which smeared the midrange, they were not as coherent or well balanced as the S5’s, and are not as warm, full bodied or intimate sounding. Sound stage depth was good though. The Alexia’s have airy mids and highs, though I didn’t equate that with greater accuracy. The S5s are definitely more accurate and have better image specificity. I left that room after 30 minutes. I actually preferred a pair of B&W 802d’s paired with Electrocomoaniet amps that night, despite the still bright sounding top end (and I’m not a fan of the 802d).

The Magico S5’s broke new ground for Magico. If you thought the Q3’s sounded analytical, the S5’s have a more laid back presentation, deeper fuller bass & sound warmer. The S5’s are very well balanced and coherent, and *can* draw you into the music with ss gear if matched with the right amps, front end and cables. Vitus Signature series, Pass XA.8 and XS series, Soulution & Audia Flight Strumento all have excellent synergy. For cables, I’ve found Jorma Prime and Statement wire & Siltech Royal Sugnature series have great synergy. I can imagine Kubala Sosna Emotion & Elation also pairing well.

Personally I run Magico S5’s with a Vitus SIA-025, Vitus SCD-025mk2, Gigawatt PC3 SE Evo conditioner, Furutech GTX-D(g) wpo, Jorma Prime and Statement cables & Stillpoints, and find I get an emotional connection to the music which makes me want to sit down and listen. With that said, the new S5 Mk2 speakers I have on order will be on a whole nutha level such that you might have to re-assess your view of Magico speakers Gpgr...

Gpgr, likewise I’ve enjoyed our exchanges on this topic. To be clear, I heard the Alexia’s in a Dealer’s treated main room with top-line ARC tube gear. I was told by the Dealer the speakers were fully run in. I also confirmed my findings when I heard the Alexia’s at the Melbourne High End show with D’agostino Momentum mono blocks and a full DCS Scarlatti stack. But you know as well as I do that anyone who stamps thier fist on a table demanding that manufacturers put up or shut up in notoriously sub-optimal show conditions are not being honest with themselves. Too many variables. Hence I wouldn't rely on show auditions alone.

After hearing Magico’s sealed box designs compared to Wilson’s ported designs I think the former sounds correct. Magico also has greater in-house design and manufacturing capacity & are clearly ahead in technology. But that doesn’t mean Wilson make bad sounding speakers. They have a ’live’ sound & move plenty of air, so I can see why they have a big following. But for that kind of presentation, I personally prefer Marten Coltranes which sound much more musical to my ears. To each their own.

@gpgr4blu , Like I said, if you’re relying on notoriously sub-optimal
show conditions alone to judge an entire manufacturer, you’re only fooling yourself. I formed my view of Wilson Alexia’s based on auditions in a Dealer’s main treated room *and* under show conditions.

I can't comment on Daedalus,  Salk or Nola as I have only heard Daedalus, and only under show conditions.  Look out for my future review of the Magico S5 Mk2 speakers. They are completely different animals to the original S5’s & incorporate many of the innovations of the M Pro.

@gpgr4blu The Dealer I mentioned is Tivoli Hifi in my neck of the woods. The Dealer has 30 years experience and chooses good staff. Their main room is well sorted from my limited experience with room acoustics, and the night I heard the speakers was a special buying night for members of Stereo.net.au forum with a wine merchant doing wine tasting, so every effort was put into setting up the speakers properly. I think on the balance of probabilities, given two auditions, my findings are probably not going to change much. Remember, we all hear things differently and all have our own tastes/preferences.

It is clear to me you like fast, open speakers with warm, liquid sound and a holographic soundstage. From what i've read, the new Magico S5mk2 & S7 have lighter, stiffer, faster drivers, much higher quality and more powerful magnets, better materials, better cabinet design & better crossover. Paired with tube-like ss amps such as Vitus Signature series or Pass XA.8/XS series, or CJ Art/Gat or Absolaire tubes you could find the sound you like out of Magico. I haven't found a sound I like yet out of Wilson, but never say never they say.

Cheers Sequence56. The S5Mk2's cabinet is a bit more optimized than the S7, whilst the S7's driver array gives it an edge in that area. They will both be terrific speakers given the right size room.

Sequence, I heard the Tad Evolution One speakers at the Melbourne Hifi Show and found the top end etched and bright. I can’t remember which amps they were partnered with, but I recall thinking the S5’s sounded a lot nicer with the caveat I have not heard the Tad CR One, nor heard those speakers in a familiar room with familar amps.

To me though, TAD is similar to Revel being the high end arm of a multi-national, broad-based company. TAD being owned by Pioneer, and Revel by Harmon. Is something lost when you have to answer to a boss in a corporate office 6000+ miles away? I don’t know.

The only tube amps i’ve heard pair well with the S5’s are Absolare & the CJ Gat & Art amps which both have solid drive. Though i’d love to hear how the Einstein or VTL mono's sound with the S5's. I think the Zanden amps would lack a bit of current to drive them to their full potential. My favorite gear for synergy as everyone knows is Vitus Sig series. I think Spectral and Devaliet are bad choices with Magico imho.

@fliz, the new Magico S5 Mk2 speakers use 2 x 10" bass drivers which handle the low, mid & upper bass crossing over to the midrange at about 200Hz. The new 10" bass drivers have massive magnets which help saturate the structure around the coil which prevents eddy currents forming, which in concert with the lighter and stiffer hybrid carbon Nano-tube/Nano-graphene cone material should reduce distortion & improve dynamics.

The excursion rate of the voice coil for the new 10" bass drivers is measured at 15 mm linear movement, twice as much as its predecessor, thus enabling plenty of air to be moved. The S5 Mk2 is also 1db more efficient than the old S5 (89db @4ohms), so it should have impressive bass.

phusis184 posts12-29-2015 11:54pm melbguy1 --

@fliz, the new Magico S5 Mk2 speakers use 2 x 10" bass drivers which handle the low, mid & upper bass crossing over to the midrange at about 200Hz. The new 10" bass drivers have massive magnets which help saturate the structure around the coil which prevents eddy currents forming, which in concert with the lighter and stiffer hybrid carbon Nano-tube/Nano-graphene cone material should reduce distortion & improve dynamics.

This sounds to be a very potent bass configuration, but in regards to the 2 x 10" woofers here used their chosen cross-over frequency (i.e.: 200Hz) sits in a rather sensitive area in the upper bass, and so would likely not have the desired effect - at least as advocated by author "W.A.J." to the article via supplied link - in regards to the equal importance of the lower mids (i.e.: ~250-500Hz) here mentioned.

Note: The estimate of 200Hz was based on the previous model. That spec has not been published yet for the Mk2. None the less, the subjective balance and objective measured performance of the original S5 suggest that Magico was successful in integrating the upper bass to lower mid frequencies. The new S5 Mk2’s bass drivers use more powerful magnets in an underhung motor system, together with a lighter and much stiffer cone. Thus the drivers should be up to task.

The excursion rate of the voice coil for the new 10" bass drivers is measured at 15 mm linear movement, twice as much as its predecessor, thus enabling plenty of air to be moved. The S5 Mk2 is also 1db more efficient than the old S5 (89db @4ohms), so it should have impressive bass.

Bodes well for impressive LF performance, something I’m sure my own speakers (w/15" drivers in folded horns) can only dream of. There’s obviously a trade-off here; either have the dynamics, presence and physicality a horn-loaded 15" unit (cut off at ~500Hz) can present from the lower mids and down to ~50Hz, or have lots of it sacrificed for strong LF-performance further down in the 25Hz region or thereabouts from smaller non-horn-loaded units. A horn could do this as well (i.e.: extend to 25Hz), but would have to be seriously massive in size to do this. That said 89dB is a far cry from 105dB sensitivity, and 15" horn-loaded drivers exsert very limited amounts of excursion which comes as a significant benefit in regards to their reproduction of the lower mids, also coupled with the high sensitivity and low distortion that follows.

I understand the theory of what you’re describing, and yes many hybrid horn speakers i’ve heard have a live presence to them. Mind you, there is a reason Magico don’t use paper cones, or doped paper cones. I can assure you the previous model S5’s have plenty of physical presence and impact. You wont hear a midbass hump as with many other speakers. The NRC said the S5 was the best measuring speaker they ever tested. Magico’s transparency and linearity can take some time to get used to, but once aquainted, is addictive.

Designing bass drivers with a large amount of linear movement is ok if they have enough flux density generated from the magnets and motor system & the cone material is light and stiff enough to move in perfect piston motion. The S5 Mk2’s bass units now use much larger magnets similar to the Q series & a lighter and stiffer cone, so there shouldn’t be any issues with distortion or lack of speed/dynamics. But as I mentioned, compared to a traditional horn-loaded speaker, this is the harder and more expensive route to take.

If I was a millionaire, carte blanche i’d buy the Magico Q7 Mk2 which are more sensitive (94db @4 ohms) & employs 2 x 12" bass drivers, 1 x 10" midbass coupler, a 6" midrange & 1.2" diamond-coated BE tweeter. Obviously with that amount of cone area, cabinet volume and efficiency there are fewer trade offs, hence being their cost-no-object model. But within my budget, i’m happy with the S5 Mk2 which has quite acceptable trade offs which none the less should still enable the speakers to portray life-like scale, impact & speed given optimal amplification.

In summary, every speaker has some trade offs. It’s just a matter of whether you’re happy with the strengths vs trade offs of a given loudspeaker & how that loudspeaker synergizes with your system and room according to your tastes and listening preferences.