YG Acoustics Hailey 1.2

Mjama, I agree with your comments about the S5's which sound wonderful. Just to correct you on one thing however, the S5's are rated to 22Hz factory spec, whilst Martin Colloms measured in-room response to 25Hz in his Hifi Critic review (which is still damn good for a sealed speaker). You may have been thinking of the S3's which are rated to 26Hz.

Btw I also recently heard the Hailey 1.2's with Lamm M2.2 mono's in one room & the new Soulution 501 mono's, 520 pre & The Beast in another. The Hailey's fit, finish & looks score very high as you mentioned. I am not so unkind to the look of the S5's however, which in Titanium grey atleast look very nice in my room.

The Hailey 1.2's sound very smooth, fast & are great sound stagers. They move plenty of air & the bass goes deep paired with the right amp, though I felt the S5's bass reveals more texture and layering. Vitus or Soulution's latest amps would be a great choice for amplification which would smooth out the slightly hot (lively) sound and add some warmth and body.

Keep in mind the S5's need a long time to fully break in. Magico recommend a minimum of 200hrs to allow the caps & chokes to play in, however i've heard numbers as high as 1000hrs for the S5's to be about 85% run in. Also, I plan on installing a set of 6 Stillpoints Ultra 5's & Ultras bases under my S5's soon which should really improve their mojo!

Fargo, the S5 is tuned differently than the Hailey 1.2. The S5 was designed to be a bit warmer and more laid back in presentation than the Q3, yet have a lower center of gravity with more bass presence. Overall the S5 is a well balanced and very coherent speaker. The S5's bass is accurate & follows the music without dominating the frequency spectrum. When the music calls for it, the S5's can "freaking pound" as Jeff Fritz remarked on first audition, but can also render layering and terrific inner detail within the bass frequencies if the accompanying equipment and source material are up to scratch.

The Hailey 1.2's certainly move plenty of air & go deep in the bass due to the design of the speaker. The top section is a complete 2 way speaker (Hailey 1.1), with a sub-woofer module bolted on which makes it the 1.2. The sub-module is focused on the low bass region & part of the mid-bass region, crossing over at 65Hz, and YG use a 7.25" bass midrange to handle the remaining mid-bass, upper bass & midrange. And to these ears that's where the S5's come into their own. The S5's M380 carbon nano-tech midrange which utilizes a dual neodymium, underhung motor system with pure titanium voice coil former is the same midrange, albeit tuned to the S5, as the Q3 & is capable of midrange magic, especially on jazz voice. Here the Hailey's can't quite replicate the same luscious vocals, warmth or musicality as the S5's midrange in my view.

To me, midrange drivers should focused on the critical midband. The S5's crossover to the midrange at 200Hz and hand over to the tweeter at about 2kHz, meaning it is a true midrange driver, not bass midrange like the Hailey. The Hailey's drivers are certainly fast and very low distortion, and they do indeed sound well balanced, if a little lively. You can see and hear the money in them. However at the end of the day, the two speakers sound very different and are likely to appeal to equally divergent tastes. And there is also the small matter of a $10k price difference.

Ptss, I guess beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. YG Hailey and Magico S5 are both sculpted designs. S5 less so, but Magico still use a curved aluminium cabinet, and it has curved corners at the front to eliminate diffraction. The design was intentional to reduce cost vs the Q series, whilst approaching the Q series performance at a more accessible price. If Magico had made S5 like the M Project speakers, the S5's would have cost between $50-$60k. Anyway, you don't just sit and look at speakers..you play music. And whilst the Ultima Salon 2 is a good speaker, you can't compare it to the S5 which has a computer-modelled 1/2" thick heavily braced extruded aluminum cabinet and superior drivers (including a Q-series Nano-tech midrange) made to very tight tolerances. Doug Schneider conceded it was a better speaker than the Salon 2 in his review for Soundstage. With YG, you either like the design or hate it. But the engineering and fit and finish are beyond reproach. Different horses for different courses as they say.

08-23-14: Fargo
Thank you, Melbguy1. I did not realize that the YG is essentially a 2 way with a sub. In that case, the right comparison will be to the Magico Q1 with a Qsub.
I recently heard the Qsub and was extremely impressed.

YW Fargo, the QSub is awesome on a word. That would be a cool combo!

Good post P59teitel! Agreed you can't really go wrong with either speaker. There is no doubt the Salon 2's are very good, though just to clarify, the mid-bass issue Doug referred to was later solved when he adjusted the S5's speaker positioning. Fyi here is what he said -

the S5’s upper bass, while more prominent than the V2’s, was still a touch subdued. The tightness and impact in that region were there, just down a touch in level. As a result, the S5’s bass was never overpowering. However, there were times when I did want the greater upper-bass heft that I’m used to, which adds weight and grandeur. I compensated as I had with Tannoy’s DC10As ($16,500/pair), which I’ve just reviewed, and which exhibited a similar quality: I pushed the S5s closer to the front wall, to get a little more boundary reinforcement for the low end. Everything fell into place and, from top to bottom, the S5s sounded nothing short of spectacular.

So it was no surprise that coupling the S5’s inherent tightness and control in the low end with proper setup resulted in bass drums sounding punchy, tight, and supercontrolled, even when I strapped the big amps to the speakers and put the volume levels way, way up -- they stayed startlingly clean

Ptss, yes Magico used COMSOL computer modelling to assist in designing the S5's. The front facia is made from a solid billet of 1/2" thick CNC-machined pure T6061 aluminium which provides a very solid platform for the drivers to work in perfect piston motion as they were designed. Regarding Magico's design philosophy for the S5, Alon's aim was to approach the Q series resolution, dynamics and linearity, whilst tuning the S5's for a warmer, slightly more laid back presentation than Q3, though at a more affordable price point.

It is possible to successfully employ a wide, flat front baffle using rounded front edges and a tapered cabinet design. Infinity designed my previous Renaissance 90's in a similar way & they achieved excellent sound staging and off-axis performance! And the S5's cabinet is designed in a similar way.

I take your point about the complexity of a traditional 4th order crossover required for such a design, however the crossover used in the S5 is not a 'conventional' design. Magico use their 'Elliptical Symmetry Crossover' technology which enables them to deliver (as Martin Colloms put it) "flat pass-band responses with superior and symmetrical phase summation, and faster out-of-band roll-offs using modified 'elliptical’ filters". The beauty of this design is it allows these desirable performance parameters to be achieved with half the number of parts used in a traditional crossover.

I've heard the Hailey in my Dealer's treated showroom paired with a Vitus RS-100, DCS Pucini cd player & DCS Scarlatti dac. The Vitus RS-100 provided the normal Vitus hallmarks of smoothness, tonal richness, mellifluousness & non-fatiguing sound, together with excellent control. The DCS gear was certainly resolving, but I find DCS a bit analytical. Also digital volume controls have limitations. I am sure a Vitus RD-100 & RCD-101 would have had better synergy.

The Haileys are dynamic, coherent, resolving and project an expansive sound stage. The Haileys are definitely smoother sounding than earlier YG speakers thanks to newer (better) tweeters and ongoing refinement of crossovers etc. I wouldn't say as smooth or laid back in presentation as the S5's. Paired with Boulder, Spectral or Rowland, the Haileys would sound too 'metalic' and still a bit bright for my liking.

I've heard the Haileys with Lamm 2.2 mono's, Lamm LL2.1 pre & Ayon front end. In this setup, the Hailey's conveyed the warmth and tube virtues of the Lamms & sweetness of the Ayon, but was under-powered imho. The extreme resolution of these speakers and their tuning means they benefit from from either some tubes in the mix or smooth tube-like ss amps.

The best sound i've heard with YG perhaps unsurprisingly was a pair of Sonja's paired with a Vitus SS-102 amp, CH Precision D1/C1 combo & Gigawatt PC-2 EVO Power Conditioner. The SS-102's great control and wonderfully smooth, rich, effortless sound sounded great with the CH front end. The big Vitus is the only amp which i've heard tame the YG's tendency to brightness. I really enjoyed that listening session.

In summary, the Hailey is a really impressive speaker with exceptional build quality and displays similar class to the Sonja, but imho is best matched with Vitus amps. For sure CH D1/C1 works well also if your pockets are deep enough. Then again, there is the Vitus Masterpiece transport/dac ;) For me personally, I believe your system needs to be balanced. I could have bought a pair of Haileys, but that would have meant making compromises elsewhere which meant I would not have gotten the best of the speakers. Instead I went for the S5's and am building a balanced system around those speakers.