YG Acoustics Hailey 1.2

I had the opportunity to audition YG's Haily 1.2 over the weekend at California Audio Show 2014. In my opinion, they were the-best-in-show "speakers". The staging, dynamics, and bass was amazingly good. They just sounded musical. But for MSRP of $43! I am not sure if they're competitively priced, unless the speakers are heavily discounted as some have suggested here.
The best-in-show "sound", IMO, was the Magico S5 system. Magico S5, are $30K plus and they sounded just magnificent, very musical. BUT, although the S5 is rated to go down to 26 KHz, I just did not feel the bass impact; Haily 1.2 was superior in this area. Also, at this price range speaker aesthetics matters, compared to haileys, Magico S5 speakers are just ugly (very boxy looking from the front angle)and I don't think paying extra $3 grand for cool automotive paint improves the look.
Going by the price alone and if you don't mind lack of authoritative bass, Magico S5 was the winner, but if you have to have solid bass performance and can get a major discount, Hailey 1.2 would be my choice.

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!

Interesting comments. The bass on the S5 should be quite a bit more substantial than the one the YG. You are talking about 2X10” vs 1X10”, both in sealed box (I even think these are both made by Scan Speak, with some cone modification by YG/Magico) . The YG, are also less efficient and will have less power handling capabilities due to that. Something was off with the setup you heard. I agree on the look to some degree, a bit bulky looking, but for the money, hard to bit.

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.

General comment re the lack of imagination on box design by YG(and also Magico). With all the bragging about technical capabilities and manufacturing tolerances why not a bit of creativity in design. Why not put these "5 axis" computer controlled wizards to better use. They could have a sculpted face - and use no more material. I have to think Revels Salon 2's face design is far more "technically appropriate". Magico's huge flat faces are reminiscent of 60's and 70's deign. Even JBL's 250 Ti's were more stylish; with technical merit to the design as well (although not fully optimized).
I have to think the front elevations of speakers will soon be a merited target of improvement by both these companies as the benefits of Revel Salon 2's design are indisputable. (Even Green Mountain Audio has had much more progressive design ideas. I can't imagine why they haven't managed flat frequency response however).