Magico S5 Speaker - SET UP ADVICE PLEASE - Tow-In - Etc.

Thank you Kalai - Doug - Dave - Benzman -

I really appreciate the help. I don't want to overreact but these are way too good a speaker to be sounding the way they are - I am so glad I waited on a buying a preamp until I heard these.

I absolutely was not ready for this though to be honest!

My understanding is Magico really needs the Power of a SS amp or I wouldn't even consider a tube amp but a tube amp to drive these properly is way more than I have money wise. Heck I stripped out my analog and all my tube based components to sell to get these. I think these are super sensitive to changes.

I switched the power cable to my amp and just that made a big change in the sound. Not really any better but quite different - these certainly are finicky grumpy - angry speakers.

If they don't like something they you know it and scream it at the top of their lungs and they don't like something - hope its not the amp - know it's not the DAC. The DAC is better than the speakers IMO.

I think they hate the SS combo of my DAC direct to my amp. They hate it - I think they hate my interconnects and hate my power cables and maybe even my speaker cables but these are not bright SC's so maybe not those but they are not happy.

One of the guys was saying this is how Magico's are and why some people don't like them. I don't buy that for a second. These speakers are just not happy right now all with how they are matched... if this was their sound no one would like them and so many people do! 

my email is:

fsmithjack at YAH00 

Part of me just wants to trade out of these today to something else but these deserve the effort I think They have so many fans - I have to be able to get them to sound good! 

Dont you guys think? 

These are grumpy buggers!!! 

You said the original owner hardly used them.  Could it be that they were used so little that they aren't broken in?

"So darn bright :( something wrong here...."

"... if this was their sound no one would like them and so many people do!"

I’d have to agree that it sounds like something is wrong here.

This is probably a long shot, but it seems worth asking: Have you been running the Sumiko subs with the Magico speakers? If so, and if you are connecting the subs at speaker level, have you been connecting the black wire of the Speakon cable to the white signal ground terminal on the rear of the amp, which is where it should be connected?

If instead you have been connecting it to a negative output terminal of the balanced Pass amp, which is a mistake that seems to often be made when connecting powered subs to the outputs of balanced amps, I’m envisioning that in combination with the low impedance of the S5 (as opposed to the impedance of your previous speakers) an ultra-sonic oscillation could conceivably result, that would manifest as brightness/harshness. And that kind of effect might account for the sensitivity to the amp’s power cord that you mentioned.

Just a thought. Regards,
-- Al

Re Magicos and tubes - my Q3s love the ARC pre and VTL monoblocks I pair them with. Personally I never really like the big Soulution amps that Magicos are often paired with at shows, the combo with tubes often gets feedback along the lines of “ I usually don’t like Magicos but these sound great”

i will say however that the Be tweeter needs careful room matching, I’d suspect that you have lots of unpleasant interactions with your untreated room. Have you tried a near field setup to see if that is more acceptable? At least then you’d be able to minimize the room interaction

Imo you can never have too much definition; it's how it's managed that counts. 

Pedigree of speaker will not determine how lovely it sounds in your home, and the same is true of components and cables. Finding the proper match not only with quality but also with the house sound is important. There is not a high end speaker made that can assure that all audiophiles will like its sound with all systems. I would expect that half the systems made would not be completely fulfilling, regardless of the brand of speaker. You're expecting perfect sound without doing your due diligence, i.e. system building. Not gonna happen typically. 

The DAC may or may not be an issue. When you have such a strong negative reaction, be prepared to change two or three things It's not about the DAC being better, but rather what components match up better. 

You went from analogue and tube components to all SS and extreme definition speakers. This will take some time and experimentation. It is very, very unlikely you would hit the nail on the head in your first one or two permutations with those speakers. It will simply take more time and experimentation. So be it. Look at it like a project similar to a house remodel. You go at it methodologically and make the changes. In the end you get your dream result. I know some guys who have taken a couple years to get their rigs perfect. It all depends on how much you want to push the schedule. 

Put the subs back in. Toe them in. Keep working it.