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Visit to Magnolia Proves Interesting

I had a good 2 hours of alone time (wife took the kid to the pool) and ran over to Magnolia.  Let me just note that in the 2 decades that I've been visiting high end audio stores, I've not been too keen on listening at big box stores because the seem to be pushing brands that face serious competition elsewhere. 

I listened to B&W 804s, Martin Logan electrostatics, and Sonus Faber Olympica IIIs through an McIntosh MC452.

Here are my takeaways:

1.  The Sonus Faber sounded better than the B&W 804s through the Mac.  The Sonus Fabers had more of a holographic picture, better bass, and did not try to dissect the music into little pieces for me to put back together, yet I could hear the individual parts well if I wanted to.  The B&Ws were impressive, but sounded a bit clinical in my book. 

2.  Nothing I was hearing by either loudspeaker felt like much of an improvement over what I have--PSB Imagine T2s, running through either a Roksan Radius (Ortofon 2m Black) or Tidal pushed through my Creek Evolution 100A's DAC or through my Bluesound's DAC.   

Now if I were in the market for new stuff (who kind of isn't even when we say we're not), I wouldn't necessarily run to Magnolia.  I happened to be close and it was convenient.  I would, however, potentially consider Mac, B&W and Sonus Faber as possible upgrade paths.  

Well, I left feeling like my Creek integrated and PSB Imagine T2s are just splendid--they compete so nicely with the near $10k Mac and $8K B&Ws and $13k Sonus Fabers.  

That made me feel pretty good.  I am now convinced that my best short term upgrade path--as someone on Audiogon said to me--is to get a better phono preamp than my Creek Sequel.  

It seems, however, that for digital playback I may have reached a pretty good plateau.  The law of diminishing returns is quite real for me right now.  

I'm thinking that Creek, PSB, Roksan and Bluesound--oh wait, don't forget Ortofon--all deserve business because they make superb products for the price...not that they are cheap. 

I'm still thinking about my next upgrade path.  And, I'm ever-so-curious to see what the PSBs would sound like with gobs more power.  All of this said, I'm really in a good spot to just enjoy the music and keep collecting vinyl. 

I welcome any thoughts you all may have.  Thanks in advance to such a wonderful community!








128x128jbhiller
jbhiller's avatar
jbhiller OP
1,430 posts
 
ohlala, 

I agree.  I'm not so seasoned at this hobby because--for many years--I didn't have funds to really do much.  I bought a pair of Monitor Audio bookshelf monitors in 1997 (I was 24).  I ran them through a Denon receiver as a preamp and a Carver power amp, with a Rega P2 turntable and modest cartridge.  There was no much I could do in terms of upgrading.  

After grad school, I had more money. I bought a pair of Totem Arros and couldn't believe the value for the money. Next I bought a Creek 5350 integrated and dumped the Carver--even though it allegedly had something like 3x the power and more current.  Now, I'm back at it and love what I'm hearing. 

I think you're right on the homogenous group of loudspeakers in that price range.  It seems if you are spending $300-$1000, stuff is easier to weed through.  Things get closer together in terms of sonics when I moved north of $2k.  

I haven't heard the PSB Imagine T3, but I'd bet it sublime--especially for the money.  The T2 is really something.  
chrisr's avatar
chrisr
543 posts
 
Magnolia staff does not know how to make speakers and electronics sound good - They simply cannot match the conditions you have at home.
I have tried to listen to some b&ws and I was so not impressed that I thought it could not be the fault of the speakers.
chlv0ter's avatar
chlv0ter
31 posts
 
I broke down and went to Magnolia couple weeks ago to take a look.  The high end gear and speakers demo room was what was expected, good stuff.  The Staff were children who didn't have a clue about anything, even the gear they sold.  Sad and unfortunate.  

I guess the Internet has essentially killed the "local audio shop" to a large degree.  I live in Atlanta and it's dismal.  I've tried hard to "buy local" but unless you're willing to pay full retail with no service of any kind then forget it...  

bthartman
34 posts
 
Magnolia was a local, small chain here in the Seattle area until they were bought our by Best Buy a few years ago.  Did you go to a Magnolia Design Center?  There are a few in the Best Buy stores in the Seattle area, and they're set up more like a small high end store within a store, and have mostly staff from the independent Magnolia stores before they were shuttered a couple years ago.  In general they're quite knowledgeable about the products.

I've never gone into a Magnolia/Best Buy anywhere else so I can't speak to them.
mirolab
208 posts
 
Wow... your Magnolia experience mirrors mine of about 2 years ago..... I still listen to 25yr old B&W matrix 801-S2's.... and I've tried several times to replace them.... to no success yet....  The Magnolia sales rep was great to me though... I brought my own stack of CDs at 2pm on a weekday when they were least busy... and he happily let me listen to my tracks through the B&W 802D's, Martin Logan SummitX, and the Sonus Faber Olympica's.... all 3 pairs are in the $12-15k range...... My least favorite of the three..... the 802D's...... I want to love them so much.... and just don't.  I've heard them at 3 different audio dealers now, and never like them.  The biggest surprise were the Olympica's.... but simply not enough low end for me at the $13k price.  The Summit's were simply gorgeous and transparent sounding, but more reserved dynamically.... all these driven by big MAC amps through miles of speaker cable in a terribly boomy room.  I'm experienced enough to be able to tune some of the room out... and it was still a good demo experience.    

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