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!








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I would like to learn more about why Audio Alternative merged w/ HiFi Buys?  A similar situation occurred w/ HiFi Buys Nashville TN ?
Historically, yes, Atlanta has dropped the Audio shop ball.
Not too long ago, there were many, many Audio operations in our 6th largest U.S. City?
Interesting conversation. A few month ago I was actively looking for monitors to replace a set of GMA Europas and snell type d floorstanders. First off yes I do have sellers regret with the Snells. But anyway, living in northern Virginia I had traveled to several audio shops to test drive speakers of which Magnolia was one. It was the design shop in Fairfax. Long story short I ended up purchasing a set do sonus faber chimeleons. Returned them and purchased a set of ML motion 35 st monitors. Like them a lot, the folded tweet is easy on sensitive ears. But to the point both of the reps I dealt with where very knowledgeable and felt comfortable working with them. Both had very respectable set ups at there homes. And was able, if I wanted to take the ML motion 15xts home to demo. They recognized the limitations of their listening rooms and tried to shift things around to improve the environment. In all a very good experience with knowledgeable folks, low pressure, and willing to understand my needs as the buyer. One of the guys had a set of SF Cremona and was working to move to the Auditors and was waiting to go for training at sumiko school so that helped demonstrate to me that there was a professional and enthusiastic interest beyond just a job. No connection with Magnolia, just had good experiences with them. Take care, Dave

We recently purchased several major kitchen appliances at a local Best Buy. Not that it was planned, but I wandered over to the Magnolia section which in fact was a Design Center store. They had 4-5 listening rooms and my staff person was "somewhat" knowledgeable about audio, but was unfamiliar with my Kharma Midi Grands and Krell FPB 450 mcx monoblocks. He didn’t ask me what I did for a living. I auditioned the Sonus Faber Olympus III’s and then the B&W 803 D3’s with Mac gear.... unfortunately without my own listening material. I was genuinely impressed with the B&W’s. Last time I auditioned B&W were the Nautilus series 802’s 12+ years ago... they’ve come a long way since then. Anyway, long story short, I walked away ordering a REL S/2 sub at 1/2 price for a secondary system. FWIW.