When my wife and I Demoed a pair of Q3's earlier this year at a dealer out of state they had them paired with a Devialant 440.
I was greatly impressed with the build quality of the magico's and the fact that they make their own drivers and utilize some of the very best crossover parts and design.
We only listened to analog and the dealer allowed us to bring and play our own lp's.I took 6 of my very best and favorites that I know very well.
I found the pairing to have incredible clarity with pinpoint accuracy within the soundstage that you could reach out and grab.The overall tone,harmonics,and timbre of individual instruments and voices were much inline to my preferences and found the treble to be very pleasing and have all the detail I would ever need.
Now as a demo pair that were at the top of my speaker budget,the shortcomings that I heard ultimately made my decision for me not to buy and wait and listen to something else.About the time that I found this thread and also read some reviews about the DI's,I decided to give Eric a call and ask some questions that he answered quite well even some I didn't think that he would.I decided to give the DI's a shot and you know the rest of the story,very happy owner and not looking back.
The Q3's sounded a little small in size at times and was missing the little resonances and nuances from instruments that make the music much more enjoyable to my ears.I quess the magico cabinets are so well braced and damped and Offcourse made of aluminum and bolted together,they just sound much different than any speaker I have ever heard.Now I think there is a fine line there,I would'nt like a speaker that has a lot of cabinet talk either but I find the DI's just about perfect in that respect.
I found the Q3's a little light in bass and might would have to use subs with them and I don't want to do that.The Di's are just right with goldilocks bass without subs for me.
Ultimatly if I was to spend 24k on Just speakers they had better do everything right.Buying the much cheaper Di's allow my budget to buy other equipment for my 2 systems.
Charles,I would love to read your opinion on both of these very high end products.
Best,
Kenny.