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

4425 - Thank you and I totally agree. For the record I've never considered changing my Bricasti. I think I've briefly mentioned but maybe not but I think it's the best peice I own and it's the rock that everything else I have gets tethered too. These Magico's would go before the Bricasti but they are not going anywhere neither. I tried new cables last night Kobala Sosna - not sure that is correct spelling SC and XLR IC. This change allowed me to really learn about these incredible but ultra sensitive to cabling speakers but I think my set is also is putting much more undue pressure on the cables also! 

The Bricasti is not going anywhere. Every little upgrade makes it sound better and better. I love it! 

I think what the Magico are - are a super - hyper revealing transducer that I've not experienced before. They absolutely hated - loathed my silver interconnects and my speaker cables. Screaming at the top of their lungs - no no no. I got their message loud and clear.

I actually think the Bricasti direct to my Pass amp in itself is uber transparent and combined with the Magico strips the cable combo is naked and  gets overly exposed and not that they are bad cables because they certainly are not but this set up put a microscope on the cables like a level I have never experienced and assume most other have M1 direct to X350.5 to S5's = you better have a balanced and perfectly match cable SC IC combo because they are going to be naked - under a spotlight - under a microscope - and where their may be a combo or synergy weakness gets not only exposed but uber exasperated and accentuated and force multiplied - where in my old system their brightness might have been a nice antidote for something those needed or where here - no hiding and prisoners. I've never had cables make such a difference - I've changed speakers and heard less change than these cables. I've never known such cable sensitivity but my former must have had a serious mismatch in fairness to Magico. 

I added the Kobala Sosna and last night was like awe - so much better. What a difference and now this morning guess what?

They sound muted - image that. I take these any day of the week. I added my Verestarr PC back in direct to the wall and that added a bit more resolution in but I've never - ever - had cables make such a difference as it was always before a matter of flavor or voicing or preference or sophistication not the difference between bleeding ears getting a head ache to being sort of muted - that is nuts but it's what happened in the last 48 hours. I would like these Kabola Sosna just a bit more revealing and sneak some tubes in somewhere to add a little earth and I think I'm in business - but am afraid another cable will change the entire audio world of my room again - crazy - I've never dealt with this before buy learning is key - asking for help and listening and learning - the members on this site are the best for proving help and pointing out things I've never thought of.

Al that info you shared about my amp and subs - I knew none of that - I was totally in the black - you saved my $12,000 MSRP amp - paid only $5,200 used but still thanks - if I blew my amp I would have been bummed. I send my stuff to Nelson's house rather than Pass Labs because we've know each other for some time but he would have been like / you didn't read the manual you nuckle head - thanks Al

Fsmithjack,

Welcome to the world of high resolution for both the pros and cons.

When you have a hyper detailed speakers you will be aware of all of the tiny things that can affect the systems tonal balance and utlimate performance.

We have the Personas and they are as revealing if not more so than the Magicos, but boy when you get them setup right, they are an amazing window into the music.

As per cabling, the Kubala Sosna sound is definatly on the warm side there are a new line of Enklein cables that are reasonbly priced at $1,800 per a set of interconnects based on the $16k David interconnects and they have a wonderful balance of warmth and body as well as detail.

You will be amazed at what changing your power conditioner might accomplish.

We do not have the negative view of Beryilium drivers as Bar 81 does, Beryilium, Diamond, Aluminium, Titantium, are all good materials which in the hands of a skilled engineering team can all make excellent diaphrams.

Beryilium is prized for its light weight and high ridgidity so it is very fast and clean treble, with a lot more resolution than the wizzer cone/ Lowther sound, exact opposties in fact. So with that kind of resolution you will have to retune your entire setup to add more warmth where your old speakers needed enhanced clarity, so very revealing silver based cables would work wonders on a softer treble speaker such as the Rythem.

Please read up on the Isoacoustics you will be amazed at how big a change they will make.

Good luck and our phones are always available for any questions or ideas you want to bounce off of us.

Your sub hookup questions should be addressed directly to Sumiko. As the ground for the speakers on a Rel is not like a nomral ground in an electrical sense. the Rel subs read the signal from the amp like an rca cable.

Dave owner
Audio Doctor NJ

What you are doing is putting bandaids on a problem instead of fixing it.  If cables make that much of a difference in your system in the other direction, you are simply trying to offset issues with both products.  Before wasting money on bandaids, address the core problem - which is your room and depending on your floor, the speaker footers.  If you do that I expect that you might not need to change much and even if you decide to get new cables you will be looking at other cables, etc that aren't that colored.

@fsmithjack 

The Kubala Sosna cables are filtering the sound and no doubt removing some of the treble and brightness. Glad that this band aid works for you for now but you really should try to get to the bottom of what is causing a sound that is giving you headaches.

Audiotroy 10-14-2017
Your sub hookup questions should be addressed directly to Sumiko. As the ground for the speakers on a Rel is not like a nomral ground in an electrical sense. the Rel subs read the signal from the amp like an rca cable.

Hi Dave,

Before I submitted my previous posts about this I had looked at the manual for the Sumiko sub. As can be seen on page 15 the recommended connection of the black wire in the Speakon cable to a "bridged (differential input) amplifier" (which obviously would also apply to a fully balanced amplifier) is to a chassis screw. That is the same as what is recommended by REL for their subs, and will work ok in most cases as I mentioned, although depending on the amp design hum may result in some cases. But connecting it to the ground shell of an RCA input connector, as I suggested, is a better approach that will certainly work well with this amp, given the mention in the amp’s manual that the RCA ground shell corresponds to signal ground. Which would be the case with almost all other amplifier designs as well, aside perhaps for some that have transformer coupled inputs.

Fsmithjack, two more points on that subject, the first of which you'll be especially glad to hear:

1)The risk to the resistors that I mentioned, if the black wire were connected to the amp’s negative output terminal, would be much greater with the Magicos than with the Rethms, since the much lower efficiency of the Magicos would result in more voltage being applied across the resistors for a given listening volume.

2)If the subs were connected in that manner the risk to the resistors would arise even if the subs were turned off, since it is the ground path through them that is involved.

Regards, and continued good luck!

-- Al