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

Any Magico Owners or Dealers or Folks or anyone that may have some basic advice, ideas or feedback from hearing or seeing in a friends, dealers system or owned older version of Magico or something like or anything really that can help me? How are yours or theirs set up? The smallest moves makes huge changes and I am coming from speakers that are so very different so any and all feedback would so welcomed.

I CAN EMAIL YOU PICS of Room / Set up / Etc  fsmthjack at YAH00

THANK YOU

BACKGROUND INFO:

ROOM:                         24 x 14 with cathedral ceilings 
MUSIC:                        Good mix - no hard metal / large orchestra and the like
LOUDNESS:                normal levels - just loud enough to sound best
SPEAKERS                  Magico S5 Speakers
AMP:                            Pass Labs X350.5 Amp
SOURCE:                     Bricasti M1SE DAC
TRANSPORT:               mircoRendu 1.4 w/Full suite of Uptone Audio products
CABLES                       HiDiamond Full Loom 
CONDITIONER            HiDiamond HDX2
SUBWOOFERS           (2) Sumiko S.9 Subs (hoping not needed with new Magico's) 

Thanks guys - I am kind of lost here and any help or feedback to get me heading in the right directions would be so appreciated.







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tomcarr
1,500 posts
 
Those S5s would sound a lot better in a dedicated room, with a dedicated line, with acoustic treatments covering some of those hard, reflective surfaces, including those wood floors.
The room is responsible for 50% of what you're going to hear.
I also agree you need a pre-amp.

Tom
fsmithjack's avatar
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fsmithjack OP
712 posts
 
Those Caver tube amps do look great.

Yes this is my only Audio room for better or worse.

Do you think some throw rugs on the floors might help?

i have a tube preamp -coming and bit warmer and I think better speaker cable option coming as well. 
jetter
3,033 posts
 

Several people have asked if it is possible that the speakers are just not broken in yet, do to non use in the gentleman's house.  I don't recall you answering this question?  Do you believe they are broken in?

I am in the "you need a preamp" camp, whether broken in or not.

nitewulf
422 posts
 
The idea of "taming brightness" or "changing tone" with ridiculously expensive cables always seems very nonsensical to me.  Essentially you're ok buying 5K cables to filter the signal, but you are not OK with just introducing a decent equalizer in the chain.  Perhaps check out and buy a nice tone controller? There's one from Schiit that just came out, very affordable, so that's worth a shot.
nitewulf
422 posts
 
Hey Guys - I borrowed an inexpensive tube preamp and man what a difference. My rig was screaming for tubes. So much so now I'm thinking about a tube amp also?
I think what you're hearing is just impedance mismatch between your DAC and the Power Amp. Like someone suggested earlier you can play around with the gain settings on the DAC or buy a decent tube preamp.  I'd recommend the Dehavilland Ultraverve 3. Since you are using SE connections, you have a lot of options. Active preamps do make a lot of difference.
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