Magico S5 vs KEF Blade 2 vs TAD Evo One vs YG Kipod II Sig w/pwr bass

I’ll never understand why some resort to name calling on Audiogon? Of that's right, we must act like one big clique...everyone must agree to the same thing. I've heard subtle changes with break in, but never night and day. 

Shardorn - these are Magico Dealers and a large groups of other Magico owners that have consistently expressed this. More importantly to me is my own ears regardless of what you may think.

I’ve heard about you from other members on here -  you are a self proclaimed geniune Audio expert which I’m sure is true but I certainly am no expert at all but I am learning.

I like to learn and then share but always within it being just my own opinion which should be taken always for just being that. My profession is not Audio but rather it’s my hobby and I enjoy it but I’m not much more than a novice with some experience. 

I think the main reason many of the Magico owners have emailed me directly rather than posting on here is to avoid the negative people.

Me I’m an optimist - always will be no matter how many amps - Speakers - Cables I buy or own. 

I certainly don’t need an audiologist or the like to enjoy this hobby even if I do make mistakes along the way it is all good. This hobby is to reduce stress not induce it.

I’ve have gotten so much positive feedback and help from other Audiogon members I would never let the negative affect me. I like the hobby and this site way too much for that! 

I buy most my stuff as demo or 2nd hand from other far flung parts of the country mostly so I dont get to try out in my rig before buying. This approach is bound to lead to some mistakes but I can’t afford new prices of the stuff I like own so it’s no problem. I just learn and move on. I try to get the best gear I can afford that is inline with what I like.

Even though I’m just a simple, humble novice that mostly buys my gear second hard even I can tell that Magico makes some super serious audio gear regardless of what a much experienced audiologist might think otherwise. Those Q serious speaker might be calling my name in future! 

@steakster

Sorry but it is simple. Something that changes for weeks and possibly months is neither accurate nor high-fidelity. The term high-fidelity is about faithful reproduction of the source. Components that constantly drift and change in performance should be avoided if you care about performance at all. You are welcome to your finicky wonky products but that makes you no more a flat earther then the audiophile who seeks performance.

@fsmithjack

Sorry you bought such an expensive product that the seller has confirmed can’t produce sound with any consistency (for 600+ hours). You seemed to have struggled from the moment you hooked up these speakers instead of being able to enjoy them as soon as they were unboxed. Of course, if you enjoy these struggles and frustrations then that is good thing. You may refuse to believe it but it isn’t rocket science that there are indeed many products that work out of the box properly, consistently and for many years.

The reason for my suggesting you test your ears is because you are really struggling. You initially described the sound as giving you a headache. This is not a normal experience with a highly respected speaker like Magico.

In all fairness to the Magico I think a more sober look at events needs to be considered. First - I’ve said over and over I am no expert. I make mistakes and am learning. Yes I have owned many half decent speakers and some decent components and a diverse bunch at that over the years but that and a $5 bill still isn’t buying me a large Starbucks coffee and a muffin.

Magico’s I’ve learned expose a weekness or mismatch badly and much more so than any Speaker, component or anything I’ve ever heard or known.

I stand behind my no expert claim but that said I can speak first hand to other Speakers I’ve mentioned before such as Wilson, Sonus Faber, Revel, Ascendo, Focal, B&W, Avalon, Merlin, Audio Physic, Martin Logan, Verity, Dynaudio and there are others I’m sure I just can’t think of now and numerous models from many of these brands but none are even remotely close to exposing a weekness or a mismatch like these speakers do.

It was an eye opening and a learning experience. If you have owned or listened to Magico’s in one of these situations then you know exactly what I’m saying and if not take my word for it - it’s not Pretty.

They are ruthless but I like it! They dig deep into that wound and poor salt right into it and swish it around. 

These Magico’s absolutely dispised the HiDiamond D8 Speaker Cables I had. Hated them! 

Combine this terrible match with my early poor trial and error set up that had too much tow in and too close together with wrong rake. These Speakers were not spread far enough apart (took me hours to dial these in, the smallest changes mattered not with bass but with the high frequency, the bass was always nice I just wasn’t and still am not used to it and combine these factors with not being broke in at all and the fact that my old Speakers had a pretty shelved treble. 

Since then I worked tirelessly to tweak them and dial them in and set up the rake property and covered up some of the bright areas in my room with treatments on the floors and walls like the guys on here told me to do. 

I purchased a much warmer, richer sounding pair of speaker cables. The Cardas Clear Reflection that is sort of a combo of the Clears and the rich sounding Golden Reference but not as thick and slow and still a bit warmer than the Clears. 

I added XLR pins to the Pass Labs X350.5. This made a big difference and again speaks to my not being an expert. Forgot about this and Nelson laughed at me and sent me out a set. He said no wonder your not happy with your speakers these amps absolutely need these pins when running single ended and they really liked getting the jumper grounding pins :) and so did I :) 

i switched the power cable on my Pass Labs to a not so hot and up front sounding cable. 

I let them run in another couple hundred hours but even better I put some real nice volume into them during the day. I would come home and be like oh that’s a bit loud...

Moreover, like I stated these now have very roughly 350 hours on them and they are much better. I am told many times over they get better with break in the 600 - 700 hour range and keep getting better to a 1,000 but all my worlds here are to them now at the 350. 

All these changes have effected the sound and it has not been breakin alone in a vacuum. The nice burn in time on them have them settling in nicely though IMO. I like them so much better and am really enjoying them. To me they keep getting better but thats I am sure contributed to me getting used to them also.

i have a tube BAT Preamp on the way and P10 Conditioner as well and I was hoping that to land today per Fedex and as the tracking said it would but it’s getting late now. I’m hoping to keep really dialing my rig chasing after my own sound like we all do and trying to get it just like I like it.

After these adds will come a couple pairs of XLR IC’s but want too see where I am sound wise and where I need to go with them first.

Someone said they feel bad or sorry for me or something like that.

Please don’t feel sorry for me. I just got home, ordered some take out with my wife, listening to my Magico’s and life is good. I’m happy. Much more work still to do on my rig but I’m not one anyone should be feeling sorry for. It’s all good :)