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Auditioned Magico A3 - VERY DARK...

So today after waiting for months to try and listen to the Magico A3, I went to Scott Walker audio at Anaheim and listened to the Magico A3, connected to some VAC Tube amp, being fed from a Sony audio streamer, here are my impressions:

- They look fantastic, I wish they made them in silver too, but they are just great in brush black aluminum
- They're quite small and could fit everywhere
- Fit and finish is impecable
- The bass they generated was nothing but amazing for such a small cabinet, you could hear the drums, the down beats and incredible depth of bass at an amazing level
- Imaging was INSANE, you could literally place everyone and everything...
- Sound was VERY VERY DARK!!! This was a bit of a surprise, the top end lacked for my taste to a quite a degree
- I felt like the combo of the Tube amp and Magico lacked resolution, while bass and mid was great, the top end absolutely lacked resolution
- The sound was extremely laid back, again dark
- It does NEED POWER, like he had to crank the volume up, to get good sound out of this, so be aware of that

Overall, I "personally" did NOT like the sound, it lacked details and resolution at the top end, while it was great at the bottom end.  Now, the rep and I think this is mostly due to Tube amp, and connecting it to a solid state amp would bring back resolution, but we simply didn't have time to do that today.  I look forward to listen to these at another time with some decent solid-state amp, but as-is, I was NOT as impressed as I expected and wouldn't have purchased one and I strongly believe Tube and Magico A3 do NOT go well together! 

Anyone else with similar impressions?! Curious to know what others may think, or maybe there was something else in play?

Thoughts?
alexb76
melbguyone
294 posts
 
@fleschler Perhaps it is time to take your unfortunate acquaintances and soured memories some place else, and allow this thread to get back on track?
sciencecop
180 posts
 
Fleschler,
Most of the speakers you like are grossly colored. Of course, we heard them all and seen some of their measurements. They are not very good, objectively, and in my case, subjectively.
Perhaps you and your friends have been at it too long and can no longer discern between natural sound and just “sound” as you call it.
FWIW, many of RR titles were mastered on Magico loudspeakers (by Paul Stubblebine and Prof Keith Johnson). Rick Rubin also uses them for his work, not to mention many manufacturers that relay on Magico to hear what they are doing.
Harbeth claim to fame is its “pleasant” coloration; Alan Shaw even talks about it. You can look at JA measurements of any Harbeth and just cringe; I can’t imagine any mastering engineer will use these to judge his work.


fleschler
1,993 posts
 
Kevin Gray uses them and Andreas Meyer uses big B&Ws at Sony studios where he has done fantastic work. I think Harbeths are constricted at the frequency extremes so I don’t want them. Von Schweikert speakers colored, yeah, right. The number one audio system at shows for the past three years has been his Ultra 11s as written up in Absolute Sound, Stereophile, Enjoy the Music, Positive Feedback and others, not Magicos. You are correct. I shouldn’t be here since I am not adding anything to Magico owner worshippers. But denigrating great remastering engineers whose tastes coincide with mine is dumb. Pleasant coloration in a speaker is less important to us then communication of the message-the music and Magico doesn’t do it for us. All those great recordings from the late 50s and early 60s were generally mastered on colored speakers and often (like most British recordings) were using Tannoys.

I want to hear back from Alexb76 who started this thread) for his second thoughts on rehearing the A3s.
Post removed 
wcfeil
464 posts
 
Buy a speaker that pleases you. 
End of lesson. 
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