Listening to the sopra 3s right now after 4 days of not listening to them. Here are a few thoughts:
Speaker is a great bang for the money. It’s not to difficult to place and just sounds good. You can connect it with just about any component and it sounds great. No drama with this speaker of any kind. I’ve tried 3 amps with them and it sounds good with all of them. I also tend to hear a few things within the music that are not so apparent on the magicos but I also hear certain things on the magico that I don’t hear on the focals.
If you want a speaker that will just sound good without giving you headaches or having to buy 10 cables and amps and preamps to get it to sound good, THIS IS YOUR SPEAKER. Easy to deal with it and well in my opinion it’s far more beautiful than the s5 mk2. Ladies and gentleman, if you don’t have the time and don’t want the effort (just like I do each week) and simply want to sit down and enjoy, look Into these sopra 3s. You will remember me.
With that said, the magico s5 mk2 have more of an industrial look. There’s nothing really wow about them when you have the sopra 3 next to them in terms of looks.
That said, the magico s5 mk2 has more transparency. It almost feels at times as if another curtain lifts up to let you listen with more liquidity. It contains bass which is only there but with the right amplifier.
Also, don’t think for one second that the s5 mk2 is the type of speaker you can just throw into the room and then hook up your 100 watt per channel amp. No way Jose. This is not the speaker for the person that wants to just plug and play. This is the speaker that will reward you tremendously by taking your time placing it right, measuring distances, buying the right electronics etc. This does not mean tbey will sound bad if you just throw them In the room and connect your baby amp to them but you aren’t even close to really hearing them at their best.
Simply put, and I’m sorry for saying things this way but the magico s5 mk2 IS NOT for broke people. It just makes no sense to have something of this caliber and skimp on the rest. When you own this, you need to immediately think about your front end. You need to think agostino, audio research, monster powerful amps, dcs, cardas, nordost, etc And embark on big journey. Granted, you don’t have to do this if you work with a dealer who knows their stuff. This is WHY you pay them top dollar on a product like this. You earn their expertise and direction so you don’t have to do all of what I do. I simply do it because I enjoy it all. I like hearing my own results and conclusions. I like seeing what changed in the sound when I swap things out.
Finaliy, I close this by saying that the magico s5 mk2 makes it much easier for me to pick up the differences in sound when I change anything out. Today I noticed an immediate change but changing cables for example and BECAUSE OF THIS and the fact that I’m a tweaker and love to change amps, preamps, sources, cables, etc constantly, I decided to keep the magico s5 mk2. They are a great instrument for my hobby and my journey.
I will part ways with the focal sopra 3s soon. They are an incredible speaker and can make anyone easily happy.
Speaker is a great bang for the money. It’s not to difficult to place and just sounds good. You can connect it with just about any component and it sounds great. No drama with this speaker of any kind. I’ve tried 3 amps with them and it sounds good with all of them. I also tend to hear a few things within the music that are not so apparent on the magicos but I also hear certain things on the magico that I don’t hear on the focals.
If you want a speaker that will just sound good without giving you headaches or having to buy 10 cables and amps and preamps to get it to sound good, THIS IS YOUR SPEAKER. Easy to deal with it and well in my opinion it’s far more beautiful than the s5 mk2. Ladies and gentleman, if you don’t have the time and don’t want the effort (just like I do each week) and simply want to sit down and enjoy, look Into these sopra 3s. You will remember me.
With that said, the magico s5 mk2 have more of an industrial look. There’s nothing really wow about them when you have the sopra 3 next to them in terms of looks.
That said, the magico s5 mk2 has more transparency. It almost feels at times as if another curtain lifts up to let you listen with more liquidity. It contains bass which is only there but with the right amplifier.
Also, don’t think for one second that the s5 mk2 is the type of speaker you can just throw into the room and then hook up your 100 watt per channel amp. No way Jose. This is not the speaker for the person that wants to just plug and play. This is the speaker that will reward you tremendously by taking your time placing it right, measuring distances, buying the right electronics etc. This does not mean tbey will sound bad if you just throw them In the room and connect your baby amp to them but you aren’t even close to really hearing them at their best.
Simply put, and I’m sorry for saying things this way but the magico s5 mk2 IS NOT for broke people. It just makes no sense to have something of this caliber and skimp on the rest. When you own this, you need to immediately think about your front end. You need to think agostino, audio research, monster powerful amps, dcs, cardas, nordost, etc And embark on big journey. Granted, you don’t have to do this if you work with a dealer who knows their stuff. This is WHY you pay them top dollar on a product like this. You earn their expertise and direction so you don’t have to do all of what I do. I simply do it because I enjoy it all. I like hearing my own results and conclusions. I like seeing what changed in the sound when I swap things out.
Finaliy, I close this by saying that the magico s5 mk2 makes it much easier for me to pick up the differences in sound when I change anything out. Today I noticed an immediate change but changing cables for example and BECAUSE OF THIS and the fact that I’m a tweaker and love to change amps, preamps, sources, cables, etc constantly, I decided to keep the magico s5 mk2. They are a great instrument for my hobby and my journey.
I will part ways with the focal sopra 3s soon. They are an incredible speaker and can make anyone easily happy.