Magico A3

Ozzy,

the sopras do look nice. I have not heard them but liked the 1037be back when I demoed them. 

@james633  I think I remember your prior Thiel posts as James63 back in the day. Nice to see your posts again. I was into Thiel when you were shopping around for speakers back then, so I remember paying attention to your posts. 

I was about to buy the A3 this month however, I am running into some room issues (maybe too small). I demoed the A3 with Mark Levinson 585 integrated and it was a fantastic match. It sounded like a much more expensive speaker with great detail, large sound stage and the speakers really disappeared. They also sounded very good at ALL volume levels that I tested at, from very low to semi-loud. The demo room was rather perfect so maybe the speaker does not sound this good in not so perfect rooms.

To that end my dealer has allowed me to demo these speakers for a few days at my home. I will do so sometime in early 2019. I have a feeling the A3 is going to be a little big for that small room but I will not know until I try. 

If you have the space and the funds you may also want to check out the Magico S3MKII. In my opinion, it is better than the A3 but also bigger and more expensive. A KEF Blade (can get used at $15K) would be something I want to do over the A3 and S3MKII if I had even more space. I loved the Thiel CS 3.7 and like the Blade even more.

Yyzsantabara,

Yes that was me and I remember our conversations. I contacted audiogon about fishing emails I was receiving from their site and they just closed my account with no discussion. That was their version of customer service....

I lost interest in the hobby there for a bit. I had my first kid, a new job and a new house (picked up other new hobbies too) and I am now just getting back into sitting down and really listening to music. I did dabble on headphones for a bit too (related to the new baby...)

I am not sure I will buy anything this time around. I am just kicking the tires at this point but have always admired magico from a distance. My front end and room never seemed good enough to chase the 30k+ speakers as it would be better spend on either of the prior. 

But at $10k I would bit on these. I also play with the idea of buying something used and unheard like Vivid B1, any of the good kefs, or what ever. I like to gamble I guess lol. 

Congrats. In the last 2 years, I also had a kid, a new job (work from home) and I just moved into a new home last month. Since I work from home I am looking for a speaker to fit my small home office. I was checking out the A3 before I knew the room dimensions of my new space.

I have been guided by the wisdom of A’gon users to the following (I have a thread on small room speakers):

1) Harbeth SHL5+ (considering this because it is totally different from MY sound and good for long hours of listening)

2) TAD ME1 (2 dealers who carry both KEF REF1 and TAD ME1 say this is better, also good for long hours of listening)

I am going to demo these 2 next month and likely buy one of these so I can focus on music and work and not audio shopping.

One of the things I need is a system that will sound good at low volumes because I listen and work at odd hours when the baby is sleeping. The Magico A3 does this well, especially with Mark Levinson integrated.  I am not sure if low volume goodness is a function of the speaker or the amp. This is a huge issue for me when I demo the 2 speakers I mentioned above. I cannot enjoy headphones as much as speakers and it is hard to hear the baby with phones on.

I auditioned the A3’s at my local dealer last week. Maybe I was expecting to much, but I didn’t fall in love with them. It's was to bad because I was ready to buy.  The soundstage, imaging, and placement of instruments were excellent. Unfortunately, the more I listened, I found the mids and highs a little harsh/edgy at times. The A3’s were connected to a Dan D’Agostino Progression amp which has 600w into 4 ohms, so plenty of power. We streamed Tidal through Roon using a Chord DAC (I didn’t catch the model) and the new Chord Hugo M Scaler. After listening to the A3’s we swapped them for the S1 MKII’s and they were much more refined and smooth. The S1’s MKII’s were excellent, but lacked the bass of the A3’s which is expected. The S1’s MKII’s were tempting but I knew I would end up missing the bass and I don’t want to add the sub. I also had a chance to listen to a pair of TAD E1’s and they were impressive, now discontinued so I could score an amazing deal. In the end I purchased the Sopra 2's.