Magico vs the world

With respect to comparing and judging speakers it’s imperative that comparisons are auditioned in the same environment. You’re just guessing otherwise which is what we do because home speaker trials are rare I think. FWIW

Kenjit
How can anybody make a better speaker than magico? Its a cost no object speaker designed to be the absolute best. What are you supposed to do to make it better?

Well you can use different technology that works better, that's one way.

At Axpona last year the two best systems I heard were Magico M6's and the B&W 800D3's. Magico's running off of D'Agostino gear, B&W all Mcintosh gear. The amazing thing about the Magico display was that it was literally in an open air atrium in a dead end of a hallway outside of all the conventions sized listening rooms. It sounded like a concert. Pretty amazing. I wish I could post pictures here, you almost have to see it to believe it - they literally made a hallway sing.

It's kind of odd to me that, w/the exception of the JMLabs reference above, Focal doesn't seem to be on anyone's radar...I'm thinking that choosing between a Magico S3 and a Sopra 3 would probably be tough, and getting the cost evened out a bit more, how about something from the Utopia line?As many have observed, it's what sound you like/prefer ~ for me, the detail, imaging, and tonal accuracy of the Focals is wonderful...and best of all, I can get a slice of it for less than Magico's "cheapest" speakers [Aria, Kanta].

i have an s5mk2 and absolute love it. especially with big class a power from a symphonic line kraft 300, the speakers have incredible tone and texture and have overcome any narrow soundstage issues that can be the case with magicos. i've come to understand that these speakers LOVE power. the more the better. they sounded great with 250watts from my odyssey amp but the 500 or so watts that the kraft can do just opened the speakers up in a massive way. high current designs are the way to go with any magico imo

i plan on listing them in the near future to move up to an m2, alsyvox tintoretto, or an mbl101e mk2. the s5's are no slouch compared to any of these and, ironically, the m2 offers the least upgrade (but damn are they cool!). the alsyvox and mbl's have a different magic that only those kind of designs+ribbons can give. that said, i never left those demo's feeling like my s5's were behind. it's more a matter of taste and being a gear hound. i think the s5mk2 can easily be the speakers around which to build a cost no object system.