Magico Q3's at Goodwin's High End


Just a quick note to say that Goodwin's High End (in Boston) along with Alon Wolf presented a demonstration of the Magico Q3's yesterday.

As usual, it was a class act by Goodwin's and a real treat overall. Mr. Wolf fielded a number of questions about the speakers (and Magico's approach to design) and his detailed responses were fascinating.

The Q3's sounded spectacular. They were setup in Goodwin's huge listening room (20x30x11) and they were positioned quite wide apart and deep into the room (almost halfway). I was transported to the symphony hall with a few tracks - like nothing I've ever experienced before. They were driven with very expensive electronics, inluding huge Boulder amps that were 1000w each (if I'm not mistaken) to compensate for the size of the room.

The Q3 is a modest size floorstanding loudspeaker, but it weighs 250lbs! Like the Q5 (if you've ever heard it) it is very clean and neutral sounding. Definitely a speaker that lets you listen into the music rather than wow you with a forward presentation. Besides classical, we heard some jazz, some instrumental and a cut from Jennifer Warnes Famous Blue Raincoat that was stunning. These speakers don't call any attention to themselves. They were so coherent and produced such an impressive soundstage that it didn't feel like they were the source of the sound. Jennifer's voice had no artifacts (sibilence, etc) that it was like she was standing there. I feel I finally heard how the record was supposed to sound.

Anyways, I'm not trying to do a proper review here, but I did want to thank Goodwins and Magico for the opportunity and I thought I would share my initial impresssions.

Would love to know what other folks at the presentation(s) thought.
madfloyd
Bvdiman and Ack,
I do some work in the trading community, so let me give you perhaps a different perspective. Prices of commodities like Alum and Copper have doubled in the past 18 months alone. Similar situation with carbon fiber. The price of neodymium has risen to RMB 1.4 million per ton from RMB 100,000 per ton since the 2009. That is %1400!! In the last 6 months alone, neodymium have risen %400. Combine that with the weak dollar and you have yourself a hack of a volatility and not much buying power. Not here to defend anyone, I am just saying the way they are built, Magicos are basically a commodity. In all fairness to them, it was made clear to me by the distributor here in HK, back in Feb, that $34K was an introductory price. According to him, they try to keep their margins to minimum so they can offer the value they do. That is one pricing option. The other will be the Tidal or so many others for that matter. Inflate the MSRP stratospherically, and discount it more, or less, depending on your COGS fluctuation.
Perhaps Magico should change their margin structure, so they can absorb fluctuation in COGS more often. I don’t see too many people complain about the truly outrages prices of some of their competitors.
Razmika, fully understood your point. But it has been re-curring and one which I have personally faced myself three times. First, the M6, which I ended up not buying.. Was initially quoted by the dealer priced south of $90k, got back 2months later, was told that it has just been increased to 120k. After saving enough to take the plunge (3months), yet again was told that they now (then) have the new improved carbon version as their midrange drivers, but with new rrp of 145-150k!--I've since then stopped thinking about them, very glad I did. Now, the Mini2 and V3 I did buy, since I liked them enough and thought their increments--'money wise'--still tolerable.

Bearing in mind that most consumers would rather be faced with discount than uncertainty and re-curring price increases, I would have to agree with you on this point :

"Perhaps Magico should change their margin structure, so they can absorb fluctuation in COGS more often."
Btw.I also tend to think that their current Q offerings, relative to performance, have far better value than that of their previous.
>>Bearing in mind that most consumers would rather be faced with discount than uncertainty and re-curring price increases

Maybe, but one can argue that an educated buyer would rather know he got the best deal there is rather then the best deal he manage to negotiate.