Magico M9 The new 'norm' in speakers

Andy, I think you are undercutting it by at least $500K. IMHO there is no loudspeaker worth $750,000 and certainly no system worth 1.5 mil. Maybe I'm just not rich enough. I can understand $250,000 for a system which is about what my ultimate dream system would cost. Underline dream.  

I was dreaming while posting that.  

We should start a chat listing one thing each of us has owned (ever!) that is NOT audio and that might be considered extravagant by the rest of us. Let's get judgmental. 
Sorry, I'm just afraid to admit that if I had a 750K windfall, I would probably spend it on audio (including the listening room).
Maybe hearing aids.

Wished I had an extra $750k cash lying around somewhere to upgrade to the M9.
I currently own a pair of Magico M6 driven by Naim Statement NAP S1 monoblock amps & Naim Statement NAC S1 linestage analog preamp.
There’s big jump in price going from the M6 to the new M9.
The M6 retail for $176k/pair. And the M9 are quite a bit bigger and taller too.

The statement products at axpona I see and hear never do anything that makes me want them. Huge statement products set the bar so high no matter how they sound they don't measure up. How about the F1 audio magico with what 4 subs? The kef muon?  IDK, makes audiophiles look like idiots blessed with more money than brains, not that I can talk.

Years ago we had a tv commercial in my country about a couple that won the lottery. You see them driving their newly purchased Lamborghini Countach in a typical suburb. The authorities have strategically placed ’bumps’ in the road in such areas to limit traffic speed. Next shot you see the happy couple stop their new supercar in front of one of these bumps (I’m sure there’s an official term for these things, but it escapes me). The iconic door swings open, after which the wife crawl out of the car with several grocery bags. This lifts the car just enough for the driver to ’take’ the bump. Then the wife gets in again and they drive on, most likely to repeat this procedure at the next bump. End of commercial.

I was reminded about this when I first heard one of those big Wilson speakers (the model before the Alexias, can’t remember their name). They were at a dealer demo room after a weekend show, with Peter McGrath playing some of his own recordings. It was loud and sort of impressive, even in a fully packed room. On Monday my friend who worked at the dealership allowed me a few hours alone with these things. I brought a stack of my own cd’s and we listener together. Most of these normal commercially available cd’s just sounded terrible, so both of us were very underwhelmed to say the least.

So we came to this conclusion: such extreme speakers are great for only the very best recordings, like an F1 car is made for the race track. But they’re totally unsuited for average recordings (the overwhelming majority), just like the Lamborghini was a painfully wrong choice for that suburban environment.

I’ve heard many of these extreme speakers (including Magico’s) over the years at shows and demo’s and always came back with that same feeling. If you are an audiophile with a wide musical taste who puts music before sound, such speakers are pretty useless.