Magico Q1 versus ...

Not heard the Magico's but am a big fan of the Harbeth M30's and their certainly a lot less money!

I own a pair of Magico Mini II's but have not yet heard the Q1. Reports are that it is better than the Mini. However, if you really liked the Q1, I would at least consider a used pair of Mini II's for about 60% of the cost. They also have a completely different aesthetic which may or may not appeal to you. They should have all of the virtues of the Q1 except slightly less extension in both directions and slightly more cabinet noise, though this is just a guess as I haven't heard them.

The Mini II's are the first mini monitor speaker that to me did not sound small and very lacking in lower frequencies and weight. It is extremely coherent, invisible as a source if properly positioned, very low in cabinet noise, very neutral tonally and transparent to upstream components. They will need excellent and powerful amplifiers as they are inefficient.

I have read, and there is also a thread on this topic, that the Evolution Acoustics MMMicro One? speaker for around $2500 is comparable or even better than the Magico, but I don't know if it is yet available, and I have not heard it myself.

There are certainly excellent speakers out there for less than the $25K that they are asking for the Q1. For the price of a used pair of Mini II's they are hard to beat, in my very biased opinion.

Listen again to the Q1 in non-show conditions.

There is a new pair of Q3's for 29K obo.

Dynaudio C1 MKII or Signature. I have read comments that stated they are fairly close. I haven't heard Magico's but I do own the C1 Signature