Magico Q7 . . . wow

Jwm,
Many would agree with your impression. Two very different approaches.I`ll always prefer musical realism rather than 'audiophile' genre accuracy(artificial).

Magico Mini 2 was reference standard musical when I heard them play an orchestral string recording off VAC amp, VTL pre-amp, DCS source and high end Nordost wires. Very detailed smooth and musical all at once.

Performance with other kinds of music with large macrodynamic swings was still very good a speaker that size but not reference standard.

Of course the Magico's did not do this all by themselves. The stuff feeding them upstream were undoubtedly a big part of the "magic". OTher very good speakers might have done similarly well and perhaps even better in some regards like macrodynamics. Microdynamics/transients were benchmark standard though so I know they can do it.

Audiofreak and Jwm, I know what you are saying, and I've heard Magicos sound analytical and fatiguing and not like music. If you consider that "audiophile", that's fine. However, I've also heard them sound just as Mapman describes. Very "Musical" with a capital M, as in sounds like music that I could listen to all day long. I've also heard SF speakers sound wonderful.

I think it has a lot to do with matching the equipment and the room and proper set up. No speaker is perfect and most sound different depending on how they are set up.

I heard larger Magico also once at a show for comparison in a YG demo. I heard nothing that would warrant describing them as not musical. This was on a different system with SS amp I believe. The sound was much different than the Minis with the good tube gear. Both were very good but different. I suspect in general what is upstream will make a huge difference. Hard to categorize what good speakers sound like accurately without hearing them in multiple different scenarios. Speakers make no sound by themselves.

Whow lighten up boys.MAGICO MINI 2 is still a wonderful speaker more musical than Q1 but thats my take.There are many wonderful speakers out there Yg does not do it for me.