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Magico S5 review

I've been auditioning the Magico S5's on loan from my dealer Scott Walker Audio of Anaheim for several weeks now.
The S5's are an all aluminum cabinet, a trickle down version of the Q series. They are 90 DB, 22HZ-50KHZ, 190#,and sell for $28,600. After some considerable work by Scott he got the speakers locked in perfectly.

My current system consists of Focal Nova Utopia BE speakers
($45,000), An Ayon CD-5 cd player, An Ayon Triton 2 amp,Grand Prix Monaco racks,and a slew of Synergistic Research equipment: Tranquility bases,Migs, Hologram A,D, and AC Precision power cords, Element interconnects,an 11 piece Acoustic Art system, SR fuses and even the new Ayon BT KT-88 SX tubes made in the Czech Republic

I thought I had a pretty great system......Until the S5's came into the picture. The first thing you notice about these speakers is their sealed rather than ported bass. Oh my god! I am not a bass freak but the Magicos had incredible bass.....taut with a visceral punch to the stomach on the right tracks. And this with a tube amp.On certain bass heavy tracks it was like having two subwoofers in the room.

The tweeter was smooth and delicate and completely integrated with the midrange.....it was like one driver.

The midrange is where the Magico Magic comes in.....a strong center vocal image (I like female vocalists), not only more "there" than my Focals but violins had more sheen, cellos sound deeper and you could hear deeper into the subtleties and nuances of the human voice. The tonal characteristics were denser and more real.

The real surprise came when I put the Focals back in the system. I was disappointed. Very Disappointed. The Focals bass in comparison to the Magicos sounded flabby and weak,midrange presence was lessened along with the Magicos wonderful tone. It was easy to discern that the Magico S5's sounded more holographic, 3D, with a smoother yet more detailed mid and top end.

Things I particulary liked about the music reproduction of the S5's:

Dark Side of the Moon: Listen to the bells and the cash register on the song "Money" Stunning.

Warren Zevon, Life Will Kill You: Warren knew he was dying and wasn't in great shape vocally but when you hear the title track you can hear EVERY nuance in his voice....you can hear all his despair and humor.

Sarah McLachlan, Surfacing: I was amazed at how good this Cd sounded, absolutely gorgeous. I heard guitars, Synths, and faint almost out of hearing range background vocals by Sarah. I heard sounds on this Cd I have never heard before.

Melissa McClelland,Thumbelina's One Night Stand: A cd with country folk sensibilties but with a sort of Southern guitar crunch to it. Listening to this on the Magicos was like having Melissa in the room.....Holographic, real vocal tones, and absolutely haunting.

So after saying all this what's an audiophile to do?
My dealer Scott Walker is taking my Focals in on trade along with a check. I understand the S5's take two months to build and get here so Scott is loaning me his demo pair for the duration. That will certainly make waiting for the next two months a lot easier.

mreapoe100
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
Bruce, yes, my amp is a VAC Renaissance 70/70 MkIII, from about a dozen or so years ago, but it has little if any similarity to the amps VAC currently produces (aside from having been designed in a robust manner by the same designer, Kevin Hayes). My amp uses four 300B directly heated triode power tubes per side, in push-pull parallel, providing 65 watts. The current VAC amps are all KT88-based, and are considerably more powerful. I don't need a great deal of power, as you'll recall, because of the efficiency and easy to drive impedance characteristics of my speakers.

The VAC 450S, btw, that was indicated by several people earlier in this thread as being particularly synergistic with the S5, cost $39K as of a couple of years ago. Its power supply and amplifier chassis together way 200+ pounds! And the other two amps in the 450 series are monoblocks weighing that much per side, and costing two and three times that amount, respectively!

All of those amps, btw, have output taps described as being suitable for 2 ohm loads. Mine even has a tap designated as being for 1 to 2 ohm loads.

Best,
-- Al
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charles1dad
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I heard the Magico S5 driven effortless by the Absolare Passion PSET 845 mono blocks for several long listening sessions at CES 2014(including the preperation of the room prior to the opening day). Absolare used this same pairing atRMAF 2013 sucessfully, no apparent problems with that speaker's load. I've always enjoyed the VAC REN 300b push pull amplifiers(thought Kevin Cater actually designed this series of amps for Kevin Hayes).
Charles,
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charles1dad
10,249 posts
 
Meant Kevin Carter not Cater,
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almarg
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05-31-14: Charles1dad
I've always enjoyed the VAC REN 300b push pull amplifiers (thought Kevin Carter actually designed this series of amps for Kevin Hayes).
Hi Charles,

Thanks for raising that question, which rang some bells in my mind and left me uncertain. I then found this post by Kevin Hayes. See item 7 in particular, which describes Kevin Carter's role while he was at VAC, and confirms that the Renaissance amplifiers were designed by Kevin Hayes, with assistance from a technician he employed, and mechanical design by his father.

Best,
-- Al
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Charles1dad .... am I getting the right specs for the tube amp you mentioned:

"- Tubes: 2 x 845, 2 x 6SN7 (Every unit comes with custom-selected NOS 6sn7 tubes and PSAVANE HIFI Series 845 tubes)
- Output power: 52 watts"

I'm sure the Absolare amp sounds great, but at 52 watts, not exactly a giant killer. I put an inquiry in with Magico. I'll report back if and when I get more information.

Even used, the S5s is not inexpensive. I saw one advertised for $23K -- not cheap. Also noted that someone was advertising a used Q3 for $21K. No point in going too far down the road if my amp will melt trying to drive the load.

Fortunately, there's a dealer located in Delaware that carries Magico. I might try to get down there to give a listen. The dealer also carries Focal. I've also been thinking about the Electra 1038 Be II.

You'll notice that the common denominator between my speakers, the Magicos and the Focals is that all three brands use a berylium tweeter, which based on what I've read, is a pretty impressive transducer.

Al ... you got to admit that even though the S5s may be a tough load, it's not too often that one gets to see dynamic speakers with such a flat impedance curve.
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