Opportunity to buy Demo Magico M2?

To be honest, I really wasn’t blown away by the A5’s. I had lugged my Diablo in and thought it would be great, but nope. Again they only had 250 hours on them. And they were in a very small listening room, with the A5’s way out from the wall (Stereophile and others note they do well closer to the wall). I found the tone to be slightly nasal with some male voices (possibly due to being tonally unbalanced due to the lack of bass), and again there was no bass energy. Also tested the Audiovector Arette R6’s and they had massive bass energy (but they were not for me for other reasons). The A5 bass just seemed blended into the background and muted in comparison, and the speakers had little rhythm and drive as a result.

I really wanted to like these and actually am still interested, in case it’s just a case of not being broken in.

I have a pair of B&W 803 D2’s that tonally sound just perfect in my large-ish listening “area”. Really love the sound of them, but I know I could get far better imaging/soundstage, better dynamics, and slightly better upper mid transparency based on listening to high end speakers. Just need to find some that have the right tonal presentation I’m looking for, as my current speakers simply have that “rightness” factor to the sound. I listened to the new 801 D4’s and they sounded horrid with my amp - pinched and constrained mids and uppers, were hard to listen to. But that might have been due to the dealer’s small and way, way over-treated room sucking up all the mid and higher frequencies.

Speaker shopping is hard work, and stressful as there are so many variables even though I’m taking my amp and all my cabling in…. So I’m not sure if I should bother with the M2’s or not.  But the discount is so large I feel like I should make the effort?

I very much doubt that break in is an issue, particularly at 250 hours.  It is much more likely a set up issue at the dealership, including a difference in personal preference between you and the dealer.  Of course it could be you don’t like the speaker.  It might be asking a lot to have the dealer do a set up with your amp.  Done correctly, it is more than just a matter of dropping in your amp; this involves re-tuning the setup.  I would audition the M2 as it is set up at the dealership.  If it sounds to your liking, you at least know it is capable of sounding good; if not, you could explain what you don’t like and the dealer might be able to make some speaker placement adjustment.  I would do at least a portion of the audition fairly close to the speaker (near field listening) to minimize the contribution of the room in order to get a better sense of the speaker’s qualities.  If you are in doubt after the audition, walk away.  If you don’t like the sound, no matter the price cut, it will never be a bargain.

@nyev 

I’m not sure if I should bother with the M2’s or not

IMO, given your excellent amp and, say, a 50% discount, you should and I know it;s not easy carrying the Diablo around!

I don't like Magico as a brand. I had heard the speakers don't come with grills and if they are serviced, Magico will not ship them back to the customer. After one pays $75k for speakers... and the company can't foot the bill to ship repaired speakers back!?!? Wow.

Demo pair is effectively used speakers. 25k off a 75k speaker is not really a screaming deal. In other worlds not sure you could re sell them and make a cent let alone break even. Maybe you could. Point is don’t feel pressured you are going to miss out on this screaming deal especially if you are not completely enamored with the speakers and at 50+k I feel you need to be.