Quandry: Used Magico V2 vs. new S1

Hi Bol, i'd be curious to ask what upstream gear you heard the S5's with? Were they fully played in? & What size room did you hear them in? A fully played in pair, in a medium to medium-large size room matched with Soulution, Vitus or Vac amps and the sound is rich, smooth, coherent, notably well balanced and has many layers in the bass. The S5's are fairly neutral, though are a bit on the warm side and transparent to source. They need a lot of run in time (500+ hrs). Would the Avalon Eidolon Diamond or Vandersteen 7 have better time coherency? Yes perhaps a little bit, but to my ears the S5's are plenty coherent. But if you weren't hearing many layers in the bass, I wouldn't blame the speakers. I would be looking at the upstream gear or run in time as likely culprits.

The S5 was with D’Agostino power, Audio research Ref pre amp
and Puccini cdplayer and Audioquest Wel Signature cables. The
S1 was with Zanden. The S5 had colouration in the low freq
caused by the woodenfloor. I missed the different layers in
the low freq. The S1 didn't have this problem.
But I still didn't find it fast enough. I didn't ask about how
many hours the S5 had played. it is possible that they didn't
play 500 hours. The only things I missed was that I prefer a
wider stage. I play far beside my spakers. With this set the
stage was within the speakers.

The natural sound of the S1 and S5 are both very good. I only
miss a faster response. I prefer them over Avalon because they
can give a sharper what I call; individual focus or intimate
focus. I want to touch an instrument or voice like I can when
I listen to a classical concert with a few instruments in
real. This part I judge in every system I audition.

Hi Bol, I don't think that setup you heard did the S5's any favors. Firstly the ARC preamp would be a bit slow for the S5's fast drivers. Also I found once my S5's reached 500+hrs they begun to open up, sound more relaxed and graceful, more beguiling, with faster transients, deeper imaging and greater micro detail. The S5's size allows them to throw a wide sound stage in an appropriate size room, but need some experimentation with setup. DCS to my ears is very good "hifi", but lacks the heart and soul of the Vitus SCD-025 for example. I've heard the D'Agostino mono's with Wilson Alexia's & a full DCS Vivaldi stack which didn't do it for me. I think any of the amp choices I mentioned before would have been a better match. Re: the coloration issue you heard, placing a set of Stillpoints Ultra 5's + Ultra bases under the speakers would have likely addressed that & further improved the sound. I agree with your description of their stage focus which is excellent.

I never liked DSC. Because it does not have a heart, this is an essential part for the emotion in music. So we agree on that.

Avalon and Wilson never will be a speaker with who I could life. It is not my tast in sound and from both I don't like how they present the individual focus of instruments and voices.

You always listen to all parts togheter including the acoustics. I became a stillpoint dealer a few months ago and yess they are great.

I had a rethink about why I didn't like the sound of that setup with the Alexia's, D'Agostino mono's & DCS Vivaldi stack. I couldn't escape a sense of 'noise' (distortion?) and brightness which gave me listener fatigue. Surprising really considering the tremendous cost of the amps & front end. On reflection, the culprit may have been the DCS stack. I don't know if any amps could fix those speakers. But Vitus would make them suck less.