Magico Comparison

I think that if you are looking to purchase any speaker at these price points you are one lucky audiophile. There's a lot of people out there who are just jealous of your committment to the hobby and the money you have to spend on it.

Speakers are an individual choice. It is often confusing when other people hear the same demo I hear and come away with a distinctly different impression than me. But that's what makes thew world go round.

Enjoy the purchasing process, and your new speakers, whatever you decide.

"Engineering-wise, if you have to go to that much effort to suppress cabinet sound, then why not get rid of the cabinet altogether?"

Cabinets are generally needed for good full range bass in a larger room. Downside is if/when unwanted resonance occurs.

I think its a good question how much cabinet rigidity is needed and how to get it most cost effectively. Obviously, larger cabinets are more prone to unwanted resonance issues. Magico likes aluminum cabinets these days I believe. The result is quite an impressive piece of engineering. But metal tends to ring like a bell so perhaps that changes the equation in terms of what is needed to provide SOTA performance overall.

Consider new KEF ls50 monitors for comparison. Most say these are the cats meow in terms of design and build quality. But they are small and sell for $1500 list. Is anything more needed for a smaller room that these might be suited for? Could this design be scaled up effectively for somewhat larger rooms? How cost effectively compared to Magico? I suppose the answer is the KEF Blade that sells for $30000 or so I believe, half the price of Magico. If the two are comparable at all, that would mean something.

Just some food for thought.

Mapman, I dined on that thought at the recent NYC Audio show. I heard the small Kef 1s50? for $1500. I heard the Kef blade for $30K. I heard a mid level Kef floorstanding speaker. And I heard the Kef sponsored "live" show with electric/amplified guitar, bass, drums and vocalist.

I prefer my Magico based system to each of those four Kef demonstrations, even the "live" event - respective of cost. But that is just me. Kef is developing an interesting concentric driver. TAD has another. It just did not sound convincing to me in those show conditions.

Magico goes to a lot of effort to reduce cabinet resonances. I think the reason they don't get rid of the cabinet all together is because this is how they want to present bass reproduction in their close-to-inert, sealed cabinets. Magico bass does sound different from some that of some other brands that have no cabinets, ported cabinets and purposefully resonant cabinets.

My reason for posting was to reply to Mariv26 who suggested that people are ignorant, closed minded and think the world is flat...

Charles,
just read Kiddman posts (-;

Peterayer,

I'm sure KEF and Magico do not sound the same, so preference will always be a consideration.

But in terms of overall performance, how did the KEF Blades compare to Magico? What was similar and what was different?

Thanks.