Magico M5 Loudspeakers
Jonathan Valin -- Tue, 02/10/2009 - 15:16
Tomorrow, if all goes according to plan, I get the Magico M5s!
I will begin posting photos of the install process and the speakers sometime after noon. I will also blog about the installation, with photos of the Elam boys carting them up my three flights of stairs to the listening room, where the Soulution 710/720/740, ARC 610T/Ref 3/PH7/CD8, Walker Black Diamond, and Tara Labs Omega Gold and Zero Black await.
I gotta admit I'm excited. This ought to be a great stereo system--anything less will be a disappointment.
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Nice post Jon. I think it encapsulates what a reviewer with integrity is all about. I run Magico V3's and really enjoy the music through them. If I were to write a review I'd be trying to describe the sound and strengths as well as identify any weaknesses and report it how I heard it. All else is politics and irrelevant to the job at hand. This is what I discern to be your approach. Keep up the good work. I have been amazed at how much detail you have provided about your "journey" thus far with the M5's. If this is the new journalism of the 21st century / internet - then bring it on !
JV I totally agree with you. I am amazed it takes such financial investment to achieve the sonic level you are describing. I am not going to go into the electronics you use to obtain it nor the "highly elevated" cost of the cables you use either. My point is the level of sonic nirvana you are describing is so beyond what most can afford, which is understandable if compared to anything else; cars, houses etc.... but this point is even more emphasised given the fact there are many out there who are wondering if they could even afford a new copy of TAS next week.
To me this is rather poignant and perhaps somewhat telling of how high end audio is perhaps spiralling out of control.
It of course does not take away from the fact I myself would love to afford a pair of M5's and even own them, but like most gear in the high end it is only imaginable.
Even in an economy like this, there is more money out there for luxury goods than you might think. I just discovered that a local high-end dealer, a very modest, unpretentious, but veteran shop, is now a Magico dealer, and has already sold a pair of M5s here locally. And they're getting M5s for their main demo room next month - something I assume they'd only do if they thought there were more buyers out there.
I think one reason they're investing that heavily is that they're the only dealer here in the Northwest right now. Magico is clearly being very careful about selecting qualified dealers, making sure they don't have too much coverage in any one area, discouraging discounting, etc. This is a major attraction for the highest quality dealers. I've heard that some other brands - MBL is prominently mentioned lately - haven't done so well keeping their best dealers happy. That will hurt you even more in the long run than macroeconomic problems.
It's all relative. For some people, the M5s are a budget component.
JV, dude:
Your listening room is positively overflowing with nice (make that damn nice) and noticeably big gadgets. And while I'm sure your life as an audiophile has never been better or better sounding, I suspect that Mrs. Valin is none to happy about the constant flow of new, bigger additions to the otherwise lovely Valin home. And your speakers keep getting bigger and bigger too. First the compact Magico minis, then the big MBLs, and now the M5s.
I'm sure Mrs. Valin is wondering when all this madness will end.
I have a solution to this dillemma. I live in Chicago (but visit the Queen City often) and my cousin and fellow audiophile lives in Hyde Park (Cincinnati). We will treat you to a nice lunch at Tellers (or the eatery of your choice), maybe take in an evening of Paavo leading the home team in some rousing classical fare, and then discuss over post-concert drinks semi-permanent loans of unused high-end effluvia to each of us both to lighten your load and to help retun the Valin household to a relative state of urban bliss.
We will even do all the heavy lifting free of charge.
I think this is a pretty good offer. Let me know what you think.
On a more serious note, thanks to you and the entire TAS staff for creating what I consider to be the most vibrant and accessible on-line audiophile forum to date. That Stereophile's MF feels comfortable contributing (see the recent phono equalization forum) says a lot about the sense of community TAS has helped to create.
On a more unpleasant note, what are your thoughts about the demise of the great Telarc ? I was saddened to learn of their recent fate. Apparently they will continue to distribute recordings, but orchestras like the CSO (Cincy not Chicago) and Atlanta must now make or outsource the recording and attendant engineering of future CD/SACD releases themselves, if at all.
BTW: WGUC (the classical arm of the station) has a collection of reel-to-reel masters of virtually every CSO concert ever broadcast over the station's airwaves dating back at least 50 years. Imagine the CSO remastering and transferring the best of those live concerts to DSD and then releaseing them for sale to music lovers the world over. Perhaps even hiring the same remastering team responsible for the superb RCA Living Stereo DSD releases.
Ah, one can at least dream....
Amandela
Amandela77
JV:
I could swear (well, almost) from your pix that your listening room floor is sagging slightly under the extreme weight of the amps and speakers you are reviewing.
Perhaps some additional structural reinforcement is in order...
Older homes were not meant to bear such enormous loads.
Amandela77
Amandela,
Mrs. Valin has been wondering when the madness will end since the day she met me.
I greatly appreciate your generous offer to "lighten the load," so to speak, but Larry has promised to introduce me to a friend of his in Jersey who will help me with my M5 "problem." I have a feeling an accident may occur in which the speakers are severely damaged--so severely they can never be returned to Magico. (The Soulution gear may also be severely damaged.)
If you are in Cincinnati, you're welcome to stop in however and, uh, inspect the damage.
As for Telarc...yes, it is a sad loss--particularly for the CSO, which was one of the very very few orchestras still being recorded on an international label. (I'm told that part of the reason Jarvi took the gig with the CSO was because of its Telarc recording contract. Now....) You are right about the mastertapes in GUC's vaults. It would be marvelous if some of them made their way to CD/SACD. I don't know what the CSO's plans are at this point. If I hear something, I'll let you know.
Jon
P.S. The floors aren't sagging. It's the camera lens introducing "barrel" distortion at its widest setting that gives the floor a slightly "scooped out" look.
BTW, JV, what camera, lens, digital card/film do you use??? I have a "Nikon D3 with Nikkor lenses and love them to death!!!!"
BTW, JV, what camera, lens, digital card/film do you use??? I have a "Nikon D3 with Nikkor lenses and love them to death!!!!"
Ferrari spend millions of dollars on F1 too. It does have a benefit to buyers of the production versions and eventually the trickle down may even get to us mere mortals who dream of owning an F360 or some other exotica. If we had nothing to dream about and no goal to aim for we'd stand still, which would actually mean going backwards due to everybody else going forwards. I have seen the trickle down effect in action in the improvements to many models of high end gear, such as the auto tube biasing in the first VTL Siegfired amps which is now available in the more modestly priced MB 185's so all this extreme high end development does have an eventual benefit to those of us who have built up a great system over decades.
To those who would know, I am (or was) in the market for Dynaudio Evidence Temptations. I wander how much "better" is the M5 over the Temptations (yes I know the M5s are twice as much).
thanks for the prev posts,
this would interest me too.
The evidence master is so far the best speaker I heard (with all spectral). I heard the x-2 V1 as well but I prefer what I heard from the evidence, a matter of taste possibly or the difference in upstream components. Anyway , if anyone can comment on this would be interesting to hear.
WD and Oberkorn,
Outside of trade shows, I have no experience with Dynaudio speakers, so I can't compare it directly to the Magico. What I can tell you is the M5 is the most realistic dynamic loudspeaker I've heard--and, all things considered, the best loudspeaker of any kind I've heard (at least when driven by Soulution electronics). Whether you will prefer it to the Dynaudio I don't know, but I would certainly give the M5 a listen before purchasing any other expensive dynamic speaker.
Jon
best loudspeaker of any kind I've heard (at least when driven by Soulution electronics).
Last Friday, you mentionned that you were about to hook them up to the Arc Ref3/610T combo. Nada since then, practically. So, were the piano mover guys busy, or were the M5s disappointing with the ARC pair ?
Zeb,
I just haven't gotten around to trying the ARC gear out with the M5s yet, but I will.
Jon
Zeb,
Do you really expect them to not sound good?
If you are thinking about bying the M5 and are waiting to see what happens my advise is to start saving NOW LOL
How are you?
All the best,
E
Hi Elliot,
Not really, but I am hoping that JV will say something like they sound 10x better with the Soulution electronics, then I can sleep well. Mind you, with the state of the economy, this is all getting pretty hypothetical.
In the meantime, the Meitner transport conked out and is out for repair, and I haven't gotten round to trying the dCS yet. Am intending to send you a list of music that you might enjoy - any day now :)
Be well
Hi Zeb, Thanks and perhaps I may be able to do the same for you after I see what you send me and like.
Mye xpectations are for all great electronics to sound great on a great speaker. They all will have thier trade offs and sometime tube gear has issues with large dynamic speakers particularly in the botom end but you have 600's and they seem to drive anything. I would expect the solid state gear to be better at the frequency extremes however it is all a matter of how much. The Magico's certainly like power but you power ..lot's of it.
Try the dCS and/or the Meridian 808.2 they are bith amazing machines and I am sure you will like one of them!
E
JV, So are you not sure why you are getting the results you are getting? Would the M5 not be the “the best loudspeaker of any kind I've heard” without the Soulution? Did you hear the Soulution on anything else in your house yet? At the show, the Mini were playing at the Soulution room with more or less the same system setup the M5 had. Although a very nice sounding setup, and definitely one of the better ones I have heard at the show, it was not even remotely close to the M5 setup performance. In fac, I did not think it was even as good as the V2 room with the CAT electronics. Can you comment on that?
Matt,
Don't agree with you about the V2 with CAT electronics. I will be trying out the ARC this weekend. (I will also try out a Pass Labs smp.) I have every confidence that the M5 (like the rest of the Magico line) is more than a one-trick pony when it comes to electronics.
JV
Thanks JV, for sticking with us who have visions of near SOTA performance even with far less expensive electronics. I remember well your Parasound A21 review, where you concluded you could "live with" a $2K amp in a very high end system that included, as I recall, Magico Minis. I'm hoping that your reactions to the Pass Labs with M5s is similarly optimistic for those of us shooting for the moon on a (sort of) budget. And thanks again for your willingness to engage with us, and respond, in this type of forum.
I agree with Matt. I thought the V2 room was WAY WAY better then the Soulution room with the Mini. And I love the Mini. I would also be curious to your impression of the M5 with different electronics. I am sorry to say but I do not share your enthusiasm for the Soulution brand. Nice indeed, but not necessarily the cat's new pajamas, especially not at these prices, IMHO.
I disagree - partly :) The V2 room suonded great, but I preferred the Mini 2 room.
OTOH, my Mini 2s with ARC electronics sound better in my home than the Mini 2/Soulution at CES. Of course, it is not a fair comparison in view of the hotel room etc.. and it's unlikely that I will get a Soulution at home for a trial.
Roy,
Frankly, m'dear, I don't give a damn what you think of Soulution on the basis of a quick listen at a show (or a quick listen anywhere). I've had Soulution gear in my home for almost six months, and I'm telling you it is the most transparent, least colored solid-state I've heard by a considerable margin. The amp and preamp have next-to-none of the usual signatures of solid-state gear--none of the sandiness (both in color and texture) of Boulder, none of the whiteness and leanness of Spectral, none of the liquidity and darkness of MBL, none of the cool analyticity of Krell, etc. As for CAT, I'm a fan of Ken's gear, but the stuff I heard at CES (at least when I heard it) didn't sound broken in to me--it was a little too hard and aggressive. Though the Minis sounded unexpectedly dark in the Soulution room (BTW, I don't have an explanation for this), they were still phenomenally good. I got goosebumps listening to them reproduce several discs I know by heart. What great friggin' speakers!
Jon
Hey Jon, I have not had the Soulutions for a visit and probably never will unless the economy does a 360 and fast but I am a Krell dealer and the new EVO gear is not cool nor analytical and unless you have had it in your system I think you might rethink what you say if you did. The new stuff is not your fathers Krell! I have foooled and surprised all of my clients when they hear my system and are amazed when I tell them what they are hearing is Krell.
Hope all is well,
E
JV, You make comments based on what you hear at shows as well. I do prefer the Spectral, an amp that you never audition in your house, yet you seem to have an opinion on it.
Elliot and Roy,
Touche.
I've had plenty of Krell in my system, though not the new EVO stuff, and I've never had Spectral in my home system, though I've heard it (or iterations of it) at shows and in showrooms and in other people's homes. For the record, I've never had Boulder in my home system, either.
Jon
Zeb,
I've got some bad news for you--and some good news, I tried the 610T/Ref3 with the Magico M5s tonight and, well, they just don't cut the mustard. Not in the same league as the Soulution gear. Sorry, buddy, but if you've got your sights set on a pair M5s then you've got to get those boat anchors out of your system. Trust me on this.
The good news is that I would be happy to take them off your hands--at the right price, of course. Seeing that I'm going to spoil their market value, you really should sell them to me for pennies on the dollar right now and save yourself the financial bath you'll take once my M5 review, damning them to hell, comes out.
You may wonder why I want them. Just call me sentimental, but I'd like to have them sitting around the room, not necessarily hooked up to anything, of course, certainly not to bi-amp the damaged M5s, the price of which Alon had to eat, poor man. No...I'll use them as flashlights on a dark night or something. Don't worry about me. Just ship 'em my way as soon as possible.
Jon
Wicked wicked JV, I can't bear it...
JV,
on Elliots comments re: Krell EVO gear....he is soooo right that the new evo krells are NOT like the krells you know...I have all ARC gear with the 610Ts and ref3 and ref8 and have never been a fan of krell...but oh boy...these new KRELLS are a different animal..they are not solid state or tube...somewhere in between...once you hear them its hard to resist their emotional sound that wraps you like a ARC IMHO....
must give it a try...as for the 610ts not being able to match the M5s...can you give us a little more color...
Zeb,
for the cd player...gice dcs a try but you are more then welcome to come and give Ref8 another try in my system...(since our systems are almost exactly the same...arc 610ts ref3 magico v3 ref8 and sme 30/2)...i was about to return the ref8 myself but discovered a whole new world once i changed the power cords...more than wellcome for a listening session....
p.s whoever is using or trying the REF8 cd from ARC, do NOT decide before you try it with a power cord from transparent...i know ARC at their own studio is using the shunyatas (which is what i had prior to transparent) but they dont kow what they are missing...
Thanks Oz.
I did like the CD 8, but still preferred my Emm Labs to it. I tried it with the stock power cord though, so will give it a second chance. Presently, the EMM is being repaired - so I'm not bothering and listening exclusively to LPs, which is no bad thing.
must give it a try...as for the 610ts not being able to match the M5s...can you give us a little more color...
As far as the M5s/ARCs, I think Jon is being sarcastic :) I'm sure he will eventually post a detailed description, once he manages to tear himself form the listening chair and shut the system down ..
Zeb,
Yeah, I was funnin' ya.
I'm still kind of digesting the M5/ARC experience. Different than the M5/Soulution experience, of course, but in its own way remarkable (as I expected it would be). I'll go into detail tomorrow. For tonight it is enough to say that you would not be unhappy with M5s and your present amplification and preamplification, Zeb. It is also safe to say that anyone looking for a less expensive alternative to the $150k Soulution electronics would be well advised to consider the $50k ARC option (Ref 3 preamp/610T monoblocks). That's a $100k savings, folks! And while the dollar may not be what it once was, $100k will still buy you a pretty fair front end and a shitload of cabling (or a second pair of M5s with $11k left over).
JV
Well...I guess i need to write a bit about the Audio Research 610T and Reference 3 in combo with the M5s.
First a general comment. The Soulution gear (i am still using the 740 CD player with the ARC gear) sets a standard of transparency to sources and sheer clear-as-glass colorlessness that is unmatched in my experience by any other electronics. Although it comes surprisingly close to this ideal--which'll tell you something about how transparent and colorless the M5s are--the Audio Research gear has a little tube-like grain in comparison (but just a little). The Ref3/610Ts also have less grip in the low bass, though once again I think you might be surprised at how close they come to the Soulution 700 and by the sheer neutrality of their bottom octaves, which make the 700 sound just the slightest bit "dark" (perhaps because fuller, tighter, less infused with air or grain) in comparison, Also remember that the Soulution 700 was being used in bi-amp mode--i.e., a separate amp was driving the M5's woofers and mid/tweeters--while the monoblock 610Ts must be used in a single-wire arrangement with Magico's jumpers connecting the two sets of binding posts of each speaker. It would not surprise me if the sound could be improved by playing with jumpers, which I will do, or by adding a second set of 610Ts and bi-amping a la Soulution. (You listening, Zeb?)
This said, the ARC Reference 3 preamp and Reference 610T amplifiers (fed an analog signal by a DaVinci Reference Grandezza cartridge in a Walker Black Diamond record player itself feeding an Audio Tekne TEA-2000 phonotage, and a digital signal by the Soulution 740 CD player) is phenomenally good sounding--bigger, airier, breathier (ARC--and thus far only ARC--seems to "breathe" the way vocalists and instruments do, giving them lifelike bloom and prescence), every bit as realistic as the Soulution gear in the midband, with the most amazing wrap-around soundstage I've yet heard from a non-omnidirectional two-channel stereo system. This goes beyond wall-to-wall-to-wall-to-ceiling staging. On cuts where phase is being played with to locate instruments or sounds outside the boundaries of speakers--such as the soundtrack to the terrific thriller The International [Varese Sarabande]--sounds pop up along the sidewalls in front of the speakers; echoes trail off from the back of the stage, along the sidewalls, to beside your ears! It's an amazing effect that I experienced to a lesser degree with Magico's great Mini and Mini II and with MBL's great 101 X-Treme. But where you might expect surround-like effects from an omni, you might not from a floorstanding dynamic--and certainly not to this amazing extent. Outside of the 101 X-Treme, I've never heard any speaker would compete with the M5s in sheer width and breadth of stage. And, with the ARC electronics, I've never heard any speaker that would challenge it in layered depth. This is just a different experience, folk, like switching from monocular to binocular vision. Here you get very nearly the same diorama-like effect that I got with the 101Xes for $161k less--the Xes have, since my review, gone up to $250k (great. huh?).
The 610Ts may need to be run from their 4 ohm taps with these speakers--why I don't know since the Mini IIs, also a nominal 4 ohm speaker, liked the 8 ohm taps. (Note: I'm not quite sure of this yet.) In any event because of the amps' power (610Wpc) and the sheer amount of energy that the M5s are transferring into the room--particularly in the midbass--you're going to have to be very goddamn cognizant of room nodes, especially if you, like me, are dealing with a small-to-medium-sized listening space. I've had to use more room treatment with the M5s than with any other speaker I can think of--its bass is so deep and so powerful that it will turn the usual little 60-80Hz resonances into big ones if you don't carefully damp. (I will have something to say about room treatment in a separate thread, as I've come across some new, scientifically designed products from A/V RoomService Ltd. that are not only highly effective but reasonably affordable. For a sneak preview, go to www.avroomservice.com/.) But in a properly tamed room, you will get bass like you haven't heard--like I haven't heard--from any non-subwoofed system, without the discontinuity of subwoofers.
More, as a certain party is wont to say, anon.
I will also be trying the M5s with the Parasound JC-1 and Pass X350.5,
"I will also be trying the M5s with the Parasound JC-1 and Pass X350.5"
Cool. Looking forward to that!
"its bass is so deep and so powerful that it will turn the usual little 60-80Hz resonances into big ones if you don't carefully damp"
I've found this to be somewhat true of almost any full-range speaker in almost any smaller room (mine is 20 x 14 x 9). Having learned the benefits of treating bass resonances, through my experiences with Realtraps bass traps and Meridian room correcting surround processors, I find I'm much more sensitive to the "mud" thrown on the whole sonic picture by room modes. With the right treatment though, you can make a small room work with speakers that are supposedly require large rooms. I think this is partly why RH has had such good results from speakers like the Wilson Alexandrias in a room dimensionally similar to mine.
It would not surprise me if the sound could be improved by playing with jumpers, which I will do, or by adding a second set of 610Ts and bi-amping a la Soulution. (You listening, Zeb?)
I hear you Jon :) Assuming I win the lottery and can afford a pair of M5s and a second 610T, I'll have to move house to the Arctic Circle to evacuate all that heat!! It's bad enough as it is in summer with one pair of 610Ts !!
Have you tried a bi-wire an skip the jumper all together? Although I understand the jumper supplied is an MIT one, I presume it is not to the level of your cables or of the Oracle.
I look forward to hearing more comments on the ARC lot vs the Soulution lot. From what you've said so far, there are some pluses and minuses (as one would expect) to each combo.
++
On another note, I can't really understand why the Extermes have gone up so much in price, unless MBL has completely messed up their initial pricing. If anything, the US dollar has gained about 20% over the Euro since summer; the exchange rate is at its lowest since a few years. That should make imports cheaper, not more expensive. Same arguments go for UK sourced gear, with the Pound very low vs the dollar.
... the most amazing wrap-around soundstage I've yet heard from a non-omnidirectional two-channel stereo system. This goes beyond wall-to-wall-to-wall-to-ceiling staging ...
This is something that I have noticed from the 610T. I had used my Mini 2 with a different amp before the 610T came along; the 610T made my room seem twice the size. This is unsettling and uncanny, and has left many people shaking their heads in total amazement. Granted, the Mini 2 are doing something right, but the 610Ts are really getting this out.
I am definite this is not me (or others) hallucinating, but I have no understanding whatsoever on why this is so. As far as speakers are concerned, one can say it is to do with the dispersion pattern of the drive units, etc... but I have no logical explanation why this is the case with amplifiers or any other piece of electronics.
Anyone care to explain? or at least throw a theory?
I don't know why, either, but it is a fact. It's as if the 610T has better peripheral vision than other amps (a phrase i stole from Warren Gehl, who, if he ever stops working for ARC, has an open invitation to write for us--what a terrific listener he is, and what a smart and articulate fellow). And, Zeb, if you think the 610s have extraordinary "peripheral vision" with the Mini IIs, wait till you hear them with the M5s! It is "uncanny and unsettling"--and just too cool for school!
... the most amazing wrap-around soundstage I've yet heard from a non-omnidirectional two-channel stereo system. This goes beyond wall-to-wall-to-wall-to-ceiling staging ...
Actually it kinda reminded me of that button that reads "surround" in my lil'mini compo. Just wondering could this technology gave rise to the idea and made way (implemented to the Nth degree of course) into those or any other hi-end amps?? Afterall, a Ducatti started their younger days only as bicycles.. =)
Listen to Roger Waters' "Amused To Death," it's recorded in "Q" sound and wraps around you, as does the Pink Floyd DVD, "Pulse," when listened to in stereo.
Mark
Those certainly are recordings with great pseudo effects. However, above posts were touching more the amp-speakers related synergy/merits.
Bvidman is correct. The surround-like effects I hear are there on several recordings with this combination of gear.
Having been partially responsible for pushing an M5/inexpensive amp test, I feel it only fair to say that the results of this experiment are less immediately relevant to me than they were a couple of days ago. The reason for that judgment is that I've just purchased a pair of V3s, after my first extended audition of that speaker at the local dealer I mentioned earlier in this thread: www.theaudiogallery.com. To summarize the results of that audition along one particular axis of importance, I realized that I would have to spend time with speakers as good as the V3s in order to truly appreciate, and prepare for, speakers that are even better.
For context, I listen to all kinds of music, from mono Jazz and Blues to modern Classical, but close to half my listening is to 19th and 20th century orchestral pieces. Beethoven, Wagner, Brahms, Debussy, Mahler, Sibelius, Stravinsky, Strauss, Shostakovich, Britten, Tippet, Dutilleax, et al are my touchstones. My "reference system" is the Oregon Symphony, which I unfortunately get to hear only a dozen times a year for a couple of hours at a time from season tickets in row J.
My current speakers are MBL 116s, abetted by Velodyne DD-15 subs. They are everything that MBLs are touted for: spacious, dynamic, detailed. But I always recognized that, in significant ways, I was not getting the concert hall experience. A real orchestra in a real hall has characteristics I've never heard well-reproduced over an audio system before. Take, for example, the sound of woodwinds and horns. These instruments each have a particular tonal character that is always somewhat homogenised in reproduced sound - is it a clarinet or oboe?. Further, when played in concert hall, each of these instruments sounds "big", in the sense that there is a bloom of sound surrounding the instrument (presumably from acoustic reflections off the floor and shell surrounding the stage). These qualities have been only hinted at by any of my audio systems to date, which have included some pretty expensive and well-reviewed gear.
The first time I heard reproduced woodwinds and horns sound very close to what I hear in concert was yesterday, listening to the second movement ("Nachtmusik") of Mahler's 7th with Michael Tilson Thomas and the LSO (RCA) through the V3s. And the whimsical cowbells Mahler threw into that movement: over lesser speakers like the 116s, they are only a suggestion of cowbell sound. Over the V3s, I was compelled to point to their exact location and exclaim, "there are the cowbells", so realistic were they. And it goes on and on from there: massed violins sound sweet when they're supposed to, dense, projected, and forceful when that is the way they're played. Tympani sound like pitched instruments being whacked in a real space, rather than undifferentiated "thud" sounds. Celli and bass have both appropriate weight and texture. And the finale of that Mahler 7th: much closer to the sound of a large orchestra, playing fff, in a large hall, than I can ever recall hearing reproduced before.
This excellence is not limited to orchestral music. Paul Lewis' grand piano is projected right into the room with you as he plays the Beethoven Appasionata. Unfortunately, so is Lewis' heavy breathing - but at least you won't mistake that breathing for a broken speaker, as I once did! Nora Jones sounds even more seductive than she sounded the 998 times you heard her before. Michael McDonald's finely sliced background vocal harmonies on "Peg" from Steely Dan's Aja are laid out for your examination and admiration. And so on, and on.
Some caveats, even after only a couple hours of listening: if I listened primarily to multi-miked Pop or other less acoustically rendered music, the sense of space, projection, and dynamic life of the MBLs would make them more competitive with the V3s. Also, the extreme transparency of the V3s will make any issues with electronics or room much more obvious - the demo room at Audio Gallery had a room mode at about 65-70 Hz which stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the sonic picture.
Of course, I can't say exactly how much of what I heard is electronics (Prima Luna CD player, Lamm LL2, Lamm 1.2, Shunyata cable) and room in my dealer's system. But it's my experience that speakers effectively dominate the the overall character of a system, and that will be tested when I get the V3s in my room next week, along with a music server, Berkeley AlphaDAC, and McIntosh MC501 amps (left over from the MBL-driven need for big watts for a reasonable price). Having heard what the V3s are capable of, I am determined that I will get that quality from them eventually in my home. And at that point, there will be a V3.2, or M5.2, or whatever, that will be ready for my more educated decision when moving to the next level.
And all of that said, I expect that experiments with less expensive amps on the M5 are still likely to yield results useful to those of us with lesser Magico transducers, at minimum, and I hope you're still going to perform them, JV. I also have to say, without the TAS reviews of the Magico speakers, I would never have sought out the Magico web site, and from there discovered the Audio Gallery dealership a few miles from my home. And that would have been a great shame, because Gary and Cindy Kerr are two of the nicest, most dedicated, and most knowlegable people I've met in quite some time. Oh, and they're audiophiles, too.
Whoa, where did that monster post come from? The excitement of a new purchase, followed by one too many glasses of Northwest Pinot, I guess. Sorry for the slightly OT diversion ...
I'd say your post came from the heart, my friend! I thought it was smart and delightful. Congratulations on your wonderful speakers, Scott!
Not to worry. It happens to most Magico owners. It is one of these things. Like listening to Quad 57 when you were a kid for the first time. You got to experience it to understand it.
ok Jon
.....and now where do I fit with my Magico M6 and PH7/R3/R610T ???
...I forgot to add that I switch in X2-2 from time to time .....
The M6 are out of this world...and I just enjoy them, you, TAS....
Zorro,
I think the question is where do I fit given your genuinely fabulous system. I'd say it doesn't get better than what you have. What a great stereo you own!
Jon
Jon,
I owe it to your original review of the mini to have come to the magico world. I started with the Mini and then decided it was safe to order the M6.
It turned out IT WAS a safe bet.
What you mention about he bass of the M5 is the real strong suit of the M6 package too. It all starts from there and then more "Magico" on up !
Z
Dead? No new feelings on the M5?