Naim and Magico speakers?

Joppe posted:

I had a demo of Magico S1 mk2 in a non Naim system and they impressed with its neutrality, control and resolution. Possibly they lacked some scale and "smoothness", but still impressed with its strong points for me to consider a home demo.  Anybody on the forum who own or auditioned these speakers and are willing to share your experiences? (My system is cds3/lp12/252/300)

I'm still in recovery after visiting the Magico site and viewing the Magico Ultimate! Sorry I've no experience with Magico speakers, but their flagship has certainly got my attention. S1.5 looking very tasty in blue.

I love magico, but have no first hand experience with the combination with Naim. I do know that a renowned dutch dealer likes to demo them with naim-gear (they even have organised to 'magico meets naim' shows in the past)... definitly worth a try imho.

magico S5/2 + 500DR + townsend allegri + NDS made the best sound I have ever heard

I went in to demo Rockports and much preferred the Magico sound at Boston's Goodwin High End Store.   They had no 500 system but I could hear the potential there.   Magico costs many American dollars for the right match to the 500DR.  I am happy with my ProAcs but the Magico will be tempting when my ship comes in.

I'm lucky I guess, my dealer has Magico, Focal, Proac, and Dynaudio, also Atohm and Sonus Faber. He's not a Naim dealer, but sells very high end electronics, I would rate them very highly, although I never heard them with Naim, driven by SimAudio, they are very impressive indeed.

badlands posted:

I'm lucky I guess, my dealer has Magico, Focal, Proac, and Dynaudio, also Atohm and Sonus Faber. He's not a Naim dealer, but sells very high end electronics, I would rate them very highly, although I never heard them with Naim, driven by SimAudio, they are very impressive indeed.

That's almost like a supermarket or at least the United Nations.. How do the Atohms sound with NAIM?

Tanks all for all positive feedback so far, no negatives? I will try to arrange a home demo of S1 next weekend...

Price is very high compared to everything else on the market.   That is the only negative I have seen.  

They look nice, I would imagine, they sound nice:

• Magico S1 MkII M-Cast. $16,500.00. 
• Magico S1 MkII M-Coat. $20,295.00. 
• Magico S5 MkII M-Cast. $38,000.00. ...
• Magico S5 MkII M-Coat. $42,750.00. ...
• Magico S7 Cast. $58,000.00. ...
• Magico S7 Coat. $64,000.00. ...
• Magico M3. From $75,000.00 NEW! ...
• Magico Q7 Mark II. $229,000.00.

Active NBLs, DBLs, SL2s, and Briks appears to be the steal of the Century!

Ovators

Kudos

Focal

Vivid

B&W

Just to Naim, a few!

Allante93!

PS. David Wilson!

Moderated Post:  Allante, paraphrase by all means or a few short quotes are also OK, but please don't just copy and paste entire paragraphs from reviews, and also please don't post unauthorised links in here.  Thanks.

Yes pricey they are, as many US speakers!
I guess the closest competitor to S1 are YG Carmel 2, even pricier.  (at least here in Sweden)

Naims Statements and the little Q1 would be ideal for my Hong Kong holiday Apartment.

Allante93 posted:

Moderated Post:  Allante, paraphrase by all means or a few short quotes are also OK, but please don't just copy and paste entire paragraphs from reviews, and also please don't post unauthorised links in here.  Thanks.

My Bad, didn't know the link was unauthorized!

I must read over rules.

{What is an unauthorized link?}

Thanks Mr. Dane!

Allante93!

PS. You learn something every day.

But I can paraphrase!

Got it!

With this in mind - please do not post "live" links to commercial hifi or other manufacturer's websites and please do not link to or make reference to discussions posted on other forums. Any links posted in the Hifi Corner that are deemed by the moderators to have any commercial purpose, or that have further links therein that lead to commercial websites, will be removed.

I might have been interested in their Ultimate speakers, having a certain affection for horns, except they only go down to 100 Hz. I think if I were to win the Eurolottery jackpot I might consider sonething custom made, though it would have to include a custom listening room to accommodate the size of the mouths...

I found Magicos to be very good at the hifi stuff - very controlled, very detailed, no harshness. But also no emotional involvement (not heard with Naim though).

I note the OP refers to hifi terms and not the music, so something to listen out for in further demos.

Haim Ronen posted:

That's almost like a supermarket or at least the United Nations.. How do the Atohms sound with NAIM?

I think the Atohms are the most impressive speaker I have heard in the $7,000 to $15,000 dollar range. I brought them home for a week to listen with my electronics. When I buy new speakers, they will be the Atohm GT2. It is the only speaker I have heard that betters the Dynaudio's in my room. The Focal Sopra 2's were easily outclassed by these French speakers. Amazing dynamics and scale. Beautiful sounding speakers.

The  Dynaudio's outclassed the Atohm Sirocco series in my room, the Excite X38's just sounded so much better in my room with my electronics, I had to go up to the GT series to better the Excite line of Dynaudio speakers.

I  had a speaker demo last year which included the S3 MkI I think, plus Wilson Sabrina, SF Amati and Sopra II's. The electronics were 500 series to mimick my home system and NDS in place of my CDS3. Of that bunch the S3's excelled. The MkII was expected so I did not pull the trigger. Didn't hear the S1 but I was impressed all the same.

Dave

Progress update,

I went on with the home demo. And I can confirm that Magico S1 mk II are really exceptional loudspeakers! Personally I never heard this level of transparency and directness in a dynamic speaker before, and this without adding harshness to the sound. (Sort of a mix between electrostatic and actively driven speakers, if that says anything.)

The only little downsides for me is a slightly brighter sound balance than I am accustomed too. Possibly due to the new level of resolution and that my room might be on the large end for this relatively small speaker (my dynaudio’s appear to be roughly 3 times the voulme and are a ported design). I Can only imagine what the larger siblings might sound like! But on the other hand, my intrest in new speakers is a speaker with less low bass output and thus more suitable late night apartment listening.

Sunbeamgls raised conserns about emotional involment, I don’t have any conserns no more. The first vinyl I played, Leonard Coens “songs of love and hate”, to these ears proved the absolute opposite. My first thought after half a song in to the album was, “how can I possibly return these speakers?”.

Yes, the demo speakers (a mint second hand pair) are now on permanent “demo”!

I would have thought that anything less than a Statement pre and power amp wouldn’t show these to their fullest potential given the American muscle amps they would have used in their development. If I had that much cash to throw around I’d improve the electronics first or go on one hell of a hiliday to some far flung place like Costa Rica

In my experiance there is few decent speakers that won’t benefit from better amps (or surces for that matter). The question is to me a matter of finding balance in what you strive towards and what you are prepared to spend. ( On a side note, upgrading eg my 252 to a 552 would most likely cost me two times the cost of this upgrade)

Ravenswood10 posted:

I would have thought that anything less than a Statement pre and power amp wouldn’t show these to their fullest potential given the American muscle amps they would have used in their development. I

I had a long chat with the designer at CES. If I remember our conversation correctly, he has a huge liking for 300DR and 500DR. Both were used heavily in the dev of the speakers.

These ears can only agree, my nap 300dr seems up for the job of driving a par of S1’s.