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Article: Magico LLC December 2013


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Very interesting read Chris. As a owner of a pair of Q1 it is a lot of fun to have a look at the factory. Unlike Priaptor, I am very happy with my Q1, after having lived with Infinity IRS, Wilson WP, APL, Triangle, Evolution Acoustics MM3. None of my previous systems reached the same level of transparency, ease, and sense of listening to a live event. What is shocking with Magico speakers is the complete absence of coloration - this disturbs some people who have been listening for years to colored speakers, they may hear them as "flat". For me they just sound real, Magico speakers are the one which approach the most what I am hearing at concerts and therefore are the one which provide me the most emotion.

 

I completely agree with you on the notion that Magico are very good value for money. Unfortunately a lot of people are thinking that good value means cheap. Magico speakers are expensive, but you know what you pay for:

- silver and gold Mundorf XO component and Mundorf internal wiring whereas a lot of famous brands (see the list above) are using parts 10 times cheaper. This has a huge impact on transparency

- Custom designed drivers (berrylium tweeter, Nanotec medium and bass). Designing your own drivers is a huge expense for a small company like Magico, when most of famous brands are using an off the shelf Scanpeak, Accuton or Focal driver (e.g., Wilson). But this again explains why these speakers are so true to the source. Focus is on getting a pistonic behavior, to reduce distortion to the absolute minimum. When you have a look at the latest Hifi Critic distortion and linearity measurements for the S5, it seems that Magico is right now in a different league: just compare it with the measurements of the Raidho D1 in the same issue, or of the Alexia a few months back.

- Aluminum cabinet, with extensive aluminum bracing, designed with an advanced CAD software to simulate speaker behavior. When looking at the picture of the internal structure of a Q5, this speaker may require a week of machining.... You may argue it is over the top (knowing that 90%+ of companies buy in China cheap MDF enclosure for probably 1/10th to 1/20th of the cost), but it seems to me they just know what they are doing, even if it costs them much more: switching to such a construction has drastically reduced the box coloration of the speakers, compared to the previous generation of wood speakers and to any other brand on the market.

Bottom line, it you are in the market for a high end product, I believe Magico line up is today the best value for money: Bill of material as % of MRSP is probably the highest of the industry, they sound great (both the S line and Q line), they have very good designers who (finally!) brought a scientific approach to the speakers industry and they keep re-investing on pushing the boundaries of what is possible (the Q7 is in a class of its own).

Last, they are assembled like a Swiss watch. Quality of finish and of construction is top notch, I enjoy watching them and touching them even when the music is off, which doesn't happen often

Sorry for sharing my excitement! ;-)

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