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Magico A5 spinorama (CEA2034)

Matias

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This is the first time I remember seeing a spin from any Magico speaker in Klippel NFS. I am glad the company is providing it to reviews, but I wish they uploaded them to their website for all models as well.

Behold the flagship floorstanding speaker from their entry level A series published by SoundStage!: the Magico A5 (25k usd).
https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/1042-magico-a5-loudspeakers

202106_magico_A5CEA2034_Magico_A5_Listening_white.jpg


A5.jpg
 
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OP
Matias

Matias

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I wonder if someone could read this image into its numbers and calculate the preference score? Just curious how it would rate.
 

echopraxia

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Independent of how overpriced some of these “luxury” brand speakers may be, it’s a wonderful thing to see that some of them are sonically well-engineered, and at least are delivering good performance for the exorbitant prices they charge. That’s a much more respectable product than e.g. extremely expensive but also horribly underperforming snakeoil.

I’ve heard the Magico M2, and they sounded fantastic and look really beautiful too IMO, while I find Revel speakers relatively ugly in contrast. But while I don’t think they sonically outperform e.g. Revel or Genelec (which cost a fraction of the price), I think they at least come close to being on par. (Beyond that I can’t comment since I haven’t listened to them enough, and because we haven’t seen spin+distortion measurements for the M2 and others.)

But consider this: Some people with a lot of money to spend might buy a Rolex watch, other jewelry, expensive art, etc. For such a person who enjoys music, there are a lot of more popular expensive purchases that are far “worse” ways to spend that money, than buying Magico’s speakers.

After hearing Magico, while I personally would never buy one at their price (and don’t feel I am missing anything sonically with wonderful products from Revel, Genelec, Neumann), I completely understand and respect why someone would buy them who wants a nice blend of aesthetics, luxury, and solid (if not “best”) sonic performance.
 
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tr1ple6

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this is probably gonna sound great in reflective large rooms aka 99% of their customer base.

and it also has great directivity and would work well with basic Room EQ from an AVR.
I don't think I've ever seen Magico speakers used with an AVR
 

GDK

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@John Atkinson measured these in the latest edition of Stereophile (not yet available on-line), and his anechoic measurements look similar to those above. As expected, the treble fall-off was even more accentuated with his in-room measurements.
 

daftcombo

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Not bad. The gently diving slope must insure a relaxed listening.

Any distortion measurements?
 

napilopez

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This seems like my kind of speaker. The most impressive thing is that they managed to get that smooth ER and ERDI without any kind of a crossover dip, while maintaining wide directivity -- no dispersion-narrowing waveguide required.

While I'm not personally a fan of the roll-off in the top octave or two, it's unlikely to have too negative an effect. Although the spin doesn't separate vertical and horizontal directivity, one can also surmise that the speaker has rather wide directivity too based on the design and quite low ERDI curve.

Granted, there's a good chance that their NFS is using the incorrect calculation for the ER and ERDI, but there is no anomaly in the sound power either.
 

Inner Space

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I just spent some time with the M2 (not the same as the A5, I know) and was overall unimpressed. A little strained, a little boxy in the upper bass and lower midrange, always teetering on the edge of spitty sibilance, a wide but unspecific image. A disappointment.
 
OP
Matias

Matias

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Is it just me or do these look bland , lacking in fine detail and design one would expect at this price point?
To them this is a cost capped speaker. They chose a 3rd party to machine the aluminum instead of in house as their other offerings, with more conventional form than the rounded upper models, and spent the money on high tech materials on their drivers.

More info here:
https://www.soundstageultra.com/ind...agico-speakers-and-msb-technology-electronics
 

alont

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this is probably gonna sound great in reflective large rooms aka 99% of their customer base.

and it also has great directivity and would work well with basic Room EQ from an AVR.

Why would this sound better in a reflective room vs. a narrow directivity speaker? I'd imagine this is only true if you're looking for the widest, most enveloping soundstage possible, at which point why not just get an omnidirectional speaker?

Also, basic room EQ from AVRs usually does more harm than good, and this is doubly true with wide directivity speakers since the room has an even greater influence on their measured in-room response.
 

FrantzM

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Knowing what I know now, price is too close to a pair of Genelec W71a + 8351 + GLM ... for a complete (objectively better) system; but to each its own I guess.
Is it me or the bass response shows a sharp slope around 45 Hz?
 

HooStat

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Knowing what I know now, price is too close to a pair of Genelec W71a + 8351 + GLM ... for a complete (objectively better) system; but to each its own I guess.
Is it me or the bass response shows a sharp slope around 45 Hz?

I was wondering about the bass response -- in-room it looked much better than I was expecting from the plot.

I completely agree about the Genelec. But I am 100% sure that I would never be allowed to put the Genelec in my house, and I could easily get the Magico. Obviously, this is subjective. (Not that I could afford either.)
 

pierre

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Digitized the spin, provided data to @pierre
We'll soon have the Olive score.

Olive score is 6.0 and w/sub it would be 7.8. That's a good speaker.
Score could improve up to 6.7 with an EQ but it doesn't change the tonal balance much and I do not think it is required.

Code:
EQ for Magico A5 computed from Misc data
Generated from http://github.com/pierreaubert/spinorama/generate_peqs.py v0.8
Dated: 2021-06-01-18:52:19

Preamp: -3.5 dB

Filter  1: ON PK Fc   837 Hz Gain -0.77 dB Q 10.26
Filter  2: ON PK Fc 12863 Hz Gain +3.07 dB Q 1.15
Filter  3: ON PK Fc  6780 Hz Gain -1.13 dB Q 4.44
Filter  4: ON PK Fc 11752 Hz Gain -1.08 dB Q 9.87
Filter  5: ON PK Fc  1727 Hz Gain -0.72 dB Q 2.80
Filter  6: ON PK Fc  1166 Hz Gain +0.73 dB Q 12.00
Filter  7: ON PK Fc  5279 Hz Gain +0.37 dB Q 12.00
Filter  8: ON PK Fc   449 Hz Gain +0.80 dB Q 3.13
Filter  9: ON PK Fc  4586 Hz Gain -0.30 dB Q 12.00
Filter 10: ON PK Fc   979 Hz Gain +0.24 dB Q 12.00
Filter 11: ON PK Fc 12552 Hz Gain -0.26 dB Q 12.00
Filter 12: ON PK Fc  2079 Hz Gain -0.44 dB Q 12.00
Filter 13: ON PK Fc  2317 Hz Gain -0.31 dB Q 12.00
Filter 14: ON PK Fc  3148 Hz Gain +0.39 dB Q 5.59
Filter 15: ON PK Fc  1347 Hz Gain -0.72 dB Q 12.00
Filter 16: ON PK Fc  1226 Hz Gain +0.28 dB Q 12.00
Filter 17: ON PK Fc   887 Hz Gain -0.20 dB Q 12.00
Filter 18: ON PK Fc  1312 Hz Gain -0.20 dB Q 12.00
Filter 19: ON PK Fc 12863 Hz Gain +0.55 dB Q 0.92
Filter 20: ON PK Fc 11762 Hz Gain -0.65 dB Q 4.02
filters0.png


filters1.png
filters2.png
 
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mikewxyz

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I've heard a pair of Q5's in a dedicated listening room and they were impressive. The cost of this system/ room was x100 times the cost of my system. Was it x100 times better? No. Was it x10 better? No. But it was the best sounding system I've heard. Magico makes great products.
 
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