MAGICO M3 - Review

Kippyy said:
I appreciate the thoughts and advice. I'm only slightly disappointed so far, but in the big scheme of life,this is a fixable problem. If the M3 doesn't work out in time,Im confident I can find an equitable solution with my dealer. FYI, someone from Wilson informed me that the Alexia may get an upgrade later this year. Perhaps another reason to hear the S7 if necessary.
A dear friend of mine lost a family member tonight which kind of puts high end audio in its proper perspective.
barry
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I agree, your M3's will need atleast 400hrs to be mostly played in. During that process the bass should open up and become more solid. At that point you and your Dealer can dial in a final speaker position which should further improve the bottom end.

If in the end you're still unhappy with the M3's in your medium-large size room, yes I'd agree the S7's would be the closest Magico speaker within your budget in size and bass output to the Alexia's. If you go down that road, my only suggestion would be to get the optional M Pods which are awesome as I'm sure you're already aware.

With the above said, I'm sorry to hear your sad news. I'm dealing with similar issues close to home, and it is difficult and humbling. Take care bro.
 
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LVB said:
It's actually not good. What's all that gibberish has to do with off-axis and room response (I get it you know how to measure loudspeakers, bravo). There are so many mistakes in what you just wrote that I will just opt out on this one... In the mean time I would recommend reading JA article on how he measures loudspeakers.
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Ok , so i get it , you dont understand what was written nor do you see the Irony in your responses...

:rolleyes:

Please take a look at the -6 db points on Both , now do you see Kippyy's issue , i will give you a hint it's not the off axis response, but i do understand your position , some of us are trying to help Kippyy and you Magico ..

BTW no Dog in this fight , they are all laterals IMO, i dont get why the obligatory disrespect is necessary, if a forum member wants to get A Kulamazoo 1000 because his Magico or WA is not working , the focus should be to help with his Kulamazoo , well it is for me , this constant carping about bad bass or his wanting of more boomy bass is beyond the pale, it's petty, disrespectful and condescending ....

Regards
 
Kippyy said:
I appreciate the thoughts and advice. I'm only slightly disappointed so far, but in the big scheme of life,this is a fixable problem. If the M3 doesn't work out in time,Im confident I can find an equitable solution with my dealer. FYI, someone from Wilson informed me that the Alexia may get an upgrade later this year. Perhaps another reason to hear the S7 if necessary.
A dear friend of mine lost a family member tonight which kind of puts high end audio in its proper perspective.
barry
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My Condolences to both you and your friends family Kippyy...
 
Sorry to be late to this thread, but I will share my experience with M3s and VAC 200iQ.

After several hundred hours, I was NOT happy with the sound. Sounded brighter and more "top down" than my Q3s. I was ready to look for another amp, probably SS, to get more bass and mid bass.

At the time I was using Synergistic Galileo speaker cables and Synergistic Element CTS RCA interconnects. My dealer had some used Galileo balanced interconnects and I wanted to try Galileo interconnects. I was gobsmacked. The bass, mid bass and warmth were back and the sound was VERY balanced and natural. This was the M3 sound I had read about and was looking for!

Was it the cable change? More break in? Maybe. All I can say is that the change was immediate and likely due to the cables. Not saying in your system the cabling will transform the sound, but it did seem to in mine (thankfully).
 
DT, that is one sweet system you have there, congrats :congrats: . Your experience gives credence to my belief that "cables matter" and can have a significant influence on the sound. Thanks for sharing!
 
Dth31 - glad that cables made such a big difference. I'm not surprised because Magico's are so revealing and transparent.

Can you describe the sound of your Ortofon MC Anna? I'm contemplating getting one.


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Melbguy1 said:
DT, that is one sweet system you have there, congrats :congrats: . Your experience gives credence to my belief that "cables matter" and can have a significant influence on the sound. Thanks for sharing!
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The other thing I would add is that my expectation of the Galileo interconnects was that the background would be blacker, the soundstage larger, and the detail and layering better. I got that. I did NOT expect to hear any change in the overall tonal balance--so I do not believe there was expectation bias.
 
a.wayne said:
Ok , so i get it , you dont understand what was written nor do you see the Irony in your responses...

:rolleyes:

.... i dont get why the obligatory disrespect is necessary.

Regards
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Read your posts and tell us, both about the irony and the disrespect :rolleyes:

There are many ways of being disrespectful, constantly bombarding the threads with “smart” one liners dismissing any technical comments made by others, and in most cases without much cause, is one of them (my post, BTW, was a reply to jap comments about speakers setup, not about helping anyone, I already said earlier that I believe kippyy bought the wrong speakers).
 
Dth31 said:
The other thing I would add is that my expectation of the Galileo interconnects was that the background would be blacker, the soundstage larger, and the detail and layering better. I got that. I did NOT expect to hear any change in the overall tonal balance--so I do not believe there was expectation bias.
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Hi, what did you compare your VaC master to, if I may ask? Thanks
 
LVB said:
Read your posts and tell us, both about the irony and the disrespect :rolleyes:

There are many ways of being disrespectful, constantly bombarding the threads with “smart” one liners dismissing any technical comments made by others, and in most cases without much cause, is one of them (my post, BTW, was a reply to jap comments about speakers setup, not about helping anyone, I already said earlier that I believe kippyy bought the wrong speakers).
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Err , nope that was you being dismissive, you were the one armed with manipulated data to prove your speaker superior to another who has already voiced his preference with sincere honesty .
 
a.wayne said:
Err , nope that was you being dismissive, you were the one armed with manipulated data to prove your speaker superior to another who has already voiced his preference with sincere honesty .
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So now JA data is also manipulated, and therefore dismissive? Great, I guess I am in good company.
 
bonzo said:
Hi, what did you compare your VaC master to, if I may ask? Thanks
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One of the reasons I don't post much is that I'm not much of a comparor or tweaker. I much prefer to just listen to music!

So I only compared the Master to my previous preamp, which was a VAC Sig MkII, IIRC. I really liked my previous VAC preamp, and thought the Master might sound a little better but never suspected what a HUGE difference there would be. I absolutely LOVED what I was hearing with the Master, and have enjoyed my other VAC components immensely, so I bought it.

As you might guess, one of the things I am experiencing for the first time is how once the system reaches a certain level, E-V-E-R-Y little thing makes a very audible difference. Some may look at that as an apportunity, but I'm struggling with the switching in and out and comparing part of this hobby. Makes my musical enjoyment life better, and harder, at the same time.
 
LVB said:
So now JA data is also manipulated, and therefore dismissive? Great, I guess I am in good company.
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I'm not going to get into your romper room Banter , so if you dont have anything adult to say, i will pass on the invitation..





Regards
 
Mike said:
Can you describe the sound of your Ortofon MC Anna? I'm contemplating getting one.


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Hi Mike. You might want to look at my reply to Bonzo about what other preamps I compared the VAC Master to. Applies to your question too.

Over the years I have gone from 90% vinyl/10% digital to about 50/50 each to about 10% vinyl/90% digital. Once I got the TotalDac in my previous system (Magico Q3s, VAC Phi200s and VAC pre), digital sounded so good (which to me meant that it had the best qualities of both analog and digital) that when it was time to replace my van den Hul Frog, my standard of comparison became my digital system.

The Anna has all of the qualities of (what I consider to be) very good analog and digital with only a very little extra "analog"-ness to it. But here is where comparisons become important and I can't help too much, at least when it comes to other cartridges.

in my current system, the sound of the Anna is markedly affected by the 12AX7s in the Master phono section. (Same theme: seemingly small changes make big audible changes.) Depending upon what tubes I use in the phonostage, the Anna can sound very different. It's pretty easy to go from too analytical (all Telefunkens) to too warm (all NOS Mullards). I'm currently using a mixture of NOS and new production Mullards. With that combination, the Anna sounds very close to my digital system, perhaps with just a touch more warmth and liquidity-although not much. Whereas before I listened to music I had on vinyl whenever possible (because my ears were very sensitive to "digititis"), now I tend to pick performances I like and don't obsess whether it is vinyl or digital.

May sound like faint praise for the Anna, but considering how much I enjoy my TotalDac, it's actually high praise!
 
Dth31 said:
The Anna has all of the qualities of (what I consider to be) very good analog and digital with only a very little extra "analog"-ness to it.
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This is by no means any sort of criticism, but this is what I am trying to avoid in my analogue system, I want them to sound different. And luckily they do [emoji3].

But I am also intrigued by the Anna, along with a couple other carts (Lyra Etna, Dynavector Te Kaitora Rua).


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Kuoppis said:
This is by no means any sort of criticism, but this is what I am trying to avoid in my analogue system, I want them to sound different. And luckily they do [emoji3].

But I am also intrigued by the Anna, along with a couple other carts (Lyra Etna, Dynavector Te Kaitora Rua).


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+1. If they sound the same, I would change something in the analog - maybe an external phono, different TT, not sure.
 
Kuoppis said:
This is by no means any sort of criticism, but this is what I am trying to avoid in my analogue system, I want them to sound different. And luckily they do [emoji3].

But I am also intrigued by the Anna, along with a couple other carts (Lyra Etna, Dynavector Te Kaitora Rua).


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I just ordered this cart this morning:

http://www.analogplanet.com/content...nd-transfiguration-proteus-diamond-cantilever

The regular Transfiguration is such a home run. It competes with carts in the $10k range IMO, but does require a long break in.


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